Following his purchase of land in Ness in 1898, Arthur Kilpin Bulley, the son of a wealthy Liverpool cotton importer, created Bees Ltd, a nursery specializing in exotic seed and plant imports, at the same time financing planned collection expeditions to far off destinations like the Himalayas and China.  He died in 1942, and in 1898 his daughter gifted the garden to the University of Liverpool.  The University continues to manage the gardens, now totally 64 acres, with areas of rockery, woodland, water gardens, specimen lawns, an orchard, a small greenhouse with succulents, a laburnum and wisteria arch, and of course there are lovely views over the Dee estuary to north Wales.

Ness Botanic Gardens are open from March to October.  When I went with my friend Katie yesterday it was with the hope of seeing a lot of rhododendrons and azaleas as well as the laburnum and wisteria arch, and we were in luck.  It was overcast but dry, and the floral extravaganza brought delicious colour and light into the otherwise rather dull day.

There is plenty of parking.  Visitors are provided with a map of the site with the entrance ticket.  My battered copy is shown right (click to enlarge).  I did look to see if there was a copy to download on the Ness Gardens website, but I couldn’t find one.  The Gardens has a nice cafe which does excellent coffee and a good range of sandwiches, hot food and cold drinks, and both indoors and outside tables are available.  There is a small plant sales centre outside, and a shop indoors selling gifts.