The renowned International Garden Photographer of the Year (IGPOTY) outdoor exhibition is set to return to Cambridge University Botanic Garden (CUBG), offering visitors a beautiful display of award-winning images that celebrate the beauty of the natural world.
Opening on 21 March 2025, this 18th edition of IGPOTY will showcase a stunning selection of garden, flora, fauna, and fungi photography from around the world. As a special highlight, this year’s exhibition will also feature winning images from the Weird and Wonderful in Cambridge University Botanic Garden Special Award – a competition run in partnership with IGPOTY that invited photographers to capture some of the unique and unusual plants of the Garden.
CUBG’s Director, Professor Beverley Glover says: “We are delighted to once again showcase the beauty and diversity of plants, landscapes, and gardens through the International Garden Photographer of the Year exhibition. These striking images celebrate the wonder of the natural world and the creativity of those who capture it. We look forward to welcoming visitors to experience this inspiring exhibition in the heart of the Garden.”
These striking images celebrate the wonder of the natural world and the creativity of those who capture it.
James McGlinchey, Exhibitions Manager at IGPOTY shares: “IGPOTY is excited to once again be returning to Cambridge University Botanic Garden with a new, stunning selection of awarded garden, flora, fauna, and fungi photography from around the world. I’m sure visitors will enjoy the exhibition, which also includes a selection from closer to home—awarded photos from CUBG’s latest Special Award, dedicated to images captured in the Garden. Thank you to CUBG for showcasing garden photography and helping it to thrive and inspire.”
Competition Highlights
IGPOTY recently announced the Overall Winner of Competition 18, with Max Rush from London, England, taking the top prize. The results of the competition’s main categories – including Beautiful Gardens, The World of Fungi, and Wildlife in the Garden have also been revealed, along with winners from the stand-alone Portfolios competition. Here are some of the winning images:
Spotlight on ‘Weird and Wonderful’ in CUBG
The Weird and Wonderful in Cambridge University Botanic Garden Special Award celebrated unique perspectives of the Garden’s plant life. The top three winning images, which will be featured in the exhibition, are:
1st Place 'Lotus Flower Seedheads' - Allan Hale
First place is awarded to Allan Hale for his ‘Lotus Flower Seedheads’ photograph. Allan wrote that “Lotus flower seedheads always remind me of the film character E.T. – they are a very unusual shape when you compare them to the original bloom.”
The Lotus can be found in the Glasshouse Range’s Tropical Wetlands House and flowers during the summer.
2nd Place 'Seductive Jade Vine Stamens' - Claudia Gaupp
Second place is awarded to Claudia Gaupp for her image ‘Seductive Jade Vine Stamens’, capturing the beautiful Jade vine close up. She wrote alongside her image ‘The jade vine (Strongylodon macrobotrys) is an absolute fascinating plant, simply because of the unique colour that gives it its common name. The flowers hang on long racemes and when you look at the individual blooms, you can see that this plant belongs to the pea family. I was fascinated by a single flower that had already shed its front petal when it faded, giving a clear view of the stamens. A truly unusual appearance, full of peculiar beauty; in nature the plant is pollinated by bats which are attracted by the luminous blooms at dusk. I used selective manual focus stacking for the flower details, and merged the background with a different out-of-focus shot from the same series.’
Visitors will find the jade vine, Strongylodon macrobotrys, in the Glasshouse Range’s Tropics House. Flowering time is usually from April for a couple of months.
3rd Place 'Rugged Canyons Cut Through Centuries of Rock' - Jannett Klinke
Third place is awarded to Jannett Klinke for her photograph named ‘Rugged Canyons Cut Through Centuries of Rock’.
Taken in the Glasshouse Range’s Arid Lands House, Jannett reflected that ‘Elephant’s Foot’ is a fitting common name for the weirdly striking shapes on this deciduous perennial plant from South Africa –Dioscorea elephantipes, which forms a bulbous trunk-like caudex (swollen stem) resembling an elephant’s foot. “However, all I saw was an aerial view of the striking stratified rock canyons in the American state of Colorado. Memories were evoked from when my brother flew us in a light aircraft, on an adventure of a lifetime, where we could take in the whole of the landscape. I love that my camera allows me to see an elephant’s foot and an enormous landscape.”
Visitors will find Elephant’s foot, Dioscorea elephantipes in the Glasshouse Range’s Arid Lands House.
Scroll through finalists and highly commended winning entries - Weird and Wonderful in Cambridge University Botanic Garden:
Visit the Exhibition
The IGPOTY outdoor exhibition at CUBG will run from 21 March to 7 May 2025, with large-format displays set near the Garden’s Grass Maze. Entry is free with normal Garden admission.
For those inspired by the exhibition, the theme for the next IGPOTY/CUBG Special Award will be Around the World at Cambridge University Botanic Garden:
Cambridge University Botanic Garden is home to an incredible diversity of plants from across the globe, with over 8,000 plant species. From towering redwoods of North America to delicate alpine flowers of the Himalayas, the Garden showcases the beauty and variety of plant life from different climates and regions. This theme invites photographers to capture the essence of global biodiversity within the Garden and the ways in which the Garden reflects the world’s landscapes, from tropical glasshouses to the Mediterranean Beds to the Terrace Garden highlighting flora of New Zealand.
To enter: more information to follow soon.
About IGPOTY
Now in its 19th competition year, IGPOTY remains one of the world’s most prestigious garden, flora, fauna, and fungi photography competitions. It has toured to iconic venues such as the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, and Blenheim Palace. The 2025 launch exhibition opened at Kew Gardens on 14 February, which will be followed by a global tour. For more information on IGPOTY competitions and exhibitions, visit: www.igpoty.com.
