Bringing the LEGO Ideas Botanical Garden to a Real Garden
/I’m no stranger to LEGO gardens, so I was very excited to get an early chance to build the latest release in the LEGO Ideas theme: 215353 The Botanical Garden.
Yours truly in the truly beautiful Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh
As a long-time builder of LEGO gardens, I really appreciate the plethora of plant and foliage pieces that we now get. The recolours that have been introduced by the Botanical Collection theme are fantastic. This set gives us not only a really useful element recolour, but also new moulds for both plants and glazing elements.
Our friends over at New Elementary have already brilliantly covered the four new moulds this set boasts – the most ever in an Ideas set I believe – so I won’t go into too much detail, but they all give us new options which is always welcome.
New Moulds
Tulips
In both yellow and bright pink.
These are really well executed and have a surprising number of connections points. They come on a bar, which is a great start. In addition, the bar has a pinhole in its base, the same as the 2-long-bar-with-stop-ring (78258), and an equivalent pinhole in the top too.
They are extremely versatile for their diminutive size.
Peony Roses
Part 5904, in a fabulously generous five colours: red, bright light orange, dark pink, medium lavender and green.
These beauties have such a useful diameter of between 1 and 2 studs, allowing us to have full and luscious double roses or peonies as the BrickLink name suggests. New Elementary has described some of its connection points and features already in their review of Wednesday & Enid’s Dorm Room (76781).
They are going to be incredibly helpful to LEGO gardeners and beyond.
The other element you cannot fail to notice are the new trans-clear elements: Panel 5 x 5 x 3⅓ Curved Top Corner in Trans-Clear, of which we get an amazing 12! These match up with the Panel 6 x 5 x 3 Curved Top (5065) released earlier this year. What I loved about both these elements is that they have studs and anti-studs on the ‘top’ and anti-studs on the ‘bottom’ of the pieces. In previous large trans-clear elements, the anti-studs were missing and for me that limited their use in MOCs.
Re-colours and New Prints
For someone who always looks at pieces with a view to putting them in a LEGO garden, I admit the potential of the banana peel element (5215) completely passed me by, but oh my lord I am happy that they are now available in green – so much so that I am reworking a plant in my current garden MOC to use them.
Such a brilliant piece to add to the plant repertoire!
We are also treated to a new printed 1x1 round tile. A four-leaf clover in bright-green.
It is only the 4th bright green printed round tile to be released.
On The Road Again…
Now that we’ve looked at the set, it is time to travel to a few actual botanical gardens. I was lucky enough to travel to Vienna, Austria for work recently. RyanAir’s luggage allowance is, umm, restrictive, so while I couldn’t take the whole set with me, there was space for a few minifigs from the set to join me. And why was it important for these garden-related minfigs to come? To visit The Palmenhouse of course!
This beautiful building now houses the eponymous Palmenhaus Restaurant and also the Vienna Butterfly House. The figs thought the sand green windows and tan/white pillars were such a good match for the set, and they really enjoyed the splendor and scale of the building. I loved the steampunk vibes from the arched end and the verdant life in the butterfly house.
The Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh’s Glasshouses
Back at home, there is a cause close to my heart, and this love letter to palm houses wouldn’t be complete without it. The absolutely beautiful, world-renowned and free-to-all Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh is just down the road and is home to a series of amazing glasshouses. They are currently undergoing a major restoration project, but they very kindly agreed to grant us access to a very-restricted part of the site to pay homage to the Temperate Palm House.
This iconic symbol of Edinburgh was built in 1885 and is, quite rightfully, having some much-needed tender-loving-care to ensure it is fit to survive into the future.
What better LEGO parallel is there than taking apart a 170-year-old building, refurbishing/repairing it and updating it, and then putting it all back together again? The instruction booklet for the 5,000 pieces of glazing alone is going to be super long!
There are loads of videos being shared as the project progresses; I thought this one was about refurbishing/ repairing, and where necessary replacing the steel, was brilliant; and the plan they show towards the end, for where all the pieces go reminded me of the somewhat sweeping steps the instructions in some older sets gave us.
At the moment, the whole area is a fenced-off full construction zone. So, fully kitted out in our PPE (Personal Protective Equipment) – it’s remarkable what a does-LEGO-for-a-living person has in their wardrobe! – we headed into the land of scaffolding, mud and plastic sheeting.
One of the construction company project managers very kindly took the time to show us around along with our RBGE guide and let us take some photos.
Several of the crew working that day came over for a nosy. It was heart-warming to see these guys really interested in the detail and wanting to know all about it – a real testament to LEGO’s ability to appeal to all.
Anyone interested can follow the project here. And if you’re so inclined to do so any donations to help restore the Palm Houses would be most welcome (all donations are being match funded) and can be made by hopping over to the ‘Save the Palm Houses Appeal’ page.
I’m so grateful to the Garden for letting us in and being open to our idea.
In Closing
The set was designed by Italy-based LEGO fan Valentina Bima, and I believe that the tour guide minifig is her persona within the set.
I particularly loved the tongue-in-cheekiness of the tour guide’s spiel in LEGO’s set announcement video on facebook:
‘The glass house was built in 2024.’
‘It took using 3,791 elements to make the entire building.’
‘We’re rebuilding, please don’t use the observation deck!’
Talking about her design, Valentina said, “I’ve been a fan of LEGO since I was a child, and wanted to create a design that combined my love for botanical gardens and my favourite element - all transparent elements. The elements of this colour allow you to break down the external-internal border; the transparent elements allow you to build buildings, vehicles, spaceships or anything you can imagine with a pleasant and captivating external shape, allowing you to see the internal details and the LEGO minifigures”.
I hope she is happy with LEGO’s take on her fan design. Overall, I think this is a really lovely set and I enjoyed putting it all together. I was, of course, under scrutiny from my supervisors the whole time!
One added observation. I am always struck by the finesse of Chris McVeigh’s models. The studs to studless ratio and density of planting is something I struggle with in my garden MOCs, and for me, the flowerbeds inside the palm house are a masterclass in how it should be done.
Obviously, your mileage may vary, but I am definitely taking lessons and design cues going forward!
There is also a set-specific gift with purchase, 5009005 Entrance Gate, available for the next few days until Nov. 7th while supplies last. It features several of the new flower moulds.
DISCLAIMER: This set was provided to BrickNerd by The LEGO Group. Any opinions expressed in this article are those of the author.
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