Bodnant Garden

Conwy, United Kingdom

Bodnant Garden is a National Trust property near Tal-y-Cafn, in the county borough of Conwy, Wales, situated overlooking the Conwy Valley towards the Carneddau range of mountains. Founded in 1874 and developed by five generations of one family, it was gifted to the care of the National Trust in 1949. The garden spans 80 acres of hillside and includes formal Italianate Terraces, informal shrub borders stocked with plants from around the world, and The Dell, a gorge garden, a number of notable trees and a waterfall. Since 2012 new areas to open have included the Winter Garden, Old Park Meadow, Yew Dell and The Far End, a riverside garden. Furnace Wood and Meadow was recently opened in April 2017. There are plans to open more new areas, including Heather Hill and Cae Poeth Meadow in the future. Bodnant Garden is visited by around 190,000 people every year and is famous for its Laburnum arch, the longest in the UK, which flowers in May and June. The garden is also celebrated for its link to the plant hunters of the early 1900s whose expeditions formed the base of the garden's four National Collections of plants – Magnolia, Embothrium, Eucryphia and Rhododendron forrestii. The former name of "Bodnant Gardens" is still in fairly common usage.