Victoria's Palm Garden

Although VBG was badly damaged in the 1987 storm, all of Fortune’s palms survived. 

The Palm Garden, as updated by Curator Simon Goodenough and his wife Deb in the 1990’s, epitomises the classic Victorian image of a sub-tropical garden and looks distinctly different to its untamed neighbours in our Australian and New Zealand Gardens.

During the era of the Empire the importation of exotic plants carried on at pace. The owners of large estates vied with one another to create the most exotic looking gardens by means of bedding out these tender plants.

The use of colourful Agapanthus spp., Canna, Kniphofia, Hedychium spp., and Watsonia spp. in the Palm Garden beds echoes this practice.

Many foraged plants did not survive their journeys back to England, exposed to salt air and the hostile environment on the decks of sailing ships. 

The Wardian Case, invented by Dr Nathaniel Bagshaw Ward (1791–1868), a small glass case like a miniature greenhouse or large terrarium, protected plants on deck during their perilous sea journeys. New arrivals were grouped by family or genus in emerging botanic gardens fitting the paradigm of the day namely, the increasing reach of Empire and trade around the world.