Birmingham Botanical Gardens

Spent my 21st birthday here and could not complain, was a wonderful little peruse of all type of botany and sights. Even checked out the butterfly garden and was pleasantly surprised. I think everyone needs to go to the botanical gardens at least once in their life. 😊

Came here for the luminate Christmas lights trail. The organisation was ok, staff were helpful and the kids enjoyed the lights. It's worth a visit with kids. The place is clean and well kept and signposted correctly to make your visit enjoyable as possible.

I took a friend for a birthday treat as she loves David Bowie. The Sekine Quartet did an amazing job, the music was beautiful. Such talented young ladies. How can 4 stringed instruments make such a wonderful sound? The setting of Birmingham Botanical Gardens was perfect. It was nice to be able to have a drink during the performance served by local restaurant Smoke & Ash. The staff of Fever Productions were so friendly and helpful and the multitude of candles were a beautiful backdrop to the whole event. On the whole, a beautiful, ambient, relaxing Sunday evening.

These gardens are a national treasure and like many Brummies, they hold a special place in my heart. Though the buildings are looking tired, the glasshouses contain an outstanding and well kept collection of rare plants from around the world. Outside, improvements are clearly being made. The grass garden is by far the best feature with great drifts of naturalistic planting backed by groups of bold giant grasses. The peaceful fern garden is a secret little retreat. The alpine garden is a newish feature with outcrops laid out geographically. There are many important trees around the site and for families, probably the largest play area in any garden. The historic bandstand has live bands every Sunday throughout the warmer months. There is a large tearoom and occasional street food vendors. The gardens are heading towards a huge restoration project following years of no investment so be supportive and respectful. For those complaining about the parking system- there are lots of signs explaining what to do, read them carefully and you won't have a problem.

My partner and I enjoyed a lovely visit to the Laminate exhibit hosted by the botanical gardens which started out with a field of LED roses which flicked in patterns in response to the music soundtracks which were playing. We then moved on to some tiles which lit up under each step which were really fun to run around and jump on, then we moved to some controllable lights which I forgot to photograph but they were again fun to mess with. Next, we moved to the slow spirals on the floor which we stood and span with. The light trail then guided us to a tunnel of triangular light which was very popular with guests looking for fun photo opportunities .This then led down to some spherical string lights which were captivating to both my partner and I as we enjoyed being able to walk into the lights and hold onto them. We then followed a rainbow path to a large, path shaped light overhead projecting into the sky, I really liked the pattern changes in this time and through both walkthroughs I stood and stared in awe as I thought the patterns and colourations in the overhead light were fascinating. We then headed to the cages in the forest which sadly didn't have their intended effects as only two of the tablets used in the projections were working slightly so the cages looked mildly confusing as they just appeared as glass panes in cages. We followed these down the the make a wish wall where my partner and I both made some wholesome wishes and had a look at the hopes of other visitors which brought a smile to ourselves and another group. This followed on to a game where you had to stop a light to a line on a timed sequence, after the little thrill game you come to a disco ball zone with calm music and lights that make you feel like dancing. The trail ends at a little hand warming station over hot coal with a photo opportunity on exit at some heart shaped candy canes. The exhibition is more sensory based than I remember it being several years ago which I think is an exciting direction for the show to take, however I do think that if they do this they should make the music more drawing so that it helps bring you into each exhibition more and that they should still have one or two light based art sculpture type things as they really were the main highlight of my first luminate visit back in 2019, this is just a gentle suggestion though as the experience was still lovely despite the minor technical error with tablets and I'd still say to visit if you're in Birmingham as it's a gentle paced expefience that we travelled twice to re-immerse ourselves into.