Plant Gardens 101

The Great Conservatory at Syon House is not far from the Orangery at Hampton Court Palace that I wrote about yesterday. So if you are visiting one it is worth travelling an extra few miles to visit the other.

Syon House belongs to the Duke of Northumberland and is his family’s London residence.

Set within 200 acres of parkland designed by Lancelot ‘Capability’ Brown from the 1750s to 1770s, there are 40 acres of formal gardens, an ornamental lake and a collection of 200 species of rare trees. It is registered as a Grade 1 landscape in the English Heritage Register of Parks and Gardens of Historic Importance in England. (more…)

Conservatory design and orangery design are often influenced by historic architecture, as are the gardens around them. The Lower Orangery Garden at Hampton Court Palace has recently been reopened after extensive restoration based on twenty years of research.

To restore the gardens to their 17th century splendour, the Gardens and Estates team and curators at Hampton Court Palace went through old account ledgers to see what plants had been purchased at the time, plant lists, maps, other documents and undertook archaeological digs to confirm the exact lay out of the garden. (more…)