Alnwick Poison Garden
Alnwick’s Poison Garden is a poisonous treat
Alnwick’s Poison Garden is in Northumberland in north-east England.
© Jiri Vondrous / Shutterstock.com
“You don’t have to die to get to paradise, as long as you have a garden.” Attention! This garden has it all.
Butterflies, colorful flowers, the hum of bees and a skull at the gate … Alnwick’s poison garden does not exactly correspond to the green spaces that one is used to from English landscape art. It’s always beautiful, but it also has killer potential.
A skull at the gate says it all
The Batman villain Poison Ivy, played by Uma Thurman (50, “Batman & Robin”) would feel right at home here. After all, its namesake, poison ivy, is just one of a hundred poisonous plants that creep through the “Poison Garden” of Alnwick. Not for nothing is the sign at the entrance: “These plants can kill.”
The garden’s founder, Duchess Jane Percy of Northumberland, believed that one should also focus on the deadly effects of plants and not just the beneficial ones. After all, mankind has always been interested in this aspect of flora: Just think of Socrates and the hemlock cup, for example.
Stroll? Yes, but only under supervision
You can of course only stroll leisurely and stroll around the facility under supervision or together with a guide. This not only serves the safety of the visitors, but also provides clarification at the same time. How poisonous is a plant? When is it fatal? What do I have to consider? All of these questions are answered in what is probably the most dangerous garden in the world.
And if you have had enough of deadly nightshade, thimble, laburnum and castor, just take a few steps further into the Alnwick rose garden with around 3,000 different species. It’s no longer dangerous there, apart from a few thorns maybe.