A Dash of Lavender is Chelsea Physic Garden’s LGBTQI+ programme. It runs through LGBTQI+ History Month (February) and March and embraces the Garden’s theme for 2026: Folklore ReRooted, which explores plants, nature and seasonality through folklore and ritual.

The programme brings together the launch of a new year-round trail exploring queer ecology, a series of events and a new installation entitled Threshold. This installation is inspired by the garden created by artist and filmmaker Derek Jarman at Prospect Cottage in Dungeness.

Threshold explores queerness through the ideas of edges and liminal spaces. For many queer people, life has involved periods of transition, uncertainty and continual re-making. Drawing on Jarman’s garden, his interest in folklore and Chelsea Physic Garden’s long history of medicinal and healing plants, the installation offers a space to reflect on care, resilience and transformation.

As part of LGBTQ+ History Month on Fridays and Sundays throughout February, Chelsea Physic Garden’s tour guides will lead special A Dash of Lavender tours, delving deeper into themes of queer ecology and plant histories.

The installation, guided tours and trail are all included with a standard entry ticket.

Alongside this, we are delighted to present a vibrant programme of events exploring folklore, queerness in nature and queerness within ourselves, grounded in seasonal ritual and collective experience.

Image: collage by Sixto-Juan Zavala.