University of Bristol Botanic Garden

The University of Bristol Botanic Garden is a Botanical garden in Bristol, England. The garden moved to its current site in Stoke Bishop having previously been at two other sites in the city. The 4,500 species of plants are displayed in collections relating to evolution, Mediterranean, local flora and rare natives and finally useful plants.HistoryThe University of Bristol established a botanic garden in 1882 at Royal Fort House adjacent to Tyndall Avenue. It was laid out by Adolf Leipner. This site was later known as the Hiatt Baker Garden.In 1959 the site of the Botanic Garden was used to build the university's Senate House. The botanic collection was moved to the spacious gardens of Bracken Hill beside North Road, Leigh Woods, near the Clifton Suspension Bridge. The Bracken Hill house and gardens had been established in 1886 by Melville Wills, a noted benefactor to Bristol University.Bracken Hill house and some of the gardens continued to be used by the plant pathology and other services of the government's National Agricultural Advisory Service (NAAS), advising farmers and growers from Herefordshire and Dorset to Lands End during and after World War II when UK-grown crops were vital to minimise rationing. See, for instance, the cereal and vegetable diseases work of Lawrence Ogilvie at Bracken Hill. The NAAS staff, laboratories and offices had moved there from the Long Ashton Research Station also to the west of Bristol.