We’ve missed welcoming and chatting to visitors these past few weeks, but we’ve had a couple of gardeners in every day to maintain the Gardens, ensuring that every inch is looking its best for when we can re-open.

We’ve been busily planting up the new Alan King Alpine Garden – we can’t wait to show you all what is looks like. We’ve planted about 1000 different species so far and there are more still to go in this month. All of the outcrops are planted with different phytogeographical regions, so one outcrop has plants you would find on the Alps, one contains all Turkish plants and so on.

The new Churcher Alpine House contains two new tufa rock cliffs, which are also being planted with multiple species. This new glasshouse complements the existing Hartley Alpine House, which is used for displaying potted alpine plants and through the winter months, our National Collection of Cyclamen.

 

The real showstopper for the gardens during May is the Rhododendron Walk. Our spectacular collection of rhododendrons creates a dazzling array of colour – and some of them here are well over 100 years old. If you are looking to add one to your garden, seek out the deciduous pink ‘Soir de Paris’, which has a beautiful fragrance.

This month, we’ll also be planting tender plants, such as cannas, gingers and salvias, into the centre of the grass garden. These plants have been overwintered in the nursery and some will initially need to be hardened off, so they get acclimatised to the outside. We’ll be placing them outside during the day before moving them back in at night, until there’s no longer a risk of night frosts.

 

We’ll also start to construct the spectacular cactus and other succulents display on the Loudon Terrace. It promises to be a real feat of engineering as some of the cacti are very heavy (and spiky!).

One of the most popular areas of the Gardens will be bursting into bloom towards the end of May: the rose garden. We’ve been lovingly tending the roses over the past few weeks and the amount of buds on them promise a spectacular show this year. Many of our roses are selected for fragrance and on some days the scent is quite intoxicating.

 

Keep an eye on our social media channels – Facebook and Twitter – so you can see what work we are doing during the lockdown.

Last updated: March 24th 2020

Following the Prime Minister’s announcement last night (March 23), the Gardens are now closed until further notice.

What does it mean for your membership?

Membership will be extended for the period of time the Gardens is closed. We value your support and thank you for your understanding.

The Birmingham Botanical Gardens is a charity, which means that closing the gates will have a significant impact. Our income relies on donations, entry fees and memberships. If you would like to continue supporting us, you can find out how to here – every donation is gratefully received. Taking A Stand, our appeal to raise funds to restore our Victorian bandstand, is also ongoing.

We will continue to monitor the guidelines and advice from the Government and Public Health England and will update you accordingly.

In the meantime, we hope you stay safe. We’re looking forward to welcoming you back.

Yours,

James Wheeler

Time to get the mower out

There’s a lot to do in the Gardens this month, as spring really starts to kick in – you can almost smell the change of season in the air!

 

One of the biggest jobs this month will be planting the tufa cliffs in the new Alpine Glasshouse – we have several species from Europe and Asia and we’ll be displaying them in a naturalistic style, as you’d see them in the wild. We’ve already placed the Westmorland limestone rocks and the five outcrops will be now top-dressed with suitable limestone aggregates and planted with species from the European mountain ranges. We’re really enjoying seeing how this new area of the Gardens has developed over the past few months and can hardly wait to unveil it officially.

 

There’ll be some changes to the Japanese Garden, too, as we top dress it with more gravel and add some planting. Members of the Japanese Garden Society and volunteers will be helping us to ensure we complete the task in exactly the right way.

 

As we are a charity that receives no public funding, we very much rely on volunteers. This month, we’re welcoming a small team who will be sowing and planting the raised beds in the Scarecrow Garden and we’ll also have on site horticultural students from BMet College, who will be pruning the shrub roses in the Rose Garden. We always welcome people who have a little time on their hands and want to help out, so please don’t hesitate to get in touch if you’d like to volunteer.

 

Other big tasks for this month are: improving the drainage to the path in the Fern Garden and pruning the winter border – species such as willow, dogwood, Lonicera, Mahonia, Rubus spp. and cvs. all need a haircut.

 

Once the grass is dry enough, we’ll start to mow the lawns again. We recommend putting the mower blades fairly high for the first couple of mows and then gradually lowering them as we go towards summer. It’s also a good idea to add some spring/summer grass feed now, to help reduce moss and weeds, and to get the lawn in good shape for the warmer months.

 

We’ve lots going on the Garden this month – from a Bonsai boot sale on March 15 to a tour of the Bonsai and Japanese Gardens, led by gardener Giulio Veronese, on March 26. Head to our What’s On page to see what you can enjoy.

Starting the year as we mean to go on

Happy new year! We hope you’ve enjoyed Christmas in the way you wanted to and are now rested and ready for what 2020 will bring.

January tends to be quite quiet for gardeners but we can find plenty to do, nevertheless. If the ground isn’t frozen, we’ll be aerating the grass that has been compacted as well as turning over the soil in the beds and borders, ready for lashings of our homemade compost to improve the soil structure, improve drainage – and to encourage worms.

We’ll also be checking tree ties to ensure there’s sufficient space for growth this year – we recommend you do the same and remove any stakes if the trees are doing well. If stakes are left for too long, it can prevent their growth and development. If they rely too long on stakes, they don’t develop a basal flare, which helps them to sway in the wind.

The gardening team will be returning to the Alpine Garden this month to continue the landscaping and planting of various alpine plants from the northern hemisphere. We’re so pleased with how this revitalised area is looking – we hope you’re also enjoying this new-look Alpine Garden.

We’ll also focus on the semi-circular bed on the Terrace and plant it up with winter interest. We’re creating an area of colourful twigs, bark, berries and highly scented flowering plants. If it inspires you to recreate similar in your own gardens, many of these plants are available from our Plant Sales.

There’s work to be done in the glasshouses, too. We’ll be pruning many of the species planted in there to let in more light, encourage spring flowering and prevent the tallest from growing through the roof.

If we can’t be out and about in the fresh air and the borders, we can keep ourselves occupied in the potting shed and checking our inventories. We can also check to see if we need to update the labelling, recording and interpretation plaques.

We’ll be looking forward to seeing the winter aconites, early daffodils and snowdrops peeping through in the coming weeks – as we carry out our work, it’s always great to see these pops of colour emerging from the ground in the dead of winter. It shows that spring is just around the corner.