Jim, who works for The Conservation Volunteers, has been updating us on the latest news and sightings from London's oldest Nature Trail.

Down on the Nature Trail on the half term walk, we had Giant Puffballs 'a puffing their millions of Spores, while Newts, Dragonfly Larvae & Water Boatman are bringing the pond to life.

Also look out at the moment for Snowdrops in flower and the aromatic Wild Garlic just emerging from the ground. You will also see Daffodils & Crocuses near to flowering, and Blackthorn's white flowers that come out, unusually, before its leaves.

To cap it all, we had two very large Stag Beetle Larvae in the wood - yes, the endangered variety!

There has been some Tree work being carried out that you may notice. This is to manage the trees to keep them safe & healthy. The bird nesting season is here now & lasts at least till May, during this time vegetation & trees should be left undisturbed so the birds have the best chance of having a successful brood. It is against the law to disturb nesting birds.

Our gardens have been open to the public for 117 years today - they were first opened on 1 June 1895. This week, following a major development, they are re-opening.

Our new display gardens explore the links between the plants in our gardens and the collections in our museum, which was our founder Frederick Horniman's vision. He wanted the Museum and Gardens to be a place for “recreation, instruction and enjoyment”.

We hope you enjoy these archive photographs of the Museum and Gardens from the late 19th and early 20th century, and will spend some time enjoying our gardens over the coming summer.

Entrance to Horniman Museum and Gardens, early 20th century

Front of the Horniman Museum in 1896

Horniman water Gardens in 1924.

Dutch Barn on the Bandstand Terrace

Bandstand Terrace around 1903 / 1904

Rear view of the Bandstand from early 20th century

Bandstand and Terrace in 1911

Boating pond with railway in background, early twentieth century

The Avenue looking south towards London Road, late 19th century

The next time you visit our gardens, keep an eye out for the new signs to be found throughout the site.

We've added these signs to explain more about what can be seen in and from the gardens, the plant species growing there, and the history of the museum and gardens.

Here's a short tour of just some of the information panels you'll see.

This sign on the bandstand terrace which has a wonderful view of London, describes the buildings that can be seen.

This sign tells the story of the mosaic mural by Robert Anning Bell on the museum's frontage.

Here is a sign at the entrance to the Medicinal Garden. Similar signs will be found at the Dye Garden, Food Garden and Material Gardens, as well as panels throughout the display gardens to explain the plants growing there.

This sign explains the musical instruments which you can play in our new Sound Garden.

And, last but not least, an introduction to the museum and gardens, explaining Frederick Horniman's wonderful gift to the people of London.

We've started to plant our dye gardens plants. There are very few dye gardens planted in the UK so we're really excited to be creating one here at the Horniman.

Within the garden, there will be pockets of plants which produce particular colours (blues, reds, yellows, browns / blacks).

These three plants - Canadian Goldenrod, Henna and Indigo - produce yellow, red and blue dyes. The garden will make links to objects in our collection, explaining how dyes such as these can be used. 

We're continuing the planting for our new display gardens, spending a lot of last week on fruit trees.

We're planting apple trees which will be trained to grow horizontally and low down, so they'll act like a border to an area with more fruit trees, such as pear, cherry, quince and fig trees.

We're also planting soft fruits, including local species like blackberries and those from further away such as Japanese wineberry.

In our nursery, a number of seedlings are germinating, such as these aubergines, cauliflower and cabbages.

We're also experimenting with growing some grow exotic and unusual species such as goji berries, passion fruit, honey berry and Chilean guava. In the nursery, we're trying to grow indigo. As you can see, it's not sprouting very well so far. These species don't normally thrive in our climate, so we'll see how well they grow, and let you know.

Around this time every year, we start planting in our gardens - but this year is an extra special year.

While our gardens were being redeveloped, our gardens team spent the winter months developing plans for the new Display Gardens - these start in the Sunken Garden and flow down towards London Road.

The planting displays will focus on four themes:

• Plants used for their fibres and as materials for making objects such as musical instruments, textiles and masks 
• Plants used as a source of natural dyes across the world 
• Plants used as medicines
• Plants used as food

Each of these new garden areas will highlight links between the plants on display and objects in our museum collection.

The planting will be diverse - with over 200 different varieties in the food garden alone! Highlights include an exotic fruits bed, beautiful gnarled olive trees, dye plants grouped according
to the colour they produce and an area dedicated solely to herbs and spices.

A big thank you for all those who came to the Friends’ Plant Sale last Sunday, and helped to make it such a success. We made a profit of £900 which is a fantastic figure and will go towards the Friends’ contribution to the Gardens appeal.