Botanic Gardens

EXCURSION SHEET                                         BOTANIC GARDENS

·        Botanic gardens are collections of plants that are grown for purposes other than purely aesthetic reasons – but in Oxford Botanic Garden we do try to arrange the plants in attractive, sympathetic and exciting ways. Many gardeners come here to seek inspiration. In the beds and borders you may find new plants that would be perfect in your garden at home and partly for this reason we strive to label clearly every plant in the Garden.

·        Plants are grown in this Garden to support our teaching programmes, for research scientists in this University and elsewhere and as part of plant conservation projects.

·        Furthermore this Garden is a national reference collection of 7,000 different types of plant, making it the most compact yet diverse collection of plants in the World – there is even more biological diversity here than there is in tropical rain forests and other biodiversity hotspots.

·        The Garden consists of three sections. The Glasshouses contain plants that need protection from the extremes of the British weather. The area outside the Walled Garden contains classic garden features such as a Water Garden and Rock Garden as well as the innovative Black Border and Autumn Borders. Within the Walled Garden plants are grouped in a number of different ways such as by country of origin, botanic family or economic use.

·        The family borders are a fascinating way of discovering which plants are related to each other and which botanical families are important in supplying us with food, fibres and medicines. But they are also a great place to discover new plants to grow in our own gardens. As gardeners we have tried to plant up each of the borders combining botanical accuracy with aesthetics.

·        There has been a glasshouse at the Botanic Garden for over 300 years. The first plan of the garden, produced in 1675, shows the very first glasshouse in Great Britain. This house was built from stone, with a slate roof and small windows – 17th century gardeners did not yet realise that plants needed ample light in order to grow! Horticulture has moved on since that time and today we are able to grow plants from all over the World within a relatively small area thus enabling visitors to experience fully the diversity of the plant kingdom. In our seven houses plants from dry deserts to tropical rainforests can be seen. Alongside 100 year old cacti and extravagant water lilies grow the plants that give us chocolate, sugar, coconuts, bananas, oranges, medicines and much more, but beware because some of the plants bite!