Andes Gardens

This garden feature shows the terrain and the range of plants from the mountains of the southern Andes of South America.

It is situated near Condor Cliffs and now provides a delightful walk way to the new Butterfly Journey exhibit.

The garden is built on a slope rising up to approx 2.5m at the rear. In order to achieve this we had to build a retaining wall against which the rocks and soil could be arranged. To give the impression of a mountainside, over 200 tonnes of locally quarried limestone were used. Two streams run through this rocky landscape before plunging under a wooden bridge into a pool. All of the plants used are those native to Chile and Argentina. We have tried to group them as they would be found in the wild. The plants from higher altitudes are planted at the top of the garden, while those from lower altitudes are found around the pool. Of the 52 species used some are not considered to be entirely hardy this far north in the UK and the winter of 2009/10 proved fatal for a number of plants.