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Garden Name: Ness Botanic Garden
Last Modified: 08/02/2010
Garden ID: 0240

pic: 0240_NessBotanic.jpg

Owner: University of Liverpool
Address:
Neston Road
Ness

Postcode: CH64 4AY
County: Cheshire

tel: 0151 3530123
fax: 0151 3531004
website: www.nessgardens.org.uk
email: nessgdns {at} liv.ac.uk

Features: 
A new garden entrance and visitor centre will be completed by Easter. In a single storey open plan it will include a central courtyard area with entrance, reception area, indoor cafe with outside garden eating area, administration and staff offices, shop, exhibition room, conservatory and lecture theatre.

English Heritage Grade:
II

Opening Times:
Every day except Christmas Day; 1st Feb - 31st Oct; 10am - 5pm; 
1st Nov - 31st Jan; 10am - 4.30pm.

Best Times of Year to Visit: 
Spring / early Summer.

To see: 
Rhododendrons, azaleas, magnolias and camellias.

National Collection: 
Willows

National Garden Scheme days: no
Comments: 

Parties / Coaches: Yes 
Comments: 

Viewing by Appointment: Yes
Comments: Preferably 

House Open for Viewing: no
Comments: 

Admission Prices:
Adult £6.50; Child free under 5 accompanied by adult; Child 5-16 years £3; Over 60s & disabled £5.50; Family (2A + 3C) £18
Groups of 20+ people £5.25pp. Guide up to 30 people £30. Carers free.
Winter rate £4pp

Parking: Yes
Lavatories: Yes
Disabled Access: Yes
Shop: Yes
Plants for Sale: Yes
Lunches: Yes
Teas: Yes
Refreshments: Yes
Picnics: Yes
Dogs allowed: No
Only on Lead: No
Events: Yes

Other Facilities:
Snowdrop Weekend Walks
Saturday 31st January & Sunday 1st February - Saturday 7th & Sunday 8th February - Saturday 14th & Sunday 15th February 2009. 10.30am - 12.30pm
Plant Hunters Fair - 29th March 10am - 4pm; £1 entry
Free Sunday lectures - 2.30pm in Lecture Theatre


Designer: Arthur Kilpin Bulley
Description of Garden:
The conservatory, with its Acacias and group of Echium pininana, is closed temporarily but the visitor reaches the Rhododendron border and the historically important specimen lawn which contains Magnolia, Sorbus and Pieris formosa "Forrestii" from the golden age of plant collecting. The glasshouses are divided into temperate and arid zones with displays of orchids, amongst others. The herb garden, azalea border and herbaceous area are not to be missed and there is a heather garden, rock garden, woodland garden, water garden and arboretum. Finally at the perimeter of the garden is the willow collection. The visitor also encounters the Jubilee Garden which was completed in 1977. A new garden entrance and visitor centre is under construction.


History: 
Arthur Kilpin Bulley, a Liverpool seed merchant, began to create the garden in 1898. He was interested in introducing new plant species from abroad and believed that Himalayan and Chinese mountain plants could be established in Britain. He tested this by sponsoring many expeditions to the Far East and thereby launched the careers of renowned plant collectors such as George Forrest and Frank Kingdon Ward. Some of his rhododendron and camellia introductions were widely used for hybridisation and this together with his propagation programme resulting in his company, Bees Ltd, offering newly introduced species to the public from 1911 on, had important repercussions for British gardening. 

Arthur Bulley died in 1942 and his daughter, Lois, presented the gardens three years later to Liverpool University, with a generous endowment of £75,00 on condition they be kept as botanic gardens. Ken Hulme became Director in 1957 and, envisaging a more naturalised setting for the plants than had interested Bulley, he removed the hedges compartmentalising the garden, increased the area of the gardens from 6 to 64 acres and created superb collections of rhododendrons, azaleas, camellias and heathers.

Local Inns: 
Wheatsheaf, Ness
Fox & Hounds, Barnston

Accomodation: 
Craxton Wood, Puddington
Ship Hotel, Parkgate
Burton Manor Hotel, Burton

Restaurants: 


Village/Town/Sightseeing: 
Parkgate