Friends of the Garden

Who are the Friends of the Garden?

The Association of Friends of the University of Bristol Botanic Garden was founded in 1975 to support the work and development of the Botanic Garden. Read the Friends’ constitution.

A vital aspect of the Friends’ role is to stimulate interest in the Garden through a variety of events and activities.

Income generated by the Friends is used to invest in new projects and make a major contribution towards the upkeep of the Garden.

Many Friends also support the work of the Garden by becoming directly involved as volunteers.

The aims of the Friends

  • To give support to and further the development of the Garden and its educational role.
  • To promote interest in botany and horticulture.
  • To provide a meeting ground for persons with these interests.
  • To give members the opportunity to see and learn about plants grown within the Garden.

Members of the Friends of the Garden get free entry to the Garden and exclusive events. Find out about our membership options here, and read our full Privacy policy here.

Friends’ Annual General Meeting

The 48th Annual General Meeting will take place on Wednesday 20th March 2024 to present the financial report for the year ending 31 December 2023.  Please click here for further details of this event.

Any queries regarding the accounts should be submitted to the committee:

Chairman:                     Pat Davie             pattidavie@hotmail.com

Treasurer:                    Paul Mugford     paulmubbg@gmail.com

Membership Team:              membership@fubbg.co.uk

Fundraising and events

The Friends of the Garden have organised a wide variety of events to raise funds for the Botanic Garden.

In the past these have included:

  • art exhibitions
  • music concerts
  • wine-tasting evenings
  • adopt-a-plant programmes
  • barbeques
  • visits to magnificent public gardens e.g. Kew and Wisley

Friends have also opened their own private gardens with plant sales and refreshments provided by volunteers.  Some recipes for cakes made by volunteers for these open gardens together with others which were taken into the Garden for the hard-working staff and garden volunteers were compiled into a very successful cookbook.