Oxford Botanic Garden — Attraction in Oxford

To witness the benighted stupidity is worth the price of admission.

The Oxford Botanical Gardens. Established in 1621 just as the pilgrims on the Mayflower were settling in and learning about maize and tobacco. Gorgeous. Meticulously cared for and marvelously presented - and then this.

In 2011 the curator of the gardens was a climate change freak - weren’t we all? He decided that in order to cash in on all the government grants sloshing about back then, remember that, he’d have to come up with something, too. He must have said, look, it’s taken 400 years for us to get the gardens weed free and looking nice, why don’t we get a grant to bring weed seeds from all over the world and toss them into the middle of the garden. We can stop tending it and watering it and just make note of which weeds do the best. We’ll say it’s all about sustainability or something or other.

I know, every farmer in Australia is going to look at that and predict the thistles will take over. Fair enough. But will they? Let’s just see, shall we?

You know what, they sat a PhD student out in the weeds for weeks on end counting bees. They all thought they had done something important towards saving the planet.

Our guide asked what we thought of this. I said bloody disgraceful.

Why? Because it’s a waste of otherwise brilliant people who could have been doing something actually useful. Such waste is the root cause of inflation and inflation is the real existential threat to our vulnerable little planet....

This visit of mine was kind of blessing in disguise. I finished my work and thought of visiting this place. Located in one of the posh area and a small well managed area. The ticket price is reasonable as compared to the size of garden. You can finish your visit within half an hour to all day depending on your interest.

The garden is basically established and maintained by OU for research and probably conservation purpose. It has several large taxonomical beds of particular interest for Taxonomists. The rest is for all enthusiasts. Rock garden, the plants that changed the world, tropical house and many more are there of general interest. Probably the smallest coffee and ice cream bar can be seen here. The toilet are nice looking but they need to be maintained. Few places have unrelated plant name tags. The people at entrance are nice and friendly. If you would like to go out and come in several times you may ask for a small ticket which gives you unlimited access for a day.

It's a nice and almost unseen corner almost at the center of high street. May be due to its name OXFORD UNIVERSITY Botanic Gardens people feel hesitation to enter so there are few people and the environment is quiet peaceful. Best place to read in silence. Old aged people were strolling around holding hand or with their grandchildren....it's relatively peaceful place at OXFORD.

Enjoy the garden! Don't forget to check the toilet whether it is...

We spent four days in Oxford and went back to the botanic gardens on three of them - that's how good they are! There is so much to see, and if you get there early enough you miss the crowds and can have a little peace and quiet. The planting is inspiring - so much to look at, particularly in the glass houses where we watched a particular giant lily flower almost come out - we kept missing it as it was night flowering... but we wouldn't have known this is it weren't for the wonderful woman working in the glasshouse who was very willing to share her knowledge and recognised us on a subsequent day - she even showed us a video from the camera they keep in the glasshouse, so we did get to see the open flower though missed it in the day... The 'plants that changed the world' we found slightly frustrating and disconnected, but everything else was fantastic. Lovely to see the gardens being used so well by punters and visitors; lots of tourists and students having picnics/relaxed time, alongside evidence of seed collection etc. A wonderful place.

Oh, I forgot to add about the statue of Will and Lyra's daemons from Philip Pullman's "His Dark Materials" - the statue didn't capture the animals quite right for me and, rather frustratingly, there was nearly always someone sat on the bench - often unaware that people wanted to look at the sculpture behind...