A warm Christmas welcome at Bodnant Garden

However you like to celebrate Christmas there’s something for all at Bodnant Garden; whether you’re after peace and tranquility, or food, fun and festivity, you’ll find it in our 80 acres. It all starts with a warm welcome from our Visitor Centre staff, who’re putting on their best Christmas pullies just for you…

Enjoy peaceful walks in a frost-sparkling landscape, bring the children to meet Santa and the elves, discover unique gifts at the shops and craft units and warm up with seasonal food – be that marshmallows over a brazier or a full Christmas lunch.

The star on our tree is the Winter Garden. This feature was opened five years ago after a major garden renovation and is now bursting with colour, texture and scent. As other gardens are going to sleep the Winter Garden springs into life; flowers, foliage and bark creating a real winter pick-me-up for the senses. A cold weather forecast is an added bonus – it looks even more beautiful with a dusting of frost and snow.

See our website for the Winter Garden Trail, which guides you around highlights of the this area and formal East Garden. It’s a short, level, accessible trail, which will suit all the family – perfect for a quick escape from the high street hurly-burly.

Take your ease over our Christmas menu in the tearooms, or combine lunch and a gardener guided walk on one of our special events. If you drop in at the Pavilion you can leave a memento of your hopes and dreams for for 2018 on our special Wish Tree…and pause to read some of the moving, and funny, wishes left by others.

Kids will love the popular Elves’ Workshop. Drop in at the Old Mill in the Dell and make Christmas crafts with our band of Bodnant elves, followed by toasted marshmallows by the roaring brazier outside. There’s hot food in our special marquee in The Dell at weekends too, where children can have a go at decorating Christmas cookies.

 

The National Trust Gift shop and our neighbours at Bodnant Garden Centre offer a huge range of Christmas ideas, from cards, decorations and gifts to plants, as well as Christmas trees and wreaths (you might even bump into Santa.) What’s more there’s a unique collection of local arts and crafts products at Bodnant Craft Centre, from jewellery, paintings, ceramics and furniture.

And of course there’s a big beautiful garden to explore; you can bring your dogs every day from November until the end of March too.

We’re open all year-round (apart from Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and Boxing Day). We hope you’ll join us – every visit helps us look after Bodnant Garden #ForeverForEveryone, so your support will certainly make our Christmas!

• Elves’ Workshops: November 25/26, December 2/3, December 8/9 and December 16/17 from 11am – 2.30pm (£3 drop-in event, booking not required)
• Santa’s Grotto: Pop along to our neighbours at Bodnant Garden Centre and see Father Christmas, on December 2/3, December 9/10, December 16/17 and 23rd from 11am – 2pm (£3 donation per child, proceeds to charity)
• Winter walk and tea: Wednesday, December 6 from 11am, a guided walk with a gardener followed by afternoon tea in the Pavilion (£19.95 per person, call to book)
• Birds of Bodnant Walk: Friday, December 8, 11am (free, please book)
• Winter walk and lunch: Wednesday, December 13, a guided walk with the head gardener at 11am followed by a two course Christmas lunch in the Pavilion (£25.95pp, call to book)
• Festive dessert tasting evening: Friday, December 15, sample puddings created by our chef in the Pavilion (£24.95 pp, call to book)

All details on our website www.nationaltrust.orh.uk/bodnant-garden

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A sweet treat from Bodnant Garden

 

As well as being the crème de la crème of the horticultural world, Bodnant Garden is branching out in a new culinary direction and opening our tearoom for seasonal evening dining experiences.

The first is a must for pudding lovers – a Dessert Tasting Evening on Friday, September 1, when diners can enjoy supper followed by six delicious sweets.

Assistant catering manager Pete Thomas (below), who has cooked up the idea, says: “This is an evening of pure indulgence for anyone with a sweet tooth – and a little taster of our new seasonal programme of food events to follow.”

Around 250,000 people visit the garden each year and for many of them the cooked breakfasts, morning coffees, hot lunches and afternoon teas served at our tearooms are as big a part of their day out as the beautiful floral displays.

As well as welcoming visitors into the Pavilion and Magnolia tearooms 362 days a year, catering staff serve al-fresco refreshments at kiosks in the outer reaches of the site. This year staff have even been pedalling an ice cream bicycle around the formal lawns, in their mission to keep visitors fed and watered.

Our catering team, tireless in their efforts to bring refreshment to visitors…

Special evening dining at the Pavilion tearoom will be yet another new venture for the garden’s dynamic catering team. Catering manager Ailsa Morris (right) says: “It’s been a great year for my team. Our next exciting challenge is the launch of seasonal dining evenings – and hopefully the pudding tasting is the perfect way to whet people’s appetites.”

A light supper will be served from 7.30pm (a choice of Roast Pepper, Tomato and Cheese Quiche with a Sweet Potato Crust or Warm Chicken Salad with a Honey & Mustard Dressing) followed by six surprise desserts. There will be a vote for the favourite pud, which will then get pride of place on the garden’s autumn menu, and as the icing on the cake diners will also get the chance to win Christmas dinner for four people at The Pavilion.

The cost will be: £24.95 per head and booking is essential as places are limited. Contact Ailsa Morris or Pete Thomas on 01492 651924 to reserve your place.

