Abbotsbury Sub-Tropical Gardens
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Address Background Personnel Policies Environment Weather Collection Facilities Access Principles Location map
| Address and contact details | |
| Name of Garden: | Abbotsbury Sub-Tropical Gardens |
| Bullers Way, Abbotsbury, Weymouth, Dorset, DT3 4LA | |
| Tel: 01305 871412 | |
| Fax: 01305 871092 | |
| Email: | |
| Web site: | |
| Latitude: 50° 39' 41" N / 50.6621208 | |
| Longitude: 2° 37' 47" W / -2.6290729 | |
| (mapquest.com provides an excellent way of checking how accurate your co-ordinates are) | |
| Background to the collection | |
| Year founded: | |
| Ownership: | Private, Ilchester Estates |
| Garden code: | |
| Umbrella organisation: | PlantNetwork, National Council for the Conservation of Plants and Gardens |
| i.e. PlantNet, BGCI, NCCPG; ICCP etc. | |
| Personnel | |
| Please include actual titles in brackets after the name i.e. Owner, Director/Manager, Curator/Head gardener. If you have other administrative staff, i.e. taxonomists, education officers etc. please add extra rows. | |
| Curator: | Stephen Griffith |
| Contact person: | Stephen Griffith |
| Total Staff: | 10 |
| Total Horticultural Staff: | |
| Policies | |
| Accessions: | Plant collections from the wild have good records, suitable planting sites within the garden and appropriate labelling. |
| Collections: | |
| Physical environment | |
| Altitude: | |
| Soil type: | Loam/Acid |
| Aspect: | South |
| Total area: | 10.1 ha |
| Area heated: | 500 m² |
| Other sites of collection: | |
| Weather records | No records kept |
| Temperature | |
| Average daily: | |
| Av. monthly max: | |
| Av. monthly min: | |
| Absolute maximum: | 34 °C (2003) |
| Absolute minimum: | -7 °C (1991) |
| Wind | |
| Direction: | South |
| Strength: | Above average |
| Rainfall | |
| Average annual: | 80 mm |
| Month of maximum: | April |
| Month of minimum: | August |
| Plant collection | |
| Number of families: | |
| Number of genera: | |
| Number of species: | |
| Number of taxa: | |
| Number of accessions: | |
| Number of plants: | |
| Notable plants within the collection: | |
| Largest Picconia in the country, largest Buxus balearica, oldest camellias, largest Pterocarya fraxinifolia, tallest Liriodendron, oldest Villaresia | |
| Geographical area(s) of specialisation: | |
| Southern Africa, China, Eastern Asia, Australia, New Zealand | |
| Special families within the collections: | |
| Oleaceae, Malvaceae, Fagaceae, Ericaceae, Theaceae, Rosaceae, Pittosporaceae, Leguminosae, Phormiaceae, Gramineae, Ginkgoaceae, Magnoliaceae | |
| Special genera within the collections: | |
| Picconia, Hoheria, Quercus, Rhododendron, Pittosporum, Camellia, Acacia, Phormium, Ginkgo, Magnolia | |
| Special collections: | |
| Conifers, ICCP, – 18 Genera, 20 Species, 20 Taxa, 37 Plants. Bamboos, Hoheria, NCCPG, – 6 Species, 6 Accessions, 16 Plants. | |
| Record Keeping: | Kept since 1992 Accession books printed in 1899, 4000 species listed |
| Computer Program used: | |
| Are phenological records kept? | |
| Plant-collecting trips: | National |
| Facilities on site | |
| Herbarium: | No |
| Library: | No |
| Research facilities: | No |
| Publications: | Garden catalogue |
| Identifications: | Undertakes free identifications for the general public |
| Teaching and Education: | Potential for primary, secondary, higher, taxonomic, special courses |
| Interpretation: | Supervised garden walks, signs, brochures, guided trails |
| Friends Organisation: | No |
| Visitor facilities: | Restaurant, plant shop, bookshop, gift shop |
| Access to the collections - Who can visit, when etc. | |
| What are the conditions of Access to the collections? | |
| Public access: | Admission charge |
| Visitors per year: | 65,000 |
| Public opening hours: | Mon-Sun: 10am-6pm |
| Guiding principles behind the collection | |
| The Garden aims to cultivate as many unusual half-hardy plants as possible, to make use of its special microclimate, as well as to increase its woodland plant collection, cultivated and wild-collected material. The Garden is putting together a lottery bid for the estate to include the funding of a botanical survey and records system. | |
| Location map | |
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