Wild Exbury: Nature-friendly focus for visitors at New Forest’s Exbury Gardens in 2020
New Dragonfly Pond learning zone & Dragonfly Halt steam railway stop
Wild Exbury theme with nature-based activities for visitors
New garden attractions include a Birch Walk & revamped Iris Garden
Exbury Gardens in the New Forest will be encouraging visitors of all ages to learn more about the natural world this year with a programme of wildlife-themed activities, and a new Dragonfly Pond education area and steam railway stop.
Building on the success of its 2019 centenary, the 200-acre woodland garden will be running a Wild Exbury programme of events when it opens for the season on 14 March until 1 November 2020. Visitors will get the chance to track wildlife around Exbury, learn bushcraft skills, pond dip, and identify rare plants and trees, as well as native wildflowers.
A Dragonfly Pond learning zone, with floating pontoons for visitors to walk on so they can get close to the wildlife action, will be unveiled. Designed with the help of the UK’s leading dragonfly experts*, this area will boast interpretation boards filled with dragonfly facts and take-away tips on how you can encourage these wonderful creatures into your own back garden. An existing, large ornamental pond in the gardens has been adapted for the insects with dragonfly-friendly, native aquatic and marginal plants.
Dragonflies are crucial bio-indictors of the health of the UK’s rivers, canals and ponds, but modern-day development, drainage and climate change have meant their numbers have fallen dramatically. By creating a dragonfly education space, Exbury Gardens hopes to boost awareness of their plight and inspire visitors to help protect them. Exbury’s Dragonfly Pond area will also include an outdoor shelter which will act as a classroom for local groups and school children. The zone will be open to visitors from late spring.
And steam railway buffs will be chuffed as Exbury’s famous Rhododendron Line steam railway will now be able to stop at the Dragonfly Halt platform, so visitors can easily disembark to explore the new pond area.
Other developments at Exbury in 2020 include a new Birch Walk leading down to Jubilee Pond, and a refurbished Iris Garden containing hundreds of stunning new iris plants, and tree ferns.
Thomas Clarke, head gardener at Exbury, said: “The gardens at Exbury are rightly famous for their unique plant collections but they also offer visitors a wonderful opportunity to get closer to nature. We have 200 acres of incredible woodland gardens, wildflower meadows and ponds to explore, plus lots of wildlife to spy.”
Created by Lionel de Rothschild in 1919, a passionate collector of plants and a keen supporter and sponsor of the early 20th century plant hunters, Exbury has grown to become a stunning garden paradise filled with rare plants, shrubs and trees. Its Centenary Garden, designed by Lionel’s great grand-daughter and RHS gold medal award-winning designer, Marie-Louise Agius, opened to the public last year, as did the River of Gold, around 150,000 mainly yellow spring bulbs planted in the lawns, weaving around rare trees near Exbury House, to give a colour burst.
Exbury is most famous for its unrivalled collection of rhododendrons, camellias and azaleas. Thousands of rhododendrons have been planted over the years and well over 1,000 hybrids have been raised by three generations of the Rothschild family.
ENDS
For further information or images, contact PR Emma Mason on 07762 117433 emma@emmamasonpr.co.uk or Celise Galloway on 023 8024 5754 celise.galloway@exbury.co.uk
Notes for Editors:
Exbury Gardens, located in the New Forest near Southampton, is open daily from 14 March 2020 until 1 November 2020 10am – 5.30pm. Full information at www.exbury.co.uk Thanks to its unrivalled collection of rhododendrons, azaleas and camellias, Exbury Gardens is famed for its riot of spring colour, as well as a vast array of beautiful, mature rare trees. Over recent years the Hampshire garden has been expanded for all-season interest with areas designed to show off summer and autumn ‘flower power’, as well as an extension of its 1 ½-mile Rhododendron Line steam railway.
* Ruary Mackenzie Dodds and his wife Kari de Koenigswarter are leading dragonfly experts. Ruary is a Dragonfly Ambassador for the British Dragonfly Society, having opened Europe’s first public Dragonfly Sanctuary, published two books on the species and appeared on BBC Springwatch. Kari co-wrote The Dragonfly-Friendly Gardener with Ruary, and compiled the British Dragonfly’s Information Pack for Schools. She has also run courses on identifying dragonflies. The couple spend part of the year raising the importance of dragonflies as bio-indicators in New Zealand.