Firmly linked with the University of Leicester, the botanical gardens were founded in 1921. When they were completed in 1925, the Gardens comprised a woodland garden which was designed to display the typical flora of the Charnwood Forest, sections devoted to medicinal plants, culinary herbs and dye plants, a rock and water garden, British order beds, an experimental area planted with various grasses on different soils, and a general planting of interesting specimens.
The Botanic Garden can be found right next to Leicester Racecourse on the edge of Oadby. It contains 16 acres of lovingly cultivated gardens around the four Edwardian Houses on the site. The grounds and greenhouses display a wide variety of features and environments with everything from an arboretum, a herb garden, woodland and herbaceous borders, rock gardens, a water garden, special collections of Skimmia, Aubrieta, and hardy Fuchsia, and a series of glasshouses displaying temperate and tropical plants, alpines and succulents. The collections of plants are all intended to underpin scientific research and teaching at the University.
