The power of plants
Lilys: the botanic gardens in all their glory
You wander round seventeenth century fountains; water sparkles and tinkles all around. There are pleasant walks under shady trees, romantic carvings and sun-baked benches, fragrant borders and tropical flowers. Soft breezes blow through the yew trees; fish swim serenely in the ponds. Stone cornucopia overflow with gushing waves of petals, leaves and ivy. Pathways wander through bamboo, or between velvet lawns.
Built just after the Restoration of Charles II, the Botanic Gardens are the oldest in Britain, and some of the oldest in Europe. Unfortunately, the University, bitten by a frenzy of patriotic devotion to the King, blew all the money they had for the gardens on the (now) rather twee gate, leaving no money for the buying of plants.
The first gardener went singing in the pubs of Oxford to raise the money to buy the original stock; some of the species of plants he chose have been discovered from old catalogues and planted in a special bed to give you a feel of how the old gardens, originally called the Physic Gardens, would have looked and smelled.
The name was later changed to Botanic Gardens, when it became the home of exotic plants (like tulips) being brought back from explorations to newly-discovered continents and the islands of the South Seas. Some of these gifts, most obviously the trees, are still growing where they were initially planted, over two hundred years ago and are a memorial to the endeavours of early botanists to advance their science.
The Gardens were first known as the Physic Gardens because physic is, of course, an old word for medicine; the gardens were originally designed to help medics with their course, growing the herbs and plants needed for salves, purgatories and other remedies.
Because of this link, the rose-garden just outside the gate is also a memorial, this time not in memory of the great explorers of unknown lands, but of pioneers in medicine; Florey, Fleming and Clarke who, along with their team of researchers, developed penicillin here in Oxford at the Pathology department. In fact, the first injection of penicillin was given in Oxford, at the John Radcliffe Hospital, in 1943. There is apparently a different colour of rose in each boxhedged flower-bed.
If you’ve never been to the Botanic Gardens, Trinity really is the term to go. You can get in free with your Bod card, and stroll around the gardens, admiring the trees, flowers and water-features. The glasshouses have an exciting array of tropical plants, including carnivorous ones, while the rest of the gardens are home to more hardy plants, both indigenous and exotic.
Even for those of us who can’t tell our cyclamen from our sycamore, the gardens are a visual treat (and have handy informative labels for the inquisitive); take along a pet botanist, and you will learn more than you ever needed to know. Summer is perhaps its warmest, most welcoming season. Hidden away, so close to the High Street and yet amazingly quiet. They may only be small, a mere pocket-handkerchief of paradise, but that, really, is all you need.
The Botanic Gardens Plant Power Festival continues on Saturday 18th June with Plants that Cure Us
19th May 2005