Ness Botanic Gardens

Ness Botanic Gardens are at Ness, Cheshire in the Wirral Peninsula. This is near the cities of Liverpool and Chester and close to the English-Welsh border. They occupy a site of 64 acres overlooking the Dee Estuary. The Ness Botanic Gardens were created by Arthur Kilpin Bulley (1861-1942), a wealthy cotton trader from Liverpool and benefited from collections by many plant hunters including George Forrest and Frank Kingdon-Ward.^[1]^[2]

Arthur Bulley began to create the garden in 1898. In 1948, a few years after his death, Lois Bulley, his daughter, gave the gardens, to the University of Liverpool, under a Conditional Trust. One condition of the Trust is that the gardens must remain open to the public. They are on the National Register of Historic Parks and Gardens and are Grade II.^[3] The gardens have many fine specimen trees and flowers. Magnolias, rhododendron, witch-hazels and camellias are some of the notable plant-hunted species in the garden. Snowdrop walks are conducted during the flowering season.

References

^ Julia Brittain Lover's Companion: Plants, People and Places&pg=PA42 6idvRAeex8IC, p. 42, at Google Books
^ Bill Terry Beauty: Hunting the Wild Blue Poppy&pg=PA143 tkuk4YcMmNYC, p. 143, at Google Books
^ "Parks & Gardens UK: Ness Botanic Gardens". Parks & Gardens Data Services. Retrieved 27 January 2010.