In Bloom

How Plants Changed our World

March 19, 2026 – August 16, 2026
Admission to museum free. Exhibition ticket: £8.10-£18, available at the Museum or online

Ashmolean Museum, Beaumont Street, Oxford OX1 2PH (Opposite the Randolph Hotel)

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If ever you needed an excuse to revisit what is amazingly ‘the world’s first university museum’, this is the one. The Ashmolean’s exhibition is curated by Dr Shailendra Bhandare, Curator of South Asian and Far-Eastern Coins and Paper Money, Museum and Dr Francesca Leoni, Curator of Islamic Art, both of the Ashmolean Museum.

The exquisite details achieved by botanical illustrators never fail to astonish, and the impact was felt keenly the world of Arts and Crafts design. This watercolour is May Morris’s Study of Oriental Poppy (Papaver orientale).

Curiosities abound illustrating the momentous discoveries of the later 19th century, such as these teaching models made of papier maché, wood and metal in 1860-80 – a wonderful combination of science and model-making. The Breslau-born Robert Brendel founded a model-making factory in Breslau, Poland, but moved to outside Berlin when he was joined by his son Reinhold. There, working with the leading botanists of the day, they created some 200 teaching models.

Look out for the star of Oxford’s botanical art collection, Ferdinand Bauer (1760–1826), who has been described as the Mozart of botanical art. The Austrian’s famous Flora Graeca was an almost fulfilled drear. Large chunks of it once were found being used as ballast in a a faculty lift after the war. It is now treasured in the Bodleian’s Sherardian Libary, and introduced by Stephen Harris in the catalogue.

Bauer’s Papaver pilosum featured in Cornucopia 70. (Bauer - Flora Graeca (c) Sherardian Library, Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford)

As do Işik Güner’s outsized poppies Papaver laretitium, which makes a fitting contemporary finale.

The catalogue is also superb and includes an excellent chapter on Art and Botany by Martyn Rix. Order here. After the show, a ten-minute stroll takes you to the lovely Oxford Botanic Garden.