New Pinetum

Explorer Tom Cambridge University Botanic Garden is 40 acres of plants that makes the university its supporting cast. Enter from Brookside or Station Road and follow the paths from towering trees to glasshouses; if a fern seems to be judging your gardening skills, it has earned the right. The University opened this garden on its present site in 1846 after Professor John Stevens Henslow argued for room to study plants themselves, not merely grow medical specimens. First curator Andrew Murray shaped the western half with a sweeping perimeter path, a main walk, lake and planting grouped by botanical family. The eastern half came later, bringing different habitats and displays into the story. The garden now tends a collection of more than 8,000 plant species, a spectacular number of Latin labels to mispronounce. Give the place time to change its pace. Walk the historic main route, then seek out the glasshouses and British wild flowers; an hour that begins with a grand tree can end with a tiny leaf stealing the show. This remains a working place for plant research and teaching as well as a visitor garden. Henslow taught Charles Darwin; you need not solve evolution before lunch. The garden welcomes walk-in visitors with paid admission; tickets are also sold online. It opens at 10 each day, closing at 5 in October, 4 from November through January, and 6 from April through September, and 5 in February and March. Last paid entry is half an hour before closing, and the published Christmas closure runs from 24 December 2026 through 1 January 2027. Check the day's arrangements, then let the plants win the argument.