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Sunday 10 March 2019

In the glasshouse


A Bird of Paradise plant, Strelitzia reginae. You can see how they got their name! 


The extensive glasshouses at Cliffe Castle were rebuilt as part of the recent renovations, and follow a similar plan to the original Victorian ones. It was fashionable for well-to-do Victorian gentry to have glasshouses on their estates for growing exotic plants and fruit, and the Butterfields' were more vast and ostentatious than most. The planting now is lush and exotic and there is a whole shed full of cacti and succulents, which look extremely well cared for. I'm not a huge fan of them but, looking at those on display, I was actually fascinated by the many different shapes, sizes and intricate structures. I began to understand their appeal to collectors.



4 comments:

  1. I used to have a lot of cacti when I was younger. My favourites were the night-flowering varieties which produce a huge, highly scented flower which just exists for one or two nights. We used to sit around in the evening and just watch them open!

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  2. As house plants, cacti and succulents do tend to just sit there and gather dust. But they're great photographic subjects. And their occasional blooms can be spectacular.

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  3. Cacti are about the only plants that won't die under my care.

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  4. I recognize all those plants, we have them here too. I particularly like the cacti, they are so different and easy to grow.

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