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, and to support horticultural trainees.
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 (except for fund-raising events). See the membership options here.
For the Friends’ handbook of policies including the Data Protection Policy and Privacy Policy see Handbook of Friends’ policies Oct 2024.
Friends’ Annual General Meeting
The 49th Annual General Meeting will take place on Thursday 20th March 2025 when the financial report for the year ending 31 December 2024 will be presented.
The full report is available here: AGM 200325 final
Any queries regarding the accounts should be submitted to the Committee.
Contact details for Friends’ Committee
Chair: Lucy Davies lucyd.fubbg@outlook.com
Treasurer: Paul Mugford paulmubbg@gmail.com
Membership Team membership@fubbg.co.uk
Newsletter: friendseditors@gmail.com:
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.