For more details about Bodnant Garden call 01492 650460, check out our website nationaltrust.org.uk/bodnant-garden or find us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram

 

Growing Bodnant Garden’s tearoom team

When naturalist Iolo Williams visited Bodnant Garden to open a new area our catering team provided the icing on the cake – with a gigantic celebration sponge.

VIP guest Iolo Williams helps Mark cut the Furnace celebration cake

Rachel and Julie creating THE CAKE

 

The 1mx1m baking masterpiece was created to mark the opening of Furnace Wood and Meadow. It was so big it nearly didn’t fit through the Pavilion cafe’s kitchen doors – but staff and volunteers managed to carry it down to the Old Mill in one piece where VIP guest Iolo served it out to hundreds of visitors.

It was one of the highlights of the big day on April 11. The stop to our tearooms is often a highlight of visitors’ day at Bodnant Garden – that pre or post coffee and cake, the leisurely lunch, the al fresco ice cream in summer and hot chocolate in winter, these are the treats which make a garden visit a memorable day out.

And with another garden highlight approaching, the flowering of the famous Laburnum Arch in June, we’re growing our catering team for the summer season.

Elain  takes the ice cream trike for a spin

We’re looking to recruit around ten staff from May to the end of October (both full time and part time hours available.) There will be an open day on Thursday, May 4, when anyone can drop by at the Pavilion tearoom, from 10am – 4pm, and chat to catering manager Ailsa Morris about working at Bodnant Garden.

Ailsa says: “There’s never a dull moment working here at Bodnant Garden! It’s a beautiful place to work, and you get to work with a great team of staff and volunteers.”

Our tearooms provide varied menus of Welsh produce (some of it comes from the garden) and are creative designing menus for events like Valentine’s and other special days. Based at our Pavilion and Magnolia tearooms, staff get to go out into the garden, serving at our kiosks in the Dell and Far End. We’ve also got a new ice cream trike in the upper garden – another opportunity to enjoy the garden and mingle.

Bodnant Garden property manager William and catering manager Ailsa with chef Jay Rayner

As well as looking after visitors on a daily basis there are events to cater for here at the garden – like cooking up lunch for staff and volunteer work groups or hosting school parties – and outside events too, such as exhibitions and shows. This last year the team have represented the National Trust at Countryfile Live event at Blenheim Palace and hosted BBC Radio 4 programme with celebrity chef Jay Rayner at the Pavilion tearoom.

If you’d like to be part of our team here at Bodnant Garden drop in anytime on our open day on Thursday, or call Ailsa on 01492 651924 for more information.

For more details about Bodnant Garden call 01492 650460, check out our website nationaltrust.org.uk/bodnant-garden or find us on Facebook, Twitter and Insta

 

 

Chill time with a warm Welsh welcome

For many of us a visit to a glorious garden wouldn’t be complete without the tea and cake, soup and a sandwich, or leisurely lunch. With 80 acres and a full day’s worth of garden to explore, the refreshment stop is as much a part of a visit to Bodnant Garden as the plants. To make that experience even more warm and welcoming, our Pavilion tearoom has recently undergone a makeover.

This spring catering manager Ailsa Morris (above) enlisted the help of tearoom staff, gardeners and volunteers in a grand resdesign. Volunteer Rhona Davies chose new wallpaper, paint and furnishings and gardener David Green came up with the potted plants for the tables. The whole team helped put it all together, creating a space which is light, bright, fresh and personal – to complement our menus of home cooked, Welsh produce.

Tearoom assistant Bronwen and volunteers Phylis and Dave potting table decorations

The Pavilion has seen many changes over the years. What started life as a humble log cabin in 1989 has grown into a busy hub, keeping pace with ever-rising visitor numbers. In that time the menu has expanded along with the restaurant area.

The Pavilion tearoom, then and now

We’ve listened to visitor comments about facilities and menus…not least in bringing back the much-loved cheese scones. They were temporarily taken off the menu last year to make way for other seasonal snacks but the outcry was so great that we put them back on the board, sharpish!

Our latest hi-tech innovation has been using the power of the sun to provide the hot water for all those cups of tea. Last autumn we installed 175 solar panels on the hillside of the car park, which now feed electricity to the cafe.

Enjoying a solar-powered cuppa, Gareth Jones from panel installers Carbon Zero, Bodnant general manager William Greenwood and Paul Southall, environmental advisor for the National Trust.

In 2016 the Pavilion received a Quality Café Accolade (modelled here by catering assistant Hollie). The award is given by Visit Wales to attractions which go the extra mile to create an enjoyable and memorable experience for their visitors. Proof (of the pudding) that our team is really cooking on gas…plus electricity and sunlight.

The great British garden tearoom is a place to relax, refuel and chat over what we’ve seen or plan what’s to come. Visitor comment cards tell us how much everyone values that sit-down time, whether it’s at the Pavilion restaurant, Magnolia tearoom, outdoor kiosks in the Dell and Far End and the picnic areas too. We hope you’ll enjoy the new look Pavilion – and the cheese scones!

For more details about Bodnant Garden call 01492 650460, check out our website nationaltrust.org.uk/bodnant-garden or catch up with us on Facebook  or Twitter.