Entry is Free at the Inverness Botanical Gardens, Nursery & Secret Garden. We are a charity and depend on donation and plant sales. The Gardens provide a tranquil break from the hustle and bustle of city life. Amidst beautiful formal gardens, ponds, tropical house, cactus house, wild flower meadow and much more the Botanical Gardens is like an green emerald in the heart of the city.
Through a ramshackle gate at the back of the formal Gardens is the Secret Garden or the G.R.O.W. Project.
The GROW project is run by adults with special needs. Over the last 20 years they have transformed a piece of waste ground into an amazing and productive garden.
GROW stands for Garden, Recycle, Organic and Wildlife. Everything is done with these aims in mind. All the gardening is organic, nothing is wasted and everything is done to promote wildlife.
The gardeners experiment with different type of gardening techniques, from vertical gardens to innovative composting, from traditional plant pots to old boot planters everything is tried. It is a maze of wild flower meadows, fruit cages, vegetable beds, herb gardens and bug hotels. There is something to learn for everyone.
Cafe-
There is a range of refreshments; teas, coffees, tray bakes, ice cream, lunches, soup and great scones.
More on the Botanic Gardens-
The climatically controlled hothouse features winding pathways along which you can discover a superb array of subtropical plants, a cascading waterfall and a pool full of friendly Koi Carp. The adjoining cactus house shows an award winning range of cacti and succulents with many specimens provided and maintained by the Inverness Cactus & Succulent Society.
The outdoor garden, which is sheltered by a large stone wall, presents innovative colourful displays including mixed trees and shrubs, heathers, herbs, seasonal and mixed plantings all within a fine range of raised and ground level beds. Younger ones will be sure to find, hidden among the shrubs, the teddy bears, mole and tortoise and superb examples of chainsaw carvings.
Further along the pathways, past lawns and shrubs, you will come upon a large rockery are flanked by the colourful cottage garden and wild flower plantings.
You will find a attractive range of indoor and outdoor plants that locally grown and sourced. Some of the plants are grown by our staff and some by the trainees on our Garden Project for Adults With special needs. As charity the money from the plant sales is used to offset costs and to keep our admission free.
The Gardens are an ideal venue to hire for wedding photography and evening wedding ceremonies and we also have a meeting room for daily hire which is ideal for meetings and training sessions for up to thirteen people. The Botanic Gardens, Nursery and Secret Garden are truly unique and wonderful place and a must see for any visitor to Inverness.
