Botanical Birmingham

Advantages: Plenty to see, a relaxing escape from the city.
Disadvantages: Expensive for a one-off visit. Disappointing restaurant.

...Every city need its green spaces. The architecture may be spectacular and the shops fantastic, but finding a place to escape the traffic and bustle is a necessity for most city dwellers. Picture Birmingham and what do you see? The Bullring, New Street Station and Spaghetti Junction would be the first things that come to my mind. Although I've never lived in Birmingham itself, I worked there for several years. During that time I went to the Botanical Gardens regularly, but for the purposes of this review I will focus on my most recent visit which was August 2008. A Brief History Celebrity gardeners are not a new phenomenon. In the nineteenth century J.C Loudon was an influential writer on gardening and became part of London's high society. He designed the Birmingham Botanical Gardens in 1830 to provide a place where keen...

JoannaPiano 31.10.2008 (02.11.2008) · Read review
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Review of Birmingham Botanical Gardens

Edinburgh Botanic Gardens

Advantages: beautiful and tranquil
Disadvantages: none

...A short bus ride from the centre of town in Inverleith, the 'Botanics' (as Edinburgh's Botanic Gardens) is known locally is a green and lush haven that is well worth a visit. Even in its busiest periods you can lose yourself in its verdant nooks and crannies amongst exotic blooms. The air is fresh in this, its latest location (originally founded in 1670 it occupied sites near Holyrood Palace and on the road to Leith before moving to its latest, greenest pasture in 1820.) When the sun shines simply wander through its extensive outdoor gardens where thousands of plant species flourish. 'The Botanics' is the second richest plant collection in the world (after Kew Gardens, which it is older than) and contains examples of just under 10% of all known flora. This gives it an important global role in maintaining biodiversity. But for me this...

snowbird123 16.09.2008 · Read review
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Review of Royal Botanic Garden

St Lucia Botanical Garden - beauty on the slopes of the beast

Advantages: Peaceful and colourful stop, very lush
Disadvantages: Few.

...Like several others of the Windward Islands chain, St Lucia was formerly mainly divided into plantations and plantations principally grew sugar (now the main crop is bananas, although tourism is the main source of income). The plantations may have gone but often their names live on (like Sandy Lane in Barbados) and Soufriere is the former plantation in St Lucia which is the home of the St Lucia Botanical Gardens (also known at the Diamond Botanical Gardens). (Side note: If Soufriere sounds French, it is: St Lucia was changed hands repeatedly between the French and the British, belonging to each of the warring nations a total of 7 times each). Soufriere Plantation was part of a land grant by King Louis XIV and it is the descendants of the Devaux family, to whom the land was granted, who still own the land and who therefore own...

andyk910 27.03.2009 · Read review
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Review of St Lucia Botanical Gardens

Enjoy a Botanical day out

Advantages: Interesting. Good walk. Well laid out.
Disadvantages: Slightly pricey entrance fee.

...Whilst on holiday lately in Pembrokeshire, we decided on our way home to stop off in the National Botanic Garden of Wales as we had heard quite a lot about it on the news recently. We were quite glad that we did. Firstly the gardens are located in Llanarthne, which is just outside Carmarthen on the A48. It is in the county of Carmarthenshire. Buses are also available from Carmarthen train station at regular intervals during the day. ** HISTORY ** Firstly I thought I would give you a little bit of background information into the place, basically just the stuff that we had heard about on the news before our visit. The National Botanic Garden of Wales was set up part funded by the National Lottery in 2000, making it the first botanical garden created in the new millenium. However, the people running the project had vastly over...

pumfster 19.06.2007 · Read review
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Review of National Botanic Garden of Wales

Botanical beauty

Advantages: relaxing
Disadvantages: crowded in the summer

...When the rain never stops in Glasgow the Botanic Gardens are a life saver. I walk around their tropical gardens and pretend I am back in jungle and it really is humid and hot. The new glass dome building has a beautiful array of statues and a fantastic selection of plant species from around the world with a relaxing pond full of large carp to keep the children entertained. The older building has a collection of cacti, herbs and spices and my personal favorite, a room full of orchids. It is a small but lovely exhibit and often they have stalls or special shows on for the public throughout the year. When the weather changes, the gardens become a hangout for half of city. The open hill is seething with children playing with balls, people purchasing ice creams from the vans and many just lazing around enjoying the sunshine. The gardens...

