Courses
SOLD OUT – Chinese Medicinal Plant Tour
Led by Dr. Lily Liu, this Chinese Medicinal Plant guided tour offers participants a unique, engaging, and interactive opportunity to explore living Chinese medicinal plants at VanDusen Botanical Garden. Participants will learn how to identify selected medicinal plants, understand their traditional uses, and discover how they may support health and well-being in daily life.
Nature At Your Fingertips: Intro to Citizen Science Apps
Join Emily Black to unlock the power in your pocket to contribute to local and global citizen science projects!
In this hands-on workshop, you will learn how to use easily-accessible apps and websites to identify local plants and animals using your smartphone.
Guided Tour with VanDusen Gardeners: Water & Our Changing Gardens
Join Andrew Fleming, VanDusen Superintendent and expert gardener for a tour of the garden, examining the garden through this lens. Learn what strategies the gardening team is using to help mitigate water stress to create resilient and sustainable plantings and landscapes.
SOLD OUT – Sound Immersion in the Garden (August)
Join us for a deeply calming sound immersion experience led by Denise Levine, surrounded by the serene beauty of VanDusen Botanical Garden.
Participants will then be guided through a restorative relaxation experience, accompanied by crystal singing bowls and carefully selected sound instruments designed to foster calm, presence, and a deeper connection to self and the natural world.
Dig In: Cultivating Herbal Teas in Your Garden
Explore how to grow and craft your own herbal tea blends. Focusing on the Learning Garden’s dedicated tea bed, you will discover a variety of climate-resilient herbs and flowers perfect for fresh or dried brewing.
Led by Sangeeta Thomas, Learning Garden Coordinator, this workshop will cover best practices for growing, harvesting, and drying tea plants to maximize flavor and longevity, alongside tips for maintaining a productive garden all season long.
Dig In: Fall Bulbs for Spring Blooms
In this September workshop, we’ll focus on bulbs and preparing your garden for spring. Learn the differences between bulbs, tubers and corms, and discover how to grow beautiful ornamental flowers for cutting gardens.
Led by Sangeeta Thomas, Learning Garden Coordinator, these beginner-friendly, monthly sessions cover a variety of seasonal topics to help build your gardening skills.
Vancouver Landfill Gardens: Who Knew? (Rae Warner Speaker Series)
What role can a landfill play in supporting biodiversity? For more than 25 years, the City of Vancouver has nurtured habitat gardens at its Delta landfill, creating spaces where native plants, pollinators, birds, and other wildlife can thrive.
Join horticulturist Sage Kosa for an inside look at these unique gardens and discover simple, practical ways to create more habitat in your own landscape.
Journaling & Sketching the Garden’s Ponds
Join illustrator Bea Martin for a fun, beginner-friendly nature journaling workshop. Through easy-to-follow exercises and creative tips and techniques, participants will explore the Garden ponds and capture what they see and hear in pencil & paint—from turtles and dragonflies, to ducks and water lilies!
Botanical Drawing: Autumn Harvest (Online)
In this three-session online series, you’ll develop your drawing and watercolour skills to create accurate and expressive pictures of vegetables. Guided by artist and educator Katharine Dickinson, follow step-by-step demonstrations that show observation drawing techniques for capturing angles, proportions, and the unique shapes of plants.
