Interesting Facts about Inverewe Garden

• A National Trust for Scotland garden famed for its exotic plants despite being further north than Moscow and St Petersburg.
• 100 acres of garden created by Sir Osgood Mackenzie and Lady Mackenzie in the 19th century.
• The north of the garden around the shores of Loch Thurnaig have been occupied since the Iron Age.
• The warm currents of the Gulf Stream help to create a micro climate that produces an oasis of colour and fertility where exotic plants from many countries flourish.
• Himalayan rhododendrons, Tasmanian eucalypts and many Chilean and South African plants are featured, together with a large collection of New Zealand plants including the National Collection of the genus Olearia.
• An area named the Bambooselem was planted in the 1880’s. Many of the Bamboos have since flowered and died but the name deserves to live on.

Olearia phlojopappa Comber’s Blue

What to See at Inverewe Garden

• 2,000 acres of estate managed for conservation including the Pinewood Trail, Inverewe Trail and Kernsary Path.
• At the edge of Loch Ewe is a Wildlife Hide
• The large gardens contain National Plant Collections NPC of Brachyglottis, Olearia Ourisisia and of course Rhododendron (barbata subsection).
• Walks include Barbatum, Niveum, Rhododendron, Jubilee, Jetty and Alice Maconchie walks.
• The Peace Plot celebrates the return of peace after the first World War. The plot includes a Sri Lankan Rhododendron arboreum zeylanicum that is the largest in Britain

Camas Glas the Grey Bay<

• Named in Gaelic, Camas Glas is the Grey Bay on the northern edge of the woodland.
• Masses of Rhododendrons are banked under the cliff with Magnolias and Japanese Maples.
• A steep path joins Camas Glas to The Pond garden and Rhododendron hybrids.
• With this type of soil there are also lavish plantings of Meconopsis, Aruncus, Candelabra primulas and Rheums.

Soil Erosion and Depletion

• New soil needs to be brought into the garden for new planting and to replace soil that has become starved through nutrients leaching out from the high rainfall the gardens experience.
• 200+ tons of mulching material is also applied every year – thats a lot of barrow loads! ed.
• Mulch is made in the garden from Seaweed, farmyard manure, prunings, leafmold, and occasionally shredded bracken.