melanderson80 06.05.2008 · Read review
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Review of Botanic Garden

Maderia's famous garden

Advantages: Plants and birds in a semi-tropical environment
Disadvantages: A little steep, some paths uneven

...~Introduction~ Jardim Botanico or the Botanical Garden is located on a hillside over looking Funchal on the Portuguese island of Madeira. As Madeira has a climate best described as semi-tropical it has a whole host of plants both native and imported. Jardim Botanico is one of many gardens in and around Madeira and is a garden that represents the many differing plants that are on display all over Madeira. It's most famous item or the most photographed part of the garden is it's carpet bedding or choreographed garden. A splendid display of multi-coloured plants all arranged and shaped into diamonds, squares, lines and even lettering. The choreographed garden has been photographed so much that it is present on many of the postcards for sale in and around Madeira. ~Getting there~ By Car - Jardim Botanico is located on the hillside above...

buzzard_cad 10.10.2005 · Read review
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Review of Botanical Gardens Madeira, Funchal, Madeira

Botanically brilliant!

Advantages: It does what it says it will. I'll trade in any man but Colin Firth for a tube of this any day!
Disadvantages: Can be a bit too shiny alone on the face

...when something says it doesn't contain blah blah or something and you don't know what blah blah is or am I only one that knows what I'm wittering on about???? lol The Packaging.... It's a 50ml see through tube which is recyclable and contains a white iridescent fairly thick liquid (doesn't drip). The bottle opens at the bottom and you have to squeeze it out. The labeling is simple. On the front tells me what it is and who it is by and the back tells me what it does (I've listed that already in this review), directions for use and the ingredients and lets me know that the extracts are authenticated by royal Botanic Gardens. Kew. It is dermatologically tested (good seeming as we are sticking this on our faces eh!) Directions for use.. Use alone or before make up. Verdict.... A very impressive bit of kit! I like that dewy...

xxfoxyredxx 04.11.2009 · Read review
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Review of Boots Botanics Beauty Radiance Balm

Visit Beautiful Bicton - Fun for all the Family!

Advantages: Beautiful Gardens and Play Areas
Disadvantages: You could get wet eating your picnic!

...* Adults £6.95 * Children £5.95 Children under 3yrs free * Concessions £5.95 * Dogs £1.00 Bicton Park Botanical Gardens Budleigh Salterton Devon EX9 7BG Tel: 01395 568465 email: info@bictongardens.co.uk www.bictongardens.co.uk...

lazytowner 21.10.2009 · Read review
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Review of Bicton Botanical Gardens

Beautiful Botanicals

Advantages: smells nice, non-drying, natural ingredients
Disadvantages: expensive

...A while ago I bought a big set of Liz Earle products from QVC, one of which was the Orange Flower botanical body wash. This product contains organic oats and yarrow, rose-scented geranium and natural vitamin E. It contains 7 different essential oils including geranium, patchouli, rosemary, sweet orange and lavandin amongst others, as well as other things. It also contains no lauryl or laureth sulfates or animal extracts. The body wash comes in a pale blue bottle with grey writing, which tapers towards the top. It's pleasant enough to look at, but perhaps is not quite as luxurious looking as you may expect for the price tag. The opening of the bottle is at the bottom, and the flip cap is easy to open. The benefit of having the opening at the base of the bottle, is that you don't have to shake furiously to get the last of the body...

pink_champagne 09.10.2009 · Read review
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Review of Liz Earle Orange Flower Botanical Body Wash

In the night garden ninky nonk train set

Advantages: strong, versatile, compact, nice bright colours, fun to play with
Disadvantages: none so far

...I decided to buy the in the night garden ninky nonk train set from Amazon as my young daughter is a big fan of in the night garden and whenever it comes on TV she gets really excited. So as my daughter already had some of the other characters from the show I wanted her to have the whole set and since buying it the train set the ninky nonk train set has become one of her favourite toys to play with on a daily basis. The train set can come apart and be attached on many different ways and my daughter enjoys looking at the nice bright colours and putting some of the other in the night garden characters onto the train set even though it keeps falling of now and again it keeps her busy and sometimes I hear her in fits of giggles. The train set is very cute and versatile and its great as children such as mine can have hours of fun with it...

jmarlene 02.11.2009 · Read review
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Review of Hasbro In the Night Garden Ninky Nonk Train Set