While in-person UC Botanical Garden programs are suspended during this time, we have wonderful virtual offerings listed below! Please check here for the most current information or email gardenprograms@berkeley.edu with questions or to be added to a program wait list.
July-August Zoom Programs
Contemplative Photography Workshop: Blooming in Place
with Becky Jaffe
Fridays, July 2-30 | 11 am
3rd Annual SFS x UCBG International Color Colloquium
Exploring Natural Dyes
Sun, July 18 | 10 am – 12 pm
Virtual Butterfly Walk – August in the Garden
Sunday, August 1 | 11 am – 12 pm
Integral Taiji & Qigong
We invite you to participate in a virtual Integral Taiji & Qigong class with our resident instructor Elizabeth McAnally filmed in the Garden’s Redwood Grove. Elizabeth’s classes focus on the somatic, psycho-spiritual, ecological, and cosmological dimensions of taiji (tai chi). No prior experience necessary. Please consider making a donation to support our free programming
View Programs by Theme
Art + Design
Art courses at the UC Botanical Garden are inspired by the natural world and our diverse plant collection. The Garden offers regular botanical illustration courses, as well as one day workshops in watercolor, brush painting, drawing and other art forms.
The Garden hosts indoor art exhibitions each year, including our annual Plants Illustrated exhibit of Botanical Art. We have also worked with many talented Bay Area artists to present provocative installations. Visit our Exhibitions page to see past and upcoming exhibitions.
May 6 · iPhoneography with Yoni Mayeri
Families + Children
The Garden loves its budding botanists, and in addition to our beloved summer day camp, Green Stuff Camp, the Garden offers monthly family programs uniquely designed for families to learn together.
May 25 · Zoom Family Program: Succulents for Little Green Thumbs
Horticulture
At the root of our programming, the Garden offers classes for the plant enthusiast, home gardener and botanist alike. Learn about the people and places that have shaped conservation and landscape design practices, and incorporate new practices in garden design into your landscape.
May 7 . Virtual Talk: Through the Looking Glass: Aloes in Wonderland
May 18 . Virtual Talk: The Garden’s Nationally Accredited Magnolia Collection
Nature + Fauna
We offer programs year-round exploring the natural world, including many of our faunal cohabitants. At these seasonal offerings, come learn more about mushrooms, lichen, birds, newts and programs on bats and owls too.
May 16 · Virtual Butterfly Talk: May
People + Plants
Ethnobotany is an interdisciplinary field that studies the relationship between plants and people. The Garden is ever inspired by the many incredible uses of plants around the world and strives to preserve this knowledge with a series of hands-on programming and cutting edge lectures to teach these skills.
May 13 · Virtual Author Talk: Iwigara: American Indian Ethnobotanical Traditions and Science
May 23 · Virtual Workshop: Seasonal Pie-making with Two Chicks in the Mix
Research + Conservation
Building on the world-class research that takes place at UC Berkeley, the Garden presents work of UC faculty and scientists, as well as local and international scholars and botanists.
April 22 · Saving Rare Plants of California with Holly Forbes
Wellness + Music
Be. Here. Now. In addition to our world-class collection used by researchers and scientists, landscape architects and naturalists, the Garden, put simply, is just a beautiful place to be. To aid in cultivating mindfulness and presence, the Garden offers a new complement of programs that are designed to develop practices that inspire mind/body experiences and encourage you to be present, look more closely, and appreciate the Garden’s effect in new ways. Visit the Redwood Grove Concerts page for our Summer Concert Series.
Past Wellness Event:
March 20 . Spring Signature Sound Bath + Bonus Virtual Solstice Gathering with Inner Sounds Meditation
Visit our Calendar for more details, registration, and the most up-to-date program listings.
Past Featured Program Series
Connecting Plants and People: An Ethnobotanical Conversation
The Garden hosted its first-ever Ethnobotany Symposium on October 11-12, 2019. Over the course of two days, the vast discipline of ethnobotany was explored through a variety of lectures, hands-on workshops, tours, and demonstrations. The Garden hosted both local and world-renowned speakers and presented examples of the undeniable, multi-faceted relationship between people and plants. View the list of speakers, agenda, and photos from the event here.
Trees & Tones
The UC Botanical Garden hosted a four-part series, October through November 2018, that highlighted the relationship between music and plants as seen in instrument making and musical traditions throughout the world. Each lecture was accompanied by a concert or demonstration.
African Blackwood – Oboes · Brenda Schuman-Post, Sonic Forest
Resonating Woods – Classical & Folk Guitars · John F Mello, Peter Zisa, TARIMBA
Trees & Gourds – Sitars & Tamburas · J Scott Hackleman, Joanna Mack, Ferhan Quereshi
Pau-Brasil – Violin & Cello Bows · Zac Cande, Lisa Grodin
Science of Cannabis Symposium
The UC Botanical Garden presented a month-long series of weekly symposia on the Science of Cannabis in February 2018. While the lines between the scientific and social issues surrounding Cannabis can be porous, the focus on this symposium will be to disseminate knowledge based upon scientific research. Watch recorded lectures here.
The Environmental Impact of Large Scale Cannabis Cultivation · Amanda Reiman, PhD
The Genetics of Cannabis Breeds · Mowgli Holmes, PhD
The Neuroscience of Cannabis · David Presti, PhD
The Ethnobotany of Cannabis · Thomas J. Carlson, MD/MS
Cannabis as Medicine · Donald I. Abrams, MD