Cambridge University Botanic Garden, Cambridge, England

The systematic beds are arranged to De Candole's classification and are divided by low hedges. Henslow sited the first rock garden and the glasshouse range around 1830, along the north boundary. The original bog and water garden was re-designed in 1882; and a year later the first ornamental bamboo collection in the country was planted. Cory Lodge, the Director's house was designed in 1924 by M. H. Baillie Scott.

After the Second World War the eastern half of the Garden, formerly allotments, was developed for research purposes. A winter garden established in the 1950s has been superseded by a larger layout in 1976. The Pinetum of the 1960s replaced earlier planting and the informal lake and water gardens were improved and extended at the same time. The range of cedar glasshouses of 1888-91 were rebuilt to the same design in 1934. Recently one section has been re-designed and was replanted in 1988-89 to demonstrate the range of plants, ferns, cycads and orchids from America, Australia, Africa and Asia. 

During the 1950s, an Ecological Area was established with a mound of outcrops of carboniferous limestone for native species that grow on limestone hills in western, central and northern Britain. Nearby are beds of wetland plants that can be seen at the nature reserve of Wicken Fen. There is also a demonstration of the natural variation in a single native British species, the Juniper, planted from 1970 onwards.

Other areas include native species to be found on the Breckland; rare species protected by law; plants with different pollination mechanisms, and variations within wild species.

The Garden holds National Collections of tulips, alchemillas, bergenias, ribes, saxifrages, species geraniums and fritillarias, butcher's broom, and woody honeysuckles. A scented garden was built in 1960; and in the 1990s a grass maze and a garden, which will receive only rainwater have been planted. Today the Botanic Garden grows 8,600 plant species. The garden can be enjoyed for both its 19th century or 20th century planting. 

The following is from the English Heritage Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest.

A botanic garden laid out on meadow land from 1846 onwards, to a design of Andrew Murray, in a formal and landscape style, further extended from the 1950s onwards.

DESCRIPTION

LOCATION, AREA, BOUNDARIES, LANDFORM, SETTING

The University Botanic Garden lies about 1 kilometre to the south of the city centre and is bounded by Bateman Street to the north, Hobson's Conduit (built in the 17th century to serve the city) and Trumpington Road to the west, Brooklands Avenue to the south, and Hills Road to the east. It occupies about 16 hectares of generally flat land on the edge of city, situated beside the remains of extensive water meadows which lay to the west.

REFERENCES

de Candolle, Tenie de systematique des plantes (2nd edn 1819)

Gardeners' Chronicle, ii (4 November 1882), p 585; ii (8 November 1958), p 280

The Garden 59, ii (16 February 1901) p 109

J Roy Horticultural Soc LXV, (6 June 1940), p 171

N Pevsner, The Buildings of England: Cambridgeshire (1970), p 214

Garden History 7, no 3 (1979), pp 49-52

S M Walters, A Guide to the Cambridge University Botanic Garden (1979)

S M Walters, The Shaping of Cambridge Botany (1981)

Visitor's Guide, (Cambridge University Botanic Gardens 1998)

Maps

A Murray, Plan of the New Botanic Garden, Cambridge, 1835 (copy held at Cory Lodge)

Description written: November 1999

Amended: December 2000