News from the gardening world
Thousands of exotic plants being rehoused in Grade I listed glasshouse
Over 10,000 plants, including large palm trees, are being repositioned in Kew Gardens’ newly refurbished Temperate House. The gigantic 4,880m2 (5,836 sq yd) Grade I listed structure closed to the public in summer 2013 to facilitate a £41 million refit. With work nearing completion, plants, stored or re-propagated in seven of the gardens’ nurseries, are now being moved back in.
Six palms and three cycads were just too large to move, so each was wrapped and caged with its own heating system to keep them frost free. Huge, heavy, potted specimens such as a 8m (26ft) pink trumpet tree, Handroanthus impetiginosus, from central America, and two 3m (10ft) tall Chilean wine palm, Jubaea
chilensis, are being returned, requiring use of forklift trucks and hydraulic machinery.
“With all the equipment we’re using it makes it look a little bit like Thunderbirds at the moment!” said Temperate House supervisor Scott Taylor. “We have to take great care. Tall plants are laid at an angle to get them through the door, like the rare and precious, 200 year-old cycad, Encephalartos woodii, from South Africa.”
The new facilities will also give staff better control of climate and growing conditions. Cleaned glass means better light transmission, new boilers and a trench along the house improved heat distribution and restored vents better air circulation.
More than 1,300m3 (1,700 yd3) of compost, laid over a standard sub-base and topdressed according to geographic location, has been blended to meet the various needs of plants coming from arid plains to humid forests, and watered with harvested rainwater. In case of drought, a reverse osmosis irrigation system that strips out unwanted and toxic minerals, tops up the supply.
“We hope to have over 1,500 plant species on display, with visitors experiencing improved interpretation and information,” said Scott. l The glasshouse is projected to re-open on May 5, 2018.