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Talk – Fiona Guest, Scotia Seeds
20th February @ 7:30 pm - 9:00 pm
Our scheduled speaker for this talk is no longer able to make it along to give his talk. Fortunately, Fiona was able to step into the breach and will give her talk on Scottish wildflowers that was cancelled in January because of bad weather.
“Making Space for Nature; using meadows and wildflower planting to support biodiversity in urban, suburban and rural places”.
Speaker: Fiona Guest, Scotia Seeds
Planting native Scottish wildflowers is the easiest way to create space for nature, supporting wildlife from the smallest bees to bats and owls. In addition these plants are part of our culture and are attractive additions to gardens. There are however some myths and misconceptions about using native Scottish plants such as where they can grow to how to make and manage a meadow…
Fiona has worked at Scotia Seeds for nearly 30 years, joining the business shortly after its formation in 1994 by Giles Laverack. In 1998 Fiona and Giles bought Mavisbank, a small farm in Angus, previously used for conventional arable agriculture. Mavisbank is now a productive wildflower seed farm, a haven for wildlife and a long term and seasonal employer in rural Angus.
Although she has had a lifelong passion for the natural world, and wild plants, Fiona began her career as a painter, graduating with a first-class honours degree from Duncan of Jordanstone College and then a MA from the Royal College of Art. She then became a social history curator in museums from Dundee’s Verdant Works to Montrose, Arbroath Signal Tower and Kirriemuir Gateway to the Glens Museums before leaving to concentrate on Scotia Seeds.
This season our talks will take place in-person only as we do not have the facility to live-stream them. Where possible, we will record the talks and the recording will be made available on the members’ page of the website as soon after the talk as possible.
The talks will take place in the Lecture Theatre at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh. All talks will begin at 7.30pm. Our talks are free and are open to non-members – no need to book, just come along on the day. All we ask is that you make a small donation at the door or perhaps buy a raffle ticket if you can. For those who have not attended a lecture at RBGE before, entry is via the main reception: 20a Inverleith Row, Edinburgh, EH3 5LR (not far from the East Gate).
