Funky Garden Facts
Wildlife at the Garden
Across the mosaic of lakes, streams, marsh, semi-natural woodland, meadows and formal gardens, we provide a home to:
- over 100 types of butterfly and moth
- hundreds of native plant species
- more than 60 varieties of bird
- thousands of frogs, toads and palmate newts
- common lizards, grass snakes and slow worms
- 20 species of mammal
- Our Bee Garden (apiary) has been created as a home for over a million honey bees
We also boast over 180 types of lichen, many rare types of fungi and 92 varieties of moss. We even know of 26 types of snail!
The Great Glasshouse
- The Glasshouse looks after plants from all around the world - you can see the different areas on the map!
- The Glasshouse was designed by the world renowned architect Lord Norman Foster
- It is the world's largest single span Glasshouse measuring 110m long by 60m wide!
- The internal landscape covers 3500m2, while the glass dome covers 4500m2. The dome is the shape of an elliptical torus and consists of 785 panes of glass, most of which are 4m x 1.5m
- Each glass plane consist of two 9mm thick sheets of glass with a laminated film in between making a glass sandwich 18mm thick in total
- The glass dome is tilted by 7 degrees on its axis and is orientated to face south - this
helps capture the maximum amount of sunlight in a day
- Steel Ball and Socket joints attach 24 tubular arches to the concrete plinth the special joints allow for expansion of the steel ribs which cover the glasshouse
- Heat is provided from a biomass furnace which in conjunction with the climate control prevents the glasshouse temperature falling below 9 degrees Celsius
- High mounted fans, blow air around the glasshouse interior - this simulates the windy conditions of the Mediterranean regions and strengthen the plants
