Horticulture

Pictured above: looking across the heather collection

Horticulture pays a big part in making Perth a beautiful place to live, work and visit. Gardening, even on a small scale, makes a big difference to our local environment and quality of life. Go to the Do your own gardening section to see how you can help.

We do horticultural work in gardens, beds, pots and containers across Perth, using a combination of annual, sustainable and pollinator plants to create displays that are colourful and attractive for people and for wildlife. 

In Riverside Park, our volunteers work on a weekly basis planting, weeding, tidying and maintaining a number of areas. Access to the park is free and it is open every day of the year. Riverside Park includes lovely walks along the Tay stretching from Bridgend, through the Norie-Miller Walk and the Rodney Gardens to Bellwood Park and beyond. The Park forms part of a beautiful circular walk around the City, through the North and South Inches, along Tay Street and over the main bridges across the River. Beautiful Perth volunteers are working closely with Perth & Kinross Council on a major project of improvements to the Park. Pedestrians can access the Park from Queen's Bridge and from the Dundee Road; for vehicles there are nearby car parks with very reasonable parking charges. 

Heather Garden- we have created and maintain a unique, beautiful and extensive Heather Collection in the Bellwood area of Riverside Park. There are 15 heather beds surrounding the car park and flowing down to the banks of the Tay, containing over 16,000 heather plants from more than 400 varieties. The heathers provide colour all year round. You can read more about the collection in our leaflet and watch our video on YouTube. 

National Heather Collection
In 2022 we created a collection of the heather Erica carnea, and It was awarded National Collection status by Plant Heritage. Read more here. 

Rodney Gardens - we have 'adopted' several of the beds in Rodney Gardens, and work alongside the Council to maintain the Gardens. In 2016, thanks to a generous grant from the Gannochy Trust, we restored several of the beds in front of the Rodney Pavilion. Many of the long established herbaceous plants were dug out and taken to the Westbank Plant Nursery for splitting and growing. They were replanted in 2017 as closely as possible to the original 1990s plan. We continue to maintain the beds, with regular work sessions every year.

Compassionate Friends Garden - Beautiful Perth volunteers, with support from Perth & Kinross Council, have been working in partnership with Compassionate Friends, a charitable organisation of bereaved parents, siblings and grandparents, to create a contemplative garden within Riverside Park. In 2017 we planted a rowan tree together and the Compassionate Friends group installed a small marker stone at its foot. In 2018 the group again held its annual gathering in Perth and 40 of its members joined us in the garden for the unveiling of a new bench and a beautiful carved commemorative stone at the entrance to the garden. Our volunteers will continue to maintain the garden and we hope members of the Compassionate Friends group will visit in years to come to enjoy quiet contemplation, either as part of a group visit or as individuals.

Pictured below (from left): maintenance at Riverside Park car park; planting containers at Oakbank corner; Rodney Gardens; the Compassionate Friends Garden in Riverside Park.