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The Rothschild Orchids by Francesca Murray

February 3 @ 2:30 pm - 4:00 pm

£5

Our speaker Francesca Murray presents the story of the Rothschild family’s passion for orchids at Gunnersbury, Tring Park and at Exbury.

The story begins at Gunnersbury (the first Rothschild garden in England) where Baroness Charlotte de Rothschild published a catalogue of her own rare orchids from around the world. Cultivating these strange exotics in the Gunnersbury glasshouses was highly experimental and devoted head gardeners shared their findings between the family estates. Nathaniel de Rothschild and his son – the famous zoologist Walter Rothschild – took up orchidology at Tring Park too. Leopold’s son, Lionel (1882-1942), developed his first garden at the age of 5, and took Gunnersbury orchids and rhododendrons with him to his new garden at Exbury, Hampshire, in 1919. There his experiments in the scientific field of orchid hybridisation had resulted in a fine collection of 28,000 plants by World War II.

This astonishing story provides a glimpse of how the Rothschilds’ investment in their gardens paid off for the benefit of the wider gardening community and is not to be missed!

Photo credit Rothschild Archive London

To book the event please use the link to Eventbrite below, ticket prices are £5.00 for members and £10.00 for non-members

Venue

The Village Hall, Woolmer Green
The Village Hall, Hall Lane, Woolmer Green SG3 6XA United Kingdom + Google Map