Beautiful Botanical Gardens

A botanical garden is basically a well cared for and well-designed (sometimes not even planned out) garden that is considered a public place for the whole community to enjoy. Mostly you will also be able to see cards with the scientific or botanical names of plants, flowers and trees. The key to creating a botanical garden right in your backyard is determining what these plants and trees will be called in any nursery, getting them and start designing! At home, however, you can include the plants you find the most attractive and there are no rules that state you have to keep plants that do not appeal to your tastes.

The most important task you should keep in mind when creating your own botanical garden is the application of a focal point. There should be a corner, a flowerbed or an amazing tree that ultimately attracts the attention. An ornamental flowering tree is a good example of a beautiful focal point and flowers and bushes of your liking can successfully surround these. To create that "lush" and tropical look, you should make sure you incorporate flowering bushes and trees and if you have a big backyard, you can create smaller, interesting focal points with these that lead up to your main attraction. Using bamboo adds to the tropical feel and can even be used to create "walls." Colour is crucial, especially when creating the "botanical garden" effect. This can be done by adding different rose bushes and trimming them to the correct heights to fit in different places. Hibiscus flowers with their huge blooms, Lilies or Gladiolus also add immense and beautiful colour to botanical gardens. When you plant them in heaps or "mass plant" them, you can create a magical effect.

Plan ahead and determine where the most shade and sunlight falls in your garden. Make sure you plant certain flowers and bushes according to their needs, because you can ultimately waste a lot of money by replacing plants over and over. Make sure you also know what the seasons do to your garden. In winter, for example, it is great to have evergreens and plants that keep their berries so you will have colour all year round. When it comes to grass, it is best to use Zebra or Pampas (tall grasses) to fill space or to place here and there. Letting plants and grass grow more freely creates a more natural look.

Do not let a smaller yard discourage you, because smaller yards can in fact look cosier. Creating walkways makes a yard look bigger and adding a bench in the middle of tall plants also gives your garden an intriguing feel. It is also important to not only think "botanical," but also to be consistent with a style and climate appropriate plants, like Mediterranean or English Country. A botanical garden should ultimately be place where trees, flowers and shrubs are "cultivated for exhibition" and that is what you should recreate: a beautiful place that keeps you and visitors in a good mood.

Botanical gardens in recent years have become an excellent source of conservation for plants as they educate the public and scientific communities alike while raising funding to further plant research. The study of botany is constantly finding new useful ways to utilize chemicals found in plants for human benefits. Today there are over 1775 botanical gardens in existence worldwide spanning across 158 different countries. These facilities ultimately help to preserve the beauty of nature in a manner which can further the conservation of delicate species in danger of extinction.