Twisted Roots: The Full Experience

Twisted Roots at Chelsea Physic Garden

In 2026, Chelsea Physic Garden embarks on a year-long exploration of folklore, myth and seasonal storytelling through its programme Folklore ReRooted.

This creative writing course sits at the heart of that programme, inviting participants to respond to the Garden as a living, changing landscape shaped by centuries of human meaning.

Across four seasonal writing journeys set within Chelsea Physic Garden, participants will explore how plants, weather and atmosphere can shape original botanical folklore. Meeting in February, May, October and December, the course follows the Garden as it moves through late winter, high summer, autumn and deep winter.

Led by storyteller Helen, this small and intimate group will work closely with the Garden as it exists in that moment. Through gentle sensory observation, short guided exercises and focused periods of writing, participants will develop new folklore-inspired stories rooted in place. Sessions include access to areas of the Garden not usually open to the public.

Each season becomes a creative lens, from snowdrops and hellebores pushing through cold soil, to the density of summer growth, the colours and seedheads of autumn, and the stripped-back dormancy of winter.

Over the course of the year, participants will build a collection of original short stories. These will be edited and brought together in a beautifully produced anthology.

This programme is designed for a small group of writers who want to write slowly, attentively and in conversation with the natural world, supporting one another as their work takes root across the seasons in London’s oldest botanical garden.

Dates for all events:
Sunday 8 February 2026, 10am - 3pm: Twisted Roots: Awakening
Sunday 31 May 2026, 10am - 3pm: Twisted Roots: Blooming
Sunday 27 October 2026, 10am - 3pm: Twisted Roots: Gathering
Saturday 19 December 2026, 10am - 3pm: Twisted Roots: Wintering