What’s on this Autumn 2023

• Apple tasting: over 25 heritage varieties to taste and/or buy
• Apple identification: apple experts from the East of England Apples and Orchards Project will be on hand to identify apples. Bring your unidentified apples along in for the team to look at, preferably with stalk and leaf attached to help with accurate identification
• Apple activities: get crafty with a variety of apple activities in the Schools’ Garden for the young and young-at-heart
• Free seasonal highlight tours of the Garden
• Live music
• Pop-up food trucks
• Other local craft stalls and sales

Tickets are required – please note that Friends and paying visitors need to purchase Apple Day tickets (children 0-16 enter for free). Henslow Circle Patrons do not need to purchase tickets. You can buy your ticket online or in advance from the ticket offices.

Our autumn animal cards are back again! Pick up a free card on your way in to learn about different garden wildlife and what they get up to at this time of year. Decorate your card with fallen leaves, seeds and petals as you make your way around the beautiful Botanic Garden.

Several different animal cards are available to collect including ladybirds, hedgehogs and badgers. Cards will change approximately every 2 weeks.

Free for children. Garden admission applies for accompanying adults.

Saturday 21 October – Thursday 30 November

This autumn, grab your pencils and head to the Botanic Garden to have a go at our new Autumn Art Adventure. There is a little booklet which is free to pick up from the Ticket Offices and full of prompts and ideas to help you observe, imagine, scribble and draw as you make your way around the Garden.

Share your artwork with us online at @CUBotanicGarden on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter; all ages welcome to join in!

Autumn is the perfect time to enter our photography competition ‘Discovery in Cambridge University Botanic Garden’, run in partnership with the International Garden Photographer of the Year.

Grab your camera (or phone!), pop into the Garden and be inspired by the seasonal changes as we gradually head into autumn.

We can’t wait to see what you discover!

Find out more about how to enter this special competition.

Enjoy a free-of-charge Garden tour with one of our expert guides, taking in the seasonal highlights of the Garden. 

Our weekend tours are available every Sunday at 2pm throughout the year (except during Christmas closure and the first Sunday in January).

• Tours are free-of-charge but normal Garden admission charges apply
• Tours last one hour and start from the Glasshouse Terrace
• To join a tour visitors must sign up at the main Brookside ticket office on arrival
• Places are allocated on a first-come basis and numbers are limited
• Not recommended for children under 12 years

Discover more about our Group and Bespoke tours.

Autumn is a time for the Garden’s 2,000-strong tree collection to shine. Our tree trail takes visitors around the Garden to explore some of our most amazing giants in autumn. Take a walk around the western half of the Garden and discover how it was laid out to showcase trees in their plant families and meet some of our Champion trees.

Pick up a paper copy at the Garden’s ticket offices or download here. Please note that this trail is aimed at an adult audience, our family trail this autumn is the Autumn Animals, self-led activity.

See our full series of trails for adults.

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