Twin Cities Day

On Saturday 16 July, representatives from each of Oxford’s Twinned City Botanic Gardens convened at Oxford Botanic Garden in celebration of the 400th anniversary. Representatives from Grenoble, Bonn, Padua, Leon, Ramallah, Leiden and Wroclaw presented posters on the research, conservation, teaching and horticultural work being undertaken at their botanic gardens and arboreta.

Particular highlights included the inauguration of the Lord Mayor of Oxford, James Fry, and the Director of Oxford Botanic Garden, Professor Simon Hiscock, into the Confrerie de Noix de Grenoble, or ‘Brotherhood of the Nut of Grenoble’ beside a walnut tree from Grenoble planted last year to mark the 400th anniversary, and a performance of poetry by Leiden’s City poet, Zoë van de Kerkhof.

It was a special day that reaffirmed relationships and identified possibilities for collaboration among the world’s botanic gardens and arboreta in support of their shared goal to conserve the world’s flora.