Ness Botanic Gardens are situated near the English and Welsh Border in Cheshire, near to the city of Chester . They occupy a site of 64 acres overlooking the Dee estuary. The Gardens have evolved since Arthur Kilpin Bulley (1861-1942), a wealthy cotton trader from Liverpool, who funded many garden hunters including George Forrest and Frank Kingdon-Ward. Arthur began to create the garden in 1898. In 1948 his daughter Lois gave the Gardens upon a conditional Trust to the University of Liverpool. As a condition of the Trust, the Gardens must remain open to the public. They are on the National Register of Historic Parks and Gardens and are graded II.