Tal-y-Cafn - Bodnant Gardens (Caernarvonshire)
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Tal-y-Cafn - Bodnant Gardens (Caernarvonshire) |
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| Giant Redwood - May 2010 including an example of the variation Pendulum | |
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| Giant Redwood - May 2010 | Coast Redwood - May 2010 |
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| Coast Redwood - May 2010 | Giant Redwood - May 2010 |
| Bodnant Gardens has some of the tallest Redwoods in the British Isles. Their Sequoiadendron giganteum Pendulum (Giant Redwood) was planted in 1890 according to its plaque, and measured 29.3 metres high in May 2010. Their Sequoia sempervirens was the tallest Coast Redwood measured so far for the Redwood World website at 46.25 metres. The trees are so tall and broad they give the feeling of standing next to a wall of wood. The gardens are terraced and perhaps the trees owe their high growth rate to the protection of the dell in which they are growing, it certainly affords fine views of them from the top of the garden. Dave the gardener showed us one more Giant Redwood which had half of a plaque beneath that read, "Planted by Mr & Mrs Charles.. March 19th 1..". Dave said that this would probably be Mr & Mrs Charles Maclaren. In March 1877 Charles McLaren married Laura Pochin who inherited the Estate from her father in 1895, so the tree was most likely to have been planted, like the Pendulum, in the late 1800's. Apart from the remarkable Redwoods, May is a fantastic time of the year to see the azaleas and many other flowers in bloom in the garden too. |
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| Dawn Redwood - Summer 2021 |
| Thanks to Dan for this photograph of a Dawn Redwood - Metasequoia glyptostroboides 'Goldrush' at Bodnant Gardens taken in Summer 2021. We visited in 2010 so I'm guessing this tree wasn't there at that time, either that or I completely missed it! |
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| Coast Redwood - December 2021- felled by the storm Arwen |
| Dan also sent this photograph of the Coast Redwood - Sequoia sempervirens and he wrote; " sad news, the coast redwood at Bodnant Gardens is no more. I went to Bodnant Gardens to find that storm Arwen had got the better of it." Sad news indeed, but thank you for letting me know (thanks also to Aidan for informing me about this loss). A startling photograph and a rare sight with these trees. Perhaps the adjacent stream had undermined and weakened the root structure on one side of the tree and contributed to its demise. The BBC covered the many tree losses at Bodnant during storm Arwen in this article. |
| Common Names and Latin Name | No. | Latitude and Longitude | OS National Grid | Elevation (above sea-level) |
Height | Girth | Date Measured | |
| WGS84 | OSGB36 | |||||||
| Giant Redwood Sequoiadendron giganteum | 1 | N53.23120 W3.80068 | N53.23093 W3.79943 | SH 79902 71974 | 28ft (08.54m) | 39.6m | 5.93m | May 2010 |
| 2 | N53.23131 W3.80065 | N53.23104 W3.7994 | SH 79904 71986 | 52ft (15.85m) | 29.3m | -- | May 2010 | |
| 3 | N53.23165 W3.80075 | N53.23138 W3.7995 | SH 79898 72024 | 89ft (27.13m) | 46.9m | 6.2m | May 2010 | |
| 4 | N53.23193 W3.80133 | N53.23166 W3.80008 | SH 79860 72056 | 118ft (35.98m) | 42.1m | 6.3m | May 2010 | |
| 5 | N53.23233 W3.80118 | N53.23206 W3.79993 | SH 79872 72101 | 74ft (22.56m) | 47.2m | 7.32m | May 2010 | |
| Coast Redwood Sequoia sempervirens | 6 | N53.23247 W3.80188 | N53.23220 W3.80063 | SH 79825 72118 | 71ft (21.65m) | 46.25m | 5.87m | May 2010 - R.I.P. 2022 |
| Giant Redwood Sequoiadendron giganteum | 7 | N53.23271 W3.80213 | N53.23244 W3.80088 | SH 79809 72145 | 50ft (15.24m) | 13.4m | -- | May 2010 |
| 8 | N53.23345 W3.80057 | N53.23318 W3.79932 | SH 79916 72224 | 138ft (42.07m) | 31.5m | 7.45m | May 2010 | |
| 9 | N53.23547 W3.80011 | N53.23520 W3.79886 | SH 79952 72448 | 145ft (44.21m) | 31.5m | 6.85m | May 2010 | Girth was measured at 1.5m from ground. |