An Absolute Passion: Rothschild Orchid Collections
Friends of Gunnersbury Park and Museum present talk by Francesca Murray
Alfred de Rothschild, in front of Large Mansion at Gunnersbury Park c1910. Picture: Rothschild Archive
A free virtual talk on the Rothschild family’s passion for orchids has been arranged by the Friends of Gunnersbury Park and Museum.
Entitled ‘An Absolute Passion: Rothschild Orchid Collections’ it will be given by Francesca Murray, it takes place on Thursday 20 May at 6.30pm
The speaker has researched the Rothschild family’s passion for orchids at Gunnersbury, at Tring Park and at Exbury. The Rothschilds loved their gardens and many generations indulged in the fashionable pastime of amassing collections of different plant species.
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. Charlotte’s son, Leopold, presented George V with Gunnersbury orchids in a specially designed Fabergé vase for his Coronation. Leopold’s son, Lionel (1884-1942), 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 2.
This story provides a glimpse of how the Rothschilds’ investment in their Gunnersbury gardens paid off for the benefit of the wider gardening community.
Tickets for the event are free and can be booked by clicking here.
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