Plant borders in the Botanic Garden
The decision to establish a Botanic Garden in Roath Park was taken as early as 1888 after the Council was encouraged by the Cardiff Naturalists'
Society to arrange planting on a scientific and educational basis.[1] Accordingly when William Pettigrew designed this part of the park he allocated
a large space to formal beds. These became known as "The
Students Garden" because
the plants were laid out in beds in their natural orders and were individually labelled.
The Botanic Garden was taken over for food production during the 1939-45 war and the formal beds were not restored after the war. The Rose Garden
was created there in the 1950s.
Between 1994 and 2001 Terry Davies, then Horticultural Officer for the Cardiff Parks Service, created a list of interesting plants in the Botanic Garden which
has been reproduced here with
the permision of Cardiff Council.
Notes concerning the naming of borders
- The Herbaceous Border and the West Species Border were bisected by the westerly entrance to the Rose Garden.
- These two borders were separated by a Hebe hedge north of the entrance and a Queen Elizabeth rose hedge to the south.
- The Species Borders were also know as the Specie Borders
- When the aquarium was removed its space was used to ceate the Winter Garden which was later renamed Old Rest Garden
- The New Rest Garden was created from an area which used to hold Parks Department buildings: Mess Room, Tool store and Offices
- The Pavilion Lawn was created from ground originally used for the Bandstand and Pavilion. It is now the children's playground
- The Fairoak Border takes its name from Fairoak Farm which was east of Lake Road East
- The Bog Garden, as its name suggests, was a very wet area of land which could be artificially flooded using water from the Lake
- Part of the Conservatory Border was used to hold the Canna Collection