• Belfast, Antrim

The urban enviroment is an important part of Belfast's heritage and is enhanced by the unique blend of features and characters of the city many parks, old and new, large and small Annual events promote interest and activity in the parks, and include lectures, demonstrations, guided walks, bus tours, band performances, children's aciivities, outdoor summer schemes, educational programmes and major events such as Rose Week and the Spring and Autumn Flower Shows....

• Belfast, Antrim

By the seventeenth century, roses were extensively grown in almost every European garden. Three hundred years later they remain firm favourites and nowhere more so than in Ulster - the home, for over a century, of two world-famous breeders: Dickson's of Newtownards and McCredy's of Portadown....

• College Park, Belfast, Antrim

Its long and fascinating history began during the late 18th and early 19th centuries when there was an upsurge of interest in botany, horticulture and gardening, encouraged by the range of new plants being brought back from the East and the Americas by plant hunters.

The formation of "Botanic Gardens' became fashionable, and gardens had already been established in Dublin and Cork when the Belfast Botanic and Horticultural Society was formed in February 1827. Under its president, the Marquis of Donegal, the Society resolved to lay out a similar garden in Belfast. In 1829 a 14 acre site was purchased outside the town at the junction of the Malone and Stranmillis Roads.

Although the original intention was to provide a pleasant and well laid out garden primarily for instruction and study of plants, it soon became evident that more popular support was required to raise the income necessary for the running of the property. From June 1838, when two successful garden fetes were organised for fund raising, right through the 19th century, the Botanic Garden became the venue for all manner of outdoor activities and entertainment....

• Belfast, Antrim

The Palm House is one of the earliest examples of a curvilinear and cast iron glasshouse. Its construction was initiated by the Belfast Botanical and Horticultural Society in the 1830s. The two wings were completed in 1840, and were built by Richard Turner of Dublin, who later built the Great Palm House at Kew Gardens. The 37 foot high elliptical dome at Belfast was only added twelve years later.

Over the years the Palm House acquired a reputation for good plant collections, and the visitor today can view similar plants to what the Victorians hailed as "vegetable wonders of the world". The cool wing houses all year round displays of colour and scent using plants such as geranium, fuchsia, begonia and bulb displays. The stove wing and dome area contain a range of temperate and tropical plants with particular emphasis on species of economic value.<...