英国博德南花园 Bodnant Garden – 威尔士国家信托保护名园

花园概况

博德南花园（Bodnant Garden，威尔士语 Gardd Bodnant）位于英国威尔士北部康维郡（Conwy）Tal-y-Cafn 村，俯瞰康维河谷与卡内多山脉（Carneddau），距卡那封与兰迪德诺两座北威尔士古城均不足二十公里。整座花园坐落在斯诺多尼亚（Eryri）国家公园山麓，八十英亩（约三十二公顷）山坡由下而上分作上花园、下花园戴尔区（The Dell）以及新近开放的冬园与河畔远端（The Far End），海拔落差近两百米。博德南由维多利亚工业化学家亨利·戴维斯·波钦（Henry Davis Pochin）于 1874 年购得此地并聘约瑟夫·帕克斯顿的徒弟爱德华·米尔纳（Edward Milner）重新设计草坪与牧场，由此开启这片土地的园林化进程；波钦去世后由其女劳拉·麦克拉伦（Laura McLaren）与孙亨利·麦克拉伦（第二代阿伯康威男爵）接力建设意大利露台、运河磨坊与远途引种区；1949 年亨利·麦克拉伦将整座花园正式移交给英国国民信托（National Trust），使其成为继赫德科特（Hidcote）之后托管的第二座重要私家花园。2024 年园区共接待 27.4 万余名游客，目前由国民信托与麦克拉伦家族共同管理，由园丁长约翰·里平（John Rippin）主持园艺团队。

历史沿革

博德南的历史可追溯到 1792 年：当年建成的乔治亚风格博德南主厅（Bodnant Hall）由波钦购入后并未拆除，而是成为他与米尔纳展开造园的现成骨架。波钦夫妇的独生女劳拉是妇女选举权运动的重要人物，曾创立自由党妇女选举权联盟（Liberal Women’s Suffrage Union），她于 1901 年将花园托付给儿子亨利·麦克拉伦。亨利自 1905 至 1914 年主持了五座意大利露台的土方工程——没有机械，只靠人力将山坡削平并砌起花岗岩扶壁，让来自海外的娇嫩植物得以扎根；1938 年他将 1730 年格洛斯特郡一座工业建筑异地拆解、逐砖复原为运河露台尽端的松磨坊（Pin Mill），成为整座花园最具辨识度的标志。1949 年，亨利说服国民信托首次以”花园本身”为价值接纳产业，亲自将博德南移交托管；1952 年 8 月 18 日，英国文坛名流薇塔·萨克维尔-韦斯特与丈夫哈罗德·尼科尔森在亨利亲自导览下走访全园，尼科尔森当晚在日记中写道”戴尔区是我所见过最广阔、最丰富、最具品味的一片种植”，并称博德南”毫无疑问是我见过的最富饶的花园”。

花园格局与国家收藏

上花园由维多利亚式东园、玫瑰花圃与著名的紫藤拱道（Laburnum Arch）组成：这道拱道长约五十五米，是英国同类拱道中最长的一道，每年五六月间黄花绵延近三周，被视为威尔士最具标志性的春景。下花园以戴尔河谷为核心，分出针叶树 Pinetum、紫杉戴尔 Yew Dell、远端河畔区 The Far End，以及 2012 年以来陆续开放的冬园 Old Park Meadow 与 2017 年开放的 Furnace Wood and Meadow；目前在河谷上游的 Heather Hill 与 Cae Poeth Meadow 仍在继续扩建。整座花园共守护五项英国国家植物收藏（National Plant Collections）：木兰属（Magnolia）、智利火焰树（Embothrium coccineum）、亮叶冬青（Eucryphia）、福雷斯特杜鹃（Rhododendron forrestii）以及约三百五十种博德南杂交杜鹃（Bodnant Hybrid Rhododendrons）；另有二十二株”国家冠军树”（Champion Trees），以金钟柏、巨杉、日本伞松与日本扁柏为代表。整座花园被登录为威尔士 Cadw / ICOMOS 园林与历史景观特别兴趣登记册最高级 Grade I，是威尔士级别最高的园林遗产。

植物猎人与引种谱系

博德南的引种史与十九世纪末至二十世纪初的英国植物考察热密不可分。波钦与米尔纳早期在美国与亚洲针叶树之外，已经通过苗圃引进珙桐（Davidia involucrata var. vilmoriniana）、王百合（Lilium regale）等中国植物的种子；至爱德华时代，第二代阿伯康威男爵赞助欧内斯特·亨利·威尔逊（E. H. Wilson）深入中国西南，把大量木兰、山茶和杜鹃种子带回英国，山茶至今仍是博德南的早春主角。1917 年新成立的英国杜鹃学会在阿伯康威支持下，雇佣乔治·福雷斯特（George Forrest）前往中国滇藏带回福雷斯特杜鹃等新品种，并培育出博德南独有的杂交品系；二十世纪二三十年代弗兰克·金登-沃德（Frank Kingdon-Ward）多次前往喜马拉雅地区，引入了包括蓝罂粟（Meconopsis betonicifolia）在内的众多高山植物。1925 年，麦克拉伦家族联合其他业主组成”安第斯辛迪加”赞助哈罗德·科姆伯（Harold Frederick Comber）前往南美考察，由此奠定了智利火焰树与亮叶冬青这两项国家收藏的种源基础，部分科姆伯引种植物至今仍生长在紫藤拱道背风墙后。

