The Harris Garden is a botanical garden

Botanical garden

A botanical garden The terms botanic and botanical, and garden or gardens are used more-or-less interchangeably, although the word botanic is generally reserved for the earlier, more traditional gardens. is a well-tended area displaying a wide range of plants labelled with their botanical names...

 on the Whiteknights Campus

Whiteknights Park

Whiteknights Park, or the Whiteknights Campus of the University of Reading, is the principal campus of that university. The park covers the area of the manor of Earley Whiteknights, also known as Earley St Nicholas and Earley Regis.Whiteknights Park is some two miles south of the centre of the town...

 of the University of Reading

University of Reading

The University of Reading is a university in the English town of Reading, Berkshire. The University was established in 1892 as University College, Reading and received its Royal Charter in 1926. It is based on several campuses in, and around, the town of Reading.The University has a long tradition...

, about 2 miles (3.2 km) from the centre of the English

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 town of Reading

Reading, Berkshire

Reading is a large town and unitary authority area in England. It is located in the Thames Valley at the confluence of the River Thames and River Kennet, and on both the Great Western Main Line railway and the M4 motorway, some west of London....

. It was established in 1972 and expanded into its current form in 1988. It is named after Professor Tom Harris

Tom Harris (botanist)

Professor Tom Harris was a distinguished paleobotanist and keen gardener.Tom Harris was an academic at the University of Reading who was Head of the Department of Botany.Harris supervised William Chaloner , later a botany professor....

, a distinguished palaeobotanist and keen gardener. Friends of the Harris Garden is an organization set up with the aim of supporting the Garden.

Planting

The garden is about 12 acres (4.9 ha) in size. Within this area it encompasses various borders, several ponds and a stream, a formal garden, a heather garden

Erica

Erica ,the heaths or heathers, is a genus of approximately 860 species of flowering plants in the family Ericaceae. The English common names "heath" and "heather" are shared by some closely related genera of similar appearance....

, a wildflower meadow

Wildflower

A wildflower is a flower that grows wild, meaning it was not intentionally seeded or planted. Yet "wildflower" meadows of a few mixed species are sold in seed packets. The term "wildflower" has been made vague by commercial seedsmen who are interested in selling more flowers or seeds more...

, coppiced woodland

Coppicing

Coppicing is a traditional method of woodland management which takes advantage of the fact that many trees make new growth from the stump or roots if cut down. In a coppiced wood, young tree stems are repeatedly cut down to near ground level...

, and a walled garden

Walled garden

A walled garden is specifically a garden enclosed by high walls for horticultural rather than security purposes, though traditionally all gardens have been hedged about or walled for protection from animal or human intruders...

. A demonstration garden situated in the centre of the site is primarilty used for undergraduate teaching, such as collections of vegetables and a small fruit garden. Adjoining the gardens to the north are the university's experimental grounds and several ranges of glasshouses

Greenhouse

A greenhouse is a building in which plants are grown. These structures range in size from small sheds to very large buildings...

.

The garden is a hotspot for butterflies

Butterfly

A butterfly is a mainly day-flying insect of the order Lepidoptera, which includes the butterflies and moths. Like other holometabolous insects, the butterfly's life cycle consists of four parts: egg, larva, pupa and adult. Most species are diurnal. Butterflies have large, often brightly coloured...

 and also features primula

Primula

Primula is a genus of 400–500 species of low-growing herbs in the family Primulaceae. They include primrose, auricula, cowslip and oxlip. Many species are grown for their ornamental flowers...

s, pansies

Pansy

The Pansy is a large group of hybrid plants cultivated as garden flowers. Pansies are derived from Viola species Viola tricolor hybridized with other viola species, these hybrids are referred to as Viola × wittrockiana or less commonly Viola tricolor hortensis...

 and palm trees, as well as being home to a national collection of digitalis

Digitalis

Digitalis is a genus of about 20 species of herbaceous perennials, shrubs, and biennials that are commonly called foxgloves. This genus was traditionally placed in the figwort family Scrophulariaceae, but recent reviews of phylogenetic research have placed it in the much enlarged family...

. Special collections include Amaryllidaceae

Amaryllidaceae

Amaryllidoideae is the subfamily of flowering plants that takes its name from the genus Amaryllis. It is part of the family Amaryllidaceae, in order Asparagales...

, Apiaceae

Apiaceae

The Apiaceae , commonly known as carrot or parsley family, is a group of mostly aromatic plants with hollow stems. The family is large, with more than 3,700 species spread across 434 genera, it is the sixteenth largest family of flowering plants...

, Asclepiadoideae, Asteraceae

Asteraceae

The Asteraceae or Compositae , is an exceedingly large and widespread family of vascular plants. The group has more than 22,750 currently accepted species, spread across 1620 genera and 12 subfamilies...

, Crassulaceae

Crassulaceae

Crassulaceae, or the orpine family, are a family of dicotyledons. They store water in their succulent leaves. They are found worldwide, but mostly occur in the Northern Hemisphere and southern Africa, typically in dry and/or cold areas where water may be scarce...

