Glorious Ness

As Saturday was amazingly sunny and warm, a visit to Ness Botanic Garden on the Wirral seemed like a great idea. It's not an area I'm very familiar with, squeezed between the Dee and the Mersey, but the countryside on the way was charming.

At first it looked like a scratch and sniff blog would be ideal. This rose smelt divine, in an old fashioned kind of way.

This is not the sharpest photo but you'll have to imagine the delicious scent of chocolate from this Cosmos!













The garden is owned by the University of Liverpool and was established in the early 1900s to provide a home for specimen plants brought back from China and other far flung places by intrepid plant hunters, as was all the rage at the time. Some of the trees are especially beautiful.









I have no idea what this might be, it had black flower buds with blue flowers, a very beautiful small tree.















This acer is showing its vivid Autumn colours.

The crab apple was absolutely loaded with fruit and prompted some debate about the merits of crab apple jelly...

This tree doesn't look very special but turns out to be one of few remaining specimens of the Wollemi Pine, a 200 million year old tree, once thought to be extinct but recently found in Australia. One of the oldest known tree species, the Wollemis Pine was around when dinosaurs roamed the earth. The precise location of its discovery in Wollemis National Park remains a secret to deter specimen hunters.














One extra special touch: once the gardens close at 5.30,  visitors can continue to wander around freely and let themselves out at any time before dusk. Perhaps no-one else realised this, as they all left; it felt like Ness in all its glory was our own private garden.