建筑、保护与公众服务

博德南园内最具纪念意义的建筑是 1882 年波钦为悼念早夭子女而修建的新哥特式陵寝”诗篇”（The Poem）：陵寝由伦敦建筑师 W·J·格林设计，莱斯特雕刻家塞缪尔·巴菲尔德负责内部大理石雕饰，屋顶为带栏杆与八角塔的浅金字塔形石板瓦，下方红色大理石柱托起的拱门上方镌刻”诗篇”字样，整座建筑被登录为威尔士 Grade II 级保护建筑，2003 年第三代阿伯康威男爵下葬后再未启用。松磨坊与博德南主厅连同整片园地均归国民信托运营维护；信托方面同时管理戴尔区野餐、户外婚礼、假日小筑（Holiday Cottages）、园艺学校（园艺学校课程由园丁长主持）以及周边的博德南威尔士食品中心（Bodnant Welsh Food Centre）餐饮服务。2024 年花园获国民信托年报点名”威尔士最受欢迎的园艺目的地之一”，2026 年园区向公众全年开放，公众可经由 A55 公路自驾抵达，或在 Tal-y-Cafn 火车站下车步行约半英里即达。2018 年好莱坞电影《秘密花园》（The Secret Garden）部分镜头在博德南取景拍摄。

官网：https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/visit/wales/bodnant-garden

Overview

Bodnant Garden (Welsh: Gardd Bodnant) is a National Trust garden in Tal-y-Cafn, Conwy, North Wales, overlooking the Conwy valley towards the Carneddau mountains. Eighty acres of hillside include formal Italianate terraces, the famous Laburnum arch, shrub borders and the wooded Dell valley. The garden was founded in 1874 by the Victorian industrial chemist Henry Davis Pochin, who employed Edward Milner, apprentice of Joseph Paxton, to redesign the existing Georgian estate. It passed to his daughter Laura McLaren, Baroness Aberconway, and her son Henry McLaren, 2nd Baron Aberconway, who created the Italianate terraces between 1905 and 1914 and the Pin Mill in 1938. In 1949 Henry McLaren handed the garden to the National Trust, the second privately created garden to enter its care after Hidcote.

Historical Evolution

The Bodnant Hall dates from 1792; the surrounding farmland was bought in 1874 by Henry Davis Pochin, who with Edward Milner re-landscaped the hillside and the Dell valley along the lines set out by William Robinson in The Wild Garden. Pochin’s daughter Laura McLaren, a leading women’s suffrage campaigner, entrusted the garden to her son Henry in 1901. Henry oversaw the major earthworks of the five terraces, sponsored plant-hunting expeditions of E. H. Wilson, George Forrest, Frank Kingdon-Ward and Harold Comber, and persuaded the National Trust to accept gardens on their own merit. On 18 August 1952 Vita Sackville-West and Harold Nicolson were given a day-long conducted tour; Nicolson recorded in his diary that “the Dell is the most extensive, most varied and most tasteful piece of planting I have ever seen” and called Bodnant “the richest garden I have ever seen”.

Garden Layout and National Collections

The upper garden holds the Victorian East Garden, the Round Garden, the Parterre and the famous Laburnum Arch, the longest in the United Kingdom at roughly fifty-five metres, which flowers in May and June. The Dell valley below contains the Pinetum, the Yew Dell, the Far End riverside garden, the Winter Garden and the Old Park Meadow; Furnace Wood and Meadow opened in 2017, and Heather Hill and Cae Poeth Meadow are still being extended. The garden holds five National Plant Collections: Magnolia, Embothrium coccineum, Eucryphia, Rhododendron forrestii and around three hundred and fifty Bodnant Hybrid Rhododendrons, plus twenty-two Champion Trees. The whole property is registered at Grade I on the Cadw / ICOMOS Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales.

Plant Hunters and Introductions

Bodnant’s plant introduction is tied to the great British plant-hunting expeditions of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. E. H. Wilson brought back from western China the original handkerchief tree (Davidia involucrata var. vilmoriniana), magnolias and the regal lily (Lilium regale) that still grow on the rose terraces. George Forrest, employed by the Rhododendron Society with Lord Aberconway’s support, returned from Yunnan and Tibet with the seed of Rhododendron forrestii, the basis of the Bodnant hybrid rhododendron programme. Frank Kingdon-Ward’s Himalayan journeys introduced the blue poppy (Meconopsis betonicifolia). In 1925 the Andes Syndicate, headed by Lord Aberconway, sponsored Harold Comber’s South American expeditions, which gave Bodnant the seed of its Chilean fire tree and Eucryphia collections.

Buildings, Conservation and Visitor Services

The Poem, the McLaren family mausoleum, was built in 1882 in the Neo-Gothic style to a design by W. J. Green of London, with interior marble by the Leicester sculptor Samuel Barfield; it is listed at Grade II and last received a burial in 2003. The Pin Mill, originally a 1730 Gloucestershire industrial building, was dismantled and rebuilt brick by brick on the Canal Terrace in 1938. The garden is managed jointly by the National Trust and the McLaren family, with the head gardener John Rippin leading the horticultural team. Visitor facilities include guided walks, the Dell picnic area, holiday cottages and the Bodnant Welsh Food Centre. The garden was visited by over 274,000 people in 2024 and was used as a location for the 2020 film The Secret Garden.

Official Site: https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/visit/wales/bodnant-garden