Sefton Park Palm House is well known, not just for its Grade two listed architecture but for its botanical collection. If you've ever wanted to know more about the historic plants, the venue is giving the public the chance to meet the Palm House Gardener, Colin Hughes.
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00Sefton Park Palm House's Meet the Gardener tour is led by Colin Hughes, who's worked
00:06in the building for 30 years. Though he's camera shy in person, he has a wealth of knowledge
00:11and a passion for plants.
00:12He originally put these plants in over 30 years ago, but he has been gardening or in
00:17horticulture for about 40 years for the council. So he has a wealth of knowledge. He knows
00:23everything about everything within this building. He is the man that you need to talk to if
00:28you want to know anything about any of the plants.
00:30Colin has planted every plant in the Palm House except the 125-year-old palm tree, which
00:36miraculously survived a raging storm even when there were no glass panes in the Palm
00:41House to protect it.
00:42He talks about the plants, some of the history of the building, the outside as well as the
00:47inside because there's a lot going on outside as well as inside, the planting. And yeah,
00:52he does a talk for a couple of hours and you have a nice little drink at the end of it.
00:56But also you do a little Q&A with him as well, which is lovely because he gets to answer
01:00those personal questions that you might have about plants that you've got in your own garden
01:05or what you want to know about some things.
01:07Colin is one of only four skilled botanical gardeners in the city looking after the Liverpool
01:12Botanical Collection. Some of the plants growing here are part of that. One of the oldest in
01:18Britain, it was founded in 1802 by William Roscoe with the aim of furthering scientific
01:23knowledge and discovering plants that could benefit Britain's developing industries and
01:26population.
01:27I think it's magical personally when you come here, especially on these evenings when the
01:31light's gone, the sun has dipped, you might catch some of the sun dipping, which is beautiful
01:36coming through the windows.
01:38First opened to the public in 1896, people who'd never set foot outside of Liverpool
01:43could stroll under its glass domes and marvel at exotic plants from faraway lands.
01:48He's kind of out of sight a lot of the time, but really he's the heartbeat, I think, of
01:52the place and has been for many, many years.
01:55The next event with Colin will be held on the evening of Wednesday 20th November.