One Old, One New – Day 2
After breakfast at the hotel we collected our possessions and put everything in the car. We were ready for a new day and a new place.
After a short drive of around 30 minutes we arrived, paid our entrance fee and went in. This piece of modern art is where it all starts.

We are near a little village called Llanarthne which is home to the National Botanic Gardens of Wales, first opened in 2000, but which was originally part of the Middleton Estate which started some 400 years ago.
But before we venture through this artwork and down that path you may notice some water to the right. We went to the top edge of that lake because of something very strange.

There were a lot of tadpoles (frog lavae). Well I should say that there were an extraordinarily great number of tadpoles in fact more than I have ever seen in my life in one place.

And at one end they formed a fairly sharp diagonal line.

I cannot say why they formed such a sharp edge unless there was a current of water there. I can, however, say why there were probably so many tadpoles. There are no hungry fish in this lake which would normally mean the end of the majority of these tadpoles.
We went back to the path, headed into the gardens, and this is the first feature we came across.

If you look at the path beyond you should notice a dark line running this way. That is a little artificial rivulet which is what forms the spiral in this feature. Once it gets to that central pond it disappears underground.
Following that rivulet uphill along the path we see that it feeds into the top of each of a number of display areas, passes through, and continues on.


You may notice in the distance what is obviously a large artificial dome. That is the largest single span glasshouse in the world and that is where we are headed.

This place is HUGE! Along the left-hand edge there are a few facilities – an Information Point, toilets and a little cafe which has no ‘inside’ seating because it doesn’t need any. Outside the cafe, within the dome, there are some tables and chairs where one can sit with whatever has been purchased from the cafe and you will find that you become very popular with the local sparrows if you have something that they can eat.
The sub-tropical glasshouse is divided into areas each of which represent a different country. There are pathways throughout the glasshouse which allows you to see all the different plants and there are a lot of different plants.




In a glasshouse of this size there are some very tall plants.

There is a pond at the far end, with a seat nearby, which is home to a number of large goldfish and the seat is for people not the goldfish.


We finally decided that we had seen enough in the glasshouse so we went back outside where we could see Principality House with its garden at the back.


Principality House is all that remains of the original Middleton Estate Mansion which was partly destroyed by fire in 1931 but there seemed to be little of interest inside so we moved on to the Double Walled Garden.

This walled garden is unusual in that it has a double wall with a space between walls about the width of three cars. It is supposed to be better than just one wall.
The Botanical Gardens themselves describe it thus:
“It is divided into four quadrants, each with its own distinctive pathway.
Quadrants 1, 2 and 3 tell the story of the evolution of flowering plants, and is based on the latest DNA and microscopic research. From primitive water lilies at the centre of the garden to the latest cultivars by the outer walls, you can travel though 150 million years of botanic history.”
One of the quadrants is set up as a modern kitchen garden. In the south-west quadrant there is a large Tropical Butterfy House which we were interested in seeing.


After going inside My first impressions were that there was nothing flying about but then I started to see the occasional butterfly and eventually I could see a number of them. The number of butterflies will vary depending on how many have hatched (they breed their own) and the species will also vary depending on what has recently hatched.
These butterflies seem to have a rather weak, fluttery flight, compared to the butterflies one sees in Great Britain.



One of the things worth noting is that the damned things won’t stay still for long and are thus difficult to photograph. There was a large one that I wanted to photograph but it kept fluttering around roof level and wouldn’t come down. We eventually had our fill of butterlies and my patience had run out so we decided to have a light lunch in the little cafe by the garden entrance and then make our way home.
On the way down to the entrance I spotted this nice bench seat just in front of a stand of Bamboo and thought it worth a photograph. You may decide otherwise.

We wanted to be home around 4 o’clock so we had to leave about 2 o’clock which we did and we were home two hours later. Now we have to think of somewhere else to go next time.
One thought on “One Old, One New – Day 2”
What an incredible garden! By the size (my impression) you could spend days there and not see it all.
I do like that bench.
Annecyborn(Quote)