Things to see at Bodnant Garden

Late summer at Bodnant

The gradual burnishing of the leaves across our tree-filled landscape and the burst of late summer flowering shrubs and perennial plants promise a host of delights to come. 

The formal upper garden is alive with colour: dahlias, rudbeckias and heleniums provide a firework display in the Range Borders; roses are blooming their hearts out across the two rose terraces.

The Lily Terrace is a pastel picture of swaying ornamental grasses, lavenders, salvias, verbenas and diascias, while Japanese anemones jostle along stone terrace steps and paths and late-flowering clematis scrambles over walls and pergolas.

And you'll discover something more exotic within the walls of The Bath poolside garden, which is a riot of tropical colour in August and September. 

Round Garden and Canal Terrace

Enjoy two new displays: the Round Garden (East Garden) and Canal Terrace long borders were both redesigned in 2018 and are now fizzing with the colour and texture of long season herbaceous perennials and grasses. 

In the dappled shade of the Glades, fruit begins ripening on trees and shrubs while dotted through the greenery of the beds are bursts of scarlet crocosmia and the crimson hips of species roses. 

Riverside dells

Meanwhile down in the riverside dells, under the canopy of native and exotic trees, swathes of blue mophead and lacecap hydrangeas sweep along the riverside, while ferns are beginning to bronze, set against great mounds of lush hostas. 

As the heat of high summer turns to something softer, deeper and richer, there's lots to enjoy and still more to look forward to at Bodnant Garden. 

There are opportunities for children to explore the garden with our self-led nature trails. 

Bodnant Garden - 150 years

During autumn 2024, Bodnant Garden celebrated 150 years since it was bought at auction by Victorian industrialist Henry Davis Pochin and his wife, Agnes.  At the time, Bodnod as it was then known, was an estate with a walled garden, woods and plantations. It was Pochin's grand vision which shaped and led to the Grade 1 listed garden that we see today. 

2024 also marked 75 years since Bodnant Garden was gifted to the National Trust by Henry McLaren, Lord Aberconway. In 1948 he persuaded the National Trust to accept gardens on their own merit into the fold of the charity, Bodnant being only the second admitted in 1949, after Hidcote.  

A garden of firsts and National Collections 

Cared for by the National Trust since 1949, Bodnant is a garden of firsts. Home to the earliest and grandest laburnum arch completed in around 1880, and to some of Britain’s earliest magnolias introduced from China in the late 1800s.  It’s said there's a rhododendron in bloom every month of the year here, but they reach a peak in April and May. 

The garden is especially famous for its Asian rhododendrons, including unique hybrids bred at the garden from the 1920s. Many of these unique varieties can still be seen in the garden today. Bodnant Garden is also home to five National Collections – Rhododendron forrestii, magnolias, embothriums (Chilean fire bush), eucryphias and Bodnant Hybrid rhododendrons.  

Italinate Terraced Garden

Bodnant Garden is famed as the finest rose garden in Wales with its five formal Italianate terraces, designed and built in the new Arts and Crafts style between 1904 and 1914. Home to many established varieties of roses, including many of the David Austin varieties, it comes alive with colour and perfume from June until late September. 

Picturesque ponds 

Two of the terraces are recognised for their picturesque ponds, which are home to water lilies and a variety of wildlife. The borders on each of the terraces are planted with careful consideration of the surrounding environment and are in keeping with the year of their creation. Each of the five terraces was intended to be a revelation as you descend to the next.  

The East Garden 

The Laburnum Arch 

The golden blooms of the Laburnum Arch attract thousands of visitors to the garden in late May and early June each year. The arch flowers for between 10 to 14 days each year. The arch is the only one of its kind in the country which is curved, following the wall which runs alongside.  

The Winter and Round Gardens 

The Round Garden, with its 18th century water fountain, provides interest through the spring and summer with its four quadrants and new planting scheme. Structural forms and seed heads offer interest through the autumn and winter months.  

The Winter Garden, located just before the top gate to the Old Park Meadow, is a maze of pathways that take you through a variety of cornus, skimmia, cyclamen, iris and daphne. Coming alive in the winter months as its name suggests, it provides interest and a tranquil spot to sit.   

The Shrub Borders  

Providing the first hints of the surprises that await down in The Dell, the Shrub Borders are home to camellias and tree magnolias and some of the famous blood-red Bodnant hybrid rhododendrons. Behind the Pin Mill, a path leads down, past banks of camellias and rhododendrons to a stream-fed rockery that comes alive with giant Himalayan lilies, ferns and hostas in late spring and early summer.   

The Glades 

Separating the Shrub Borders and the Dell, the Glades are a good area for daffodils in the spring, and the bluebells that follow hot on their heels.  Fiery shades of red and amber burst through during the autumn months. Trees from all over the world, including  cornus, prunus, liquidambar and paulownia provide year-long interest with the acers lighting up the arboretum from September to November. 

Walks and wildflowers 

Down to the Dell 

The rich soil and moist atmosphere of the Dell suit the larger-leaved rhododendrons. Discover the Waterfall Bridge, with its vertical torrent of water on one side, and the calm, reflective pool on the other. Home to wildlife including kingfishers, dippers, heron and ducks.  Further upstream you’ll find the Skating Pond and Boathouse, with weeping willows, swamp cypress and azaleas that signal the start of spring with vibrant colours.  

Furnace Hill 

This area of the garden offers fine views back towards the house and terraces as well as across to the Conwy River. Penjerrick Walk, along the top of Furnace Hill, comes alive in spring with a variety of rhododendron which include amongst others Augustinii, Penjerrick and ‘Reve d’amour’. Discover Lady Anglesey’s Seat and sit for a while to enjoy the view across to the house and terraces.  

Wildflower meadows 

Bodnant Garden has two wildflower meadows. The Old Park Meadow dates to the Georgian era and is now home to daffodils in early spring with wildflowers as far as the eye can see appearing throughout May and June. During winter, sheep graze in the Old Park up to Christmas. Furnace Meadow lies on the southern hillside, overlooking the riverside garden and is a peaceful spot to take a moment to enjoy nature, no matter the season.