Edgbaston botanical gardens.

[karl66]

I was born in selly oak not far from these gardens but never visited them!!, I now live about 8 miles away & my wife & I visited this morning!!, £12 admission for both but really good value, not a stupid amount of palm's but a fantastic hot house & a great selection of bamboo's, yucca's, dicksonia all growing outdoor's but generally a place to visit for the general gardener. karl.

[Jo A P]

Any pictures?

[charliepridham]

I was there a few days before Karl doing a rare plant fair

067 by charliepridham, on Flickr

066 by charliepridham, on Flickr

063 by charliepridham, on Flickr

062 by charliepridham, on Flickr

060 by charliepridham, on Flickr

047 by charliepridham, on Flickr

048 by charliepridham, on Flickr

[karl66]

Charlie, I standing under that very gunnera!!, of all the place I've visited I've never seen such a massive stand of gunnera in one place!, thought the dicksonia were in a great setting although they were not that greatly fronded, what did you think of the hothouse original building from 1861!!. will sort some pic'c out soon. karl.

[charliepridham]

You need to get down here for Gunnera, there are big stands of it all over the place!

I had a good look at those Dicksonia they were looking pretty ropy but I could see from the exposed root mass they were not new plantings and the ground they were in was squelchy wet so I came to the conclusion they must have been very badly damaged during the two cold winters and are only slowly recovering.

I have to say I met several locals during the plant fair that lived less than 10 miles from this place but had never been! think I would be tempted by a season ticket as there was lots of stuff for kids to do, and while we were there there was a brass band playing in the bandstand and the whole place had a nice Sunday afternoon atmosphere.

The tropical house was great at 8.00 am when we had a wander around before everyone arrived, but I thought it was a shame that the way in and out of the gardens was routed through it, as it was stuffed with people moving through all day. But I loved the old glasshouses, came home wondering where I could sneak number 7 in here without my wife noticing!

[Jo A P]

Thanks for the beautiful pictures. It's all so green! I went to the gardens in Pisa a few days ago and the difference in style is enormous. I'll have to sort the pics out.

[charliepridham]

I think those of us gardening in the west of the UK would definitely be a bit put out if it wasn't green as it seems to rain every day of the year!! (Sorry Dave but its still very wet down here)

[fgtbell]

There's a fortune's worth of encephalartos seeds lying on the ground, depending on the species they are worth up to a tenner each! I wonder if they know ?

[pdid]

Looks good, great pics Charlie

[Birmingham Chris]

Karl - as a lover of Birmingham, I am disgusted that you're so close, and only been there once!

the music is every sunday throughout the summer, and the garden shop bit is the usual tat, unless you are sneaky enough to look round the back where you find some incredible stuff (my purchases in the past have included: eight foot cactus (no idea what) for £15....managed to kill it though!; a massive stags horn for a tenner (still here after three years); 20 litre ginger Zarumbert(?) for a fiver (still with us!) and loads of bits which are cheap enough to think of as 'fillers'. the gardeners are a pleasure to chat to too, and have an amazing amount of knowledge if you can ever bump into them!

they have a great, lively programme of events too - we're off to the open air performance in a week - like you say, really great atmoshpere and the rhododendron / azalea walk is spectacular when in flower and worth the visit alone. Themes (Mo) put something up about it in the 'gardens to visit' section. I have yet to see the re-opened butterfly house though......

[DAVIDEVANS]

I live just 40 minutes or so from here. Any ideas on which are the best dates to visit?

[charliepridham]

They are very proud of their Rhodo's so spring for those but I would imagine there is some nice autumn stuff going on right now

[DAVIDEVANS]

Blimey - that was a fast reply - spring it is then.

[callin]

Hi Karl,
still waiting to see those wild trachys from Croatia

Ok Charlie, great pics , but you did not grab any of the encephalartos seeds not even a fist full
Hope you will say that the seeds was unreachable.

[karl66]

Call, i'm sorry for delay but the camera has gone missing , will update if found. karl.