, Droseraceae

Droseraceae

Droseraceae is the botanical name for a family of flowering plants. The family is also known under its common name, the sundew family.It consists of carnivorous plants: besides the sundews, the genus Drosera, it also contains the even more-famous Venus fly trap Dionaea muscipula...

, Fabaceae

Fabaceae

The Fabaceae or Leguminosae, commonly known as the legume, pea, or bean family, is a large and economically important family of flowering plants. The group is the third largest land plant family, behind only the Orchidaceae and Asteraceae, with 730 genera and over 19,400 species...

, Fagaceae

Fagaceae

The family Fagaceae, or beech family, comprises about 900 species of both evergreen and deciduous trees and shrubs, which are characterized by alternate simple leaves with pinnate venation, unisexual flowers in the form of catkins, and fruit in the form of cup-like nuts. Fagaceous leaves are often...

, Iridaceae

Iridaceae

The Iris family or Iridaceae is a family of perennial, herbaceous and bulbous plants included in the monocot order Asparagales, taking its name from the genus Iris. Almost worldwide in distribution and one of the most important families in horticulture, it includes more than 2000 species...

, Geraniaceae

Geraniaceae

Geraniaceae is a family of flowering plants placed in the order Geraniales. The family name is derived from the genus Geranium. It includes both the genus Geranium and the garden plants called geraniums, which modern botany classifies as genus Pelargonium, along with other related genera.There are...

, Lamiaceae

Lamiaceae

The mints, taxonomically known as Lamiaceae or Labiatae, are a family of flowering plants. They have traditionally been considered closely related to Verbenaceae, but in the 1990s, phylogenetic studies suggested that many genera classified in Verbenaceae belong instead in Lamiaceae...

, Lentibulariaceae

Lentibulariaceae

Lentibulariaceae is a family of carnivorous plants containing three genera, Genlisea, the corkscrew plants, Pinguicula, the butterworts, and Utricularia, the bladderworts....

, Liliaceae

Liliaceae

The Liliaceae, or the lily family, is a family of monocotyledons in the order Liliales. Plants in this family have linear leaves, mostly with parallel veins but with several having net venation , and flower arranged in threes. Several have bulbs, while others have rhizomes...

, Palmae, Pinaceae

Pinaceae

Pinaceae are trees or shrubs, including many of the well-known conifers of commercial importance such as cedars, firs, hemlocks, larches, pines and spruces. The family is included in the order Pinales, formerly known as Coniferales. Pinaceae are supported as monophyletic by its protein-type sieve...

, Scrophulariaceae

Scrophulariaceae

Scrophulariaceae, the figwort family, are a family of flowering plants. The plants are annual or perennial herbs with flowers with bilateral or rarely radial symmetry. Members of the Scrophulariaceae have a cosmopolitan distribution, with the majority found in temperate areas, including...

, Nepenthaceae, and Sarraceniaceae

Sarraceniaceae

Sarraceniaceae is a family of pitcher plants , belonging to order Ericales .The family comprises three extant genera: Sarracenia , Darlingtonia , and Heliamphora . The extinct Archaeamphora longicervia may also belong to this family...

.

History

The garden is in a location that was originally the home paddock of "The Wilderness", a former Victorian

Victorian architecture

The term Victorian architecture refers collectively to several architectural styles employed predominantly during the middle and late 19th century. The period that it indicates may slightly overlap the actual reign, 20 June 1837 – 22 January 1901, of Queen Victoria. This represents the British and...

 house built within the landscape garden created between 1798 and 1819 by George, Marquis of Blandford, later the 5th Duke of Marlborough

George Spencer-Churchill, 5th Duke of Marlborough

George Spencer-Churchill, 5th Duke of Marlborough FSA , styled Marquess of Blandford until 1817, was a British peer and collector of antiquities and books.-Background and education:...

.

A botanic garden was established by the University in 1972 when the Department of Botany moved from the University's London Road site

London Road Campus

London Road Campus of the University of Reading is the original campus of that university. It is on the London Road, immediately to the south of Reading town centre in the English county of Berkshire....

in central Reading to the new Whiteknights campus. In 1987, the garden was redesigned by Richard Bisgrove of the Centre for Horticulture and Landscape in Biological Sciences. The following year, redevelopment of the Botanic Garden was started.

Responsibility for maintenance of the Harris Garden was transferred from the School of Biological Sciences to the Facilities Management Directorate's Grounds Team in October 2010.

Usage and access

The garden was originally mostly used for teaching and research by the University's School of Biological Sciences, and the school will continue to use the garden for some teaching and practical work, but most academic activity will now be focussed on the walled garden. Since 2010 the Garden has undergone significant development work and the garden is now open to all with recreation and conservation being its primary function.

The garden also holds occasional open days, in which the gardens are open to the public from 2pm until 5.30pm, raising funds for various causes. In 2011, the garden is open on one Sunday of each month from April until October.

External links

• Friends of the Harris Garden website
• Plan of the Harris Garden