Visiting Beautiful Ventnor Botanic Garden

In June we spent some time in the beautiful Isle of Wight. This was a much needed break. However like many of us who work for ourselves, we never really stop working. If you read the piece in the Lancashire Life about us, much of our artwork comes from the area where we live in Lancashire, but occasionally something catches our eye elsewhere.

Over the years Isle of wight has been a holiday destination for us, but one we haven’t visited for a few quite awhile. Its sunny climate and the trip across the water, adds to the atmosphere of getting away from it all and that holiday feel. A lovely island, parts still trapped in the Victorian era and maybe pockets in need of a little TLC, but WOW, what a beautiful part of the UK. There is so much to do there and something for everyone. We could write a full article on the island itself, but this is about Ventnor Botanical Gardens.

The Gardens are without doubt beautiful, and they have a unique climate, said to be warmer that other areas in the UK, its warmer than our area, that’s for sure. With 22 acres to explore, laid out in geographical areas, you can use their map and make your way through the garden to your favourite parts with ease. If we lived down there, we would take a yearly pass, as it was, a day ticket was purchased, allowing us to return within a week, receipts had to be signed at the time of ticket purchase. The car parking is included with admission, number plates have to be registered, which really helps to keep costs down and provide easy access.

There is also a delightful Cafe, a very nice gift shop, and we found all the staff within Ventnor to be charming. Dogs are allowed and there is a wheelchair accessible route, so all the family are welcome. Details can be found here https://www.botanic.co.uk/

We are stopping there, as this is in danger of this becoming a travel blog, but we had a great time and returned a few days later in view of doing some sketching. Alright we were kidding ourselves, but we did a few quick line sketches and a couple of quick miniature paintings, whilst we sat enjoying the day. With a young dog in tow, being artistic has to come in small snatches, she can never sit still for long. Well not unless we have a rucksack of treats and toys to distract. Her highlight of the day, being a dog who loves every living thing, was the frequent sightings of lizards scurrying out of our way as we strolled through the various gardens. To be fair it was one of ours too, they were a delight to see, though too quick for photos.

We hope this inspires all you plant and nature lovers to drop in to Ventnor, we have visited many gardens over the years this has to be our favourite and in June we found it very peaceful. Yes there were a number of visitors but its big enough to lose yourself within and the beautiful Angels Trumpet in our quick miniature painting, may appear on our stationery in future.