BANGOR University students went back to nature to raise funds for a botanical garden which celebrates its 50th anniversary this month.
Members of Students for Treborth Gardens posed for a nude calendar to raise money for Treborth Botanical gardens.
Organiser Louise Hackett said: “There are a lot of volunteers who work hard to keep the garden going and we wanted to do something that stands out, because it’s an amazing place to learn and socialise.”
Louise, a Bangor graduate who now lives in Birmingham, said that there were plenty of offers from people ready to pose for the calendar.
“I was expecting to have to force a few people into it, but in end I was turning people away,”she said. “we shot all the pictures over a weekend and everyone had a lot of fun.”
The site was opened as a pleasure garden in 1845, but Bangor University bought the patch of woodland and grassland by the Menai Straits in January 1960.
It is now a centre of special scientific interest and home to a number of native species of plants and flowers for scientific study and public viewing.
The garden’s curator Nigel Brown wrote a foreword for the calendar and was delighted the students had decided to help.
“The calendar is an excellent and imaginative way to support the garden in its 50th year,” he said. “I don’t know of any other botanical garden supported in this way - only students could come up with something like this.”
A programme of events is planned between June 6 and 13 to celebrate the anniversary, including the annual Botannical Beats concert, a biodiversity event and a performance of A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
The calendar is available from The Botanical Gardens, Bangor Students Union and the Blue Sky Cafe in Bangor.