GLASGOW BOTANIC GARDENS

The Gardens have been owned and wholly funded by the City of Glasgow for 101 years and have been on the present site for 150 years. They had been founded in 1817 on a small site at the west end of Sauchiehall Street. The prime founder of the Gardens was Thomas Hopkirk who donated his plant collection to form the nucleus of the new garden. The University of Glasgow provided initial funding on condition that provision be made in perpetuity for class material for the teaching of Botany. Sir William Hooker was Regius Professor of Botany from 1821 to 1841 and was heavily involved in the early development of the Gardens. This important educational link continues, and included a recent joint expedition to Papua New Guinea for the collection of orchids, begonias and ferns from areas of logging.

The Kibble Palace, a large iron curvilinear Victorian glasshouse, was erected in the Gardens in 1873 and for a few years it was used as a concert hall and meeting place - Gladstone and Disraeli gave their Rectorial Addresses to the University of Glasgow from here. It was laid out with the fine collection of tree ferns about 1880, and it provides a plant tour of the temperate areas of the world - Mediterranean, Australia, New Zealand etc. There are two transepts or exhibition wings, one is a small visitor centre and the other a permanent display "The Plant Kingdom" showing the evolution of plant life through geological time and a taxonomic display of the major groups of plant life.

The Main Range of Glasshouses consists of eleven interconnecting sections of specialist plant collections. Much of the collections are held in the supply houses behind the scenes, where the filmy fern collection is also located.

In the grounds, features include the Systematic Garden, the Herb Garden, a Chronological Border and Arboretum - in a disconnected part of the Gardens. This includes a collection which is being built up of introductions by David Douglas.

Download Adobe Acrobat Reader (free software to read PDF files)