Arthur Bulley

Arthur Kilpin Bulley (10 January 1861 – 3 May 1942) was a British cotton merchant and creator of the Ness Botanic Gardens. He stood for Parliament as a women's suffrage candidate in 1910. He was born in New Brighton, Cheshire, in 1861.

He married Harriet Agnes Whishaw in 1890. They were both committed teetotallers and politically active. They had two children together, Agnes Lois Bulley (1901–1995) and Alfred Whishaw Bulley (born 1905). Bulley commissioned plant collectors and botanists such as George Forrest, Augustine Henry, and Frank Kingdon-Ward to obtain plants from countries including South America, China, and Africa to place in his gardens. In 1903 Bulley opened a nursery, Bees Nursery (later Bees Ltd), at Ness where he sold plants grown from seeds originating in Europe and Asia. He stood unsuccessfully for Liverpool City Council several times, first as a Socialist Party of Great Britain candidate then as a Labour Party candidate.

Bulley campaigned in 1921 to open an Alpine garden on Snowdon, receiving criticism from those concerned about introducing foreign plants to the mountain, leading to his abandonment of the plan soon after.