Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew released its October update on 29 September 2026, presenting autumn programming across both Kew Gardens and Wakehurst. The release falls within the last seven days as of today, 4 October 2026, and the activities are spread through October across the London and Sussex sites.
At Kew Gardens, Plant Horror Tours are scheduled for 9, 23, 24, 25, 29 and 30 October. Kew describes the tours as a look at plants that inspired films and myths, parasitic mushrooms and an eerie glasshouse of cacti.
The programme also includes dedicated fungi activities. A mushroom drawing and painting course led by botanical artist Lucy T Smith is listed for 8–9 October, and a behind-the-scenes Fungarium tour is scheduled for 27 October. Kew says its Fungarium holds more than one million dried fungal specimens.
At Wakehurst, autumn colour and fungi observation are central themes. Kew highlights the woodlands of the world, seasonal colour around the ponds and the appearance of fungi as key October features, with fungi walks listed from 20 to 23 October.
Home horticulture and edible gardening also feature in the update. Kew says squashes harvested from Edible Science: Kew’s Kitchen Garden are on display, and that the garden still contains produce and colourful flowers. An organic gardening course on creating an environmentally friendly garden is scheduled for 16 October.
The announcement is notable because it links fungi, edible planting and accessibility programming within a single seasonal garden calendar. Kew describes Kew Gardens, London’s UNESCO World Heritage garden, and Wakehurst, its wild botanic garden in Sussex, as sites that connect plant and fungal science, education and conservation with public programmes.