NEW for 2013!

Children's Trails

Starting in January, there will be a brand new fun and educational children's trail that will change each month. Costing just £1.50, the trail will be suitable for all ages (younger children will need help reading the question sheet from an adult) and will help to make your visit to the Gardens extra special.

Available to buy at Reception from 1st January, the first trail is a Magical Plant Trail which is all about the real magic of plants that inspired J.K.Rowling's popular Harry Potter books.

Further trails will be available to buy each month, each costing just £1.50.

Gardens' Explorer Family Backpacks 

Starting mid January and available to hire from the Gardens' Main Reception desk every day during opening hours, there will be a series of brand new family activity backpacks on offer. Each backpack is bursting with creative activities and resources to help families to explore the Gardens and are suitable for all ages (younger ones will need adult help).

There will be three exciting and educational themes to choose from:

Brilliant Birds

Tremendous Trees

Bugs and Beasties

More themes will follow later in the year to keep the little ones entertained and make your visit extra special!

Backpacks contain an activity sheet, an answer sheet for parents/guardians, clipboard, colouring pencils and depending on the theme of your backpack, a magnifying glass, binoculars, tape measure, ID sheet or bug pot.

Hiring a backpack is easy and costs just £2 to hire (plus £8 refundable deposit). Just ask at Reception when you arrive, which themes are currently available and choose the one you want (limited availability). Each activity backpack can take up to 90 minutes to complete and aims to help families to get more of their visit.  

Family Events at the Gardens

Two new exciting events aimed at families have been launched for the 2013 programme and include an updated Easter event to be held on Easter Sunday (March 31st) plus a special Halloween Funday on Wednesday October 30th. Both will include live animals to see and hold each time and all children under 16 years old will be admitted FREE to these two events. More details are found on our Events Pages.