Birmingham Botanical Gardens

If you are interested in trees then a good place to visit is the Birmingham Botanical Gardens, as they host a fabulous collection  not only of specimen trees but also the National Bonsai Collection too. It is a good place for bonsai inspiration as well and within the grounds we came across a group planting of Paper Bark Maples (Acer griseum) and you could observe close up the flaky orange bark which is a key characteristic of the species. This was great as we had been able to buy a bonsai version earlier in the day at the Bonsai Boot Sale which was organised by the Friends of the National Bonsai Collection.