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Glasgow Botanic Gardens is a botanical garden located in the West End of Glasgow, Scotland. It features several glasshouses, the most notable of which is the Kibble Palace.
The Gardens has a wide variety of temperate and tropical flora, [1] a herb garden, a chronological bed with plants arranged according to their introduction to Scotland, the UK's national collection of tree ferns, [2] and a world rose garden officially opened in 2003 by Princess Tomohito of Mikasa. [3]
The River Kelvin runs along the north side of the Gardens and continues through Kelvingrove Park, the Kelvin walkway providing an uninterrupted walking route between the two green spaces.
The Botanic Gardens was awarded a Green Flag Award in 2011. [1]
In 1817 about eight acres (three hectares) of land were laid out at Sandyford, near Sauchiehall Street, Glasgow, and run by the Royal Botanic Institution of Glasgow (founded by Thomas Hopkirk of Dalbeth and Prof James Jeffray Professor of Botany at Glasgow University), [4] and were intended to supply the University of Glasgow. William Hooker was regius professor of botany at Glasgow University, and contributed to the development of the Botanic Gardens before his appointment to the directorship of Kew Gardens in London. [5] The Gardens moved to its current location in 1842. The gardens were originally used for concerts and other events, and in 1891 the gardens were incorporated into the Parks and Gardens of the Glasgow Corporation.
The site was once served by a railway line, and Botanic Gardens Railway Station remains today in a derelict state as a remarkable example of a disused station. It is hidden behind some trees and a metal fence blocks access to the platforms. Kirklee railway station also lies just inside the gardens.
The Kibble Palace is a 19th-century wrought iron and cast-iron-framed glasshouse, covering 2137 m2. Originally designed for John Kibble by architects James Boucher and James Cousland for his home at Coulport on Loch Long in the 1860s, [6] the components were cast by Walter Macfarlane at his Saracen Foundry in Possilpark. Eventually brought up the River Clyde by barge to the Botanic Gardens, it was fully erected at its current location in 1873 by Boyd of Paisley. [7]
The building structure is of curved wrought iron and glass supported by cast-iron beams resting on ornate columns, surmounted on masonry foundations. It was initially used as an exhibition and concert venue, before being used for growing plants from the 1880s. Benjamin Disraeli and William Ewart Gladstone were both installed as rectors of the University of Glasgow in the palace, in 1873 and 1879 respectively – its last use as a public events venue, before becoming wholly used for the cultivation of temperate plants. The main plant group is the collection of New Zealand and Australian tree ferns, some of which have lived here for 120 years and which now form the national tree fern collection.
In the 1920s a statue was added in the palace to "King Robert of Sicily", a figure from the works of the American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. This is by the Scottish sculptor George Henry Paulin.
In 2004 a £7 million restoration programme was initiated to repair severe corrosion of the ironwork. £3.4m of the cost came from the National Lottery Heritage Fund [8] and other grants support including from Glasgow City Council and Historic Environment Scotland. The restoration involved the careful dismantling of the palace, and the removal of the parts to Shepley Engineers in Shafton, South Yorkshire for specialised repair and conservation. Their workshop had already dealth with glasshouses from Dublin and Liverpool and removal permitted the reconstruction of the strengthened plinth. [9] To enable this the plant collection was removed completely for the first time ever, and the ironwork was re-assembled over a re-arranged internal floor layout, giving the palace a prolonged life. It re-opened to the public in November 2006.
The building contains a large collection of orchids, carnivorous plants and tree ferns.
The Gardens has a small but long-established research library. It contains over 2,600 items in its main books collection, over 150 in its special collections, a range of botanical periodicals, and a run of Curtis's Botanical Magazine (1787-present). [10]
The library is not a public library but a reference collection for those working directly with the Gardens, and for botanical or horticultural students and researchers. [11]
The National Botanic Gardens is a botanical garden in Glasnevin, 5 km north-west of Dublin city centre, Ireland. The 19.5 hectares are situated between Glasnevin Cemetery and the River Tolka where it forms part of the river's floodplain.
Sir Joseph Paxton was an English gardener, architect, engineer and Member of Parliament, best known for designing the Crystal Palace and for cultivating the Cavendish banana, the most consumed banana in the Western world.
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Richard Turner (1798–1881) was an Irish iron founder and manufacturer of glasshouses, born in Dublin. He is rated as one of the most important glasshouse designers of his time. His works included the Palm House at Kew Gardens, the glasshouse in the Winter Gardens at Regent's Park in London, the Palm House at Belfast Botanic Gardens and the Curvilinear Range at the Irish National Botanic Gardens, Glasnevin, Ireland.
A conservatory is a building or room having glass or other transparent roofing and walls, used as a greenhouse or a sunroom. Usually it refers to a space attached to a conventional building such as a house, especially in the United Kingdom. Elsewhere, especially in America, it can often refer to a large freestanding glass-walled building in a botanic garden or park, sometimes also called a palm house if tall enough for trees. Municipal conservatories became popular in the early 19th century.
Kelvingrove Park is a public park located on the River Kelvin in the West End of the city of Glasgow, Scotland, containing the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum.
The Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh (RBGE) is a scientific centre for the study of plants, their diversity and conservation, as well as a popular tourist attraction. Founded in 1670 as a physic garden to grow medicinal plants, today it occupies four sites across Scotland—Edinburgh, Dawyck, Logan and Benmore—each with its own specialist collection. The RBGE's living collection consists of more than 13,302 plant species, whilst the herbarium contains in excess of 3 million preserved specimens.
Cibotium, also known as manfern, is a genus of 11 species of tropical tree ferns. It is the only genus in family Cibotiaceae in the Pteridophyte Phylogeny Group classification of 2016. Alternatively, the family may be treated as the subfamily Cibotioideae of a very broadly defined family Cyatheaceae, the family placement used for the genus in Plants of the World Online as of November 2019.
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The University of California Botanical Garden is a 34-acre botanical garden located on the University of California, Berkeley campus, in Strawberry Canyon. The garden is in the Berkeley Hills, inside the city boundary of Oakland, with views overlooking the San Francisco Bay. It is one of the most diverse plant collections in the United States, and famous for its large number of rare and endangered species.
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Botanic Gardens is a public garden in Belfast, Northern Ireland.
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