Press Release

Kew celebrates 250 years

Exotic orchids, wildflowers from across the world and stunning garden designs will see Kew Gardens bursting with colour for its 250th anniversary in 2009. A year long programme of events and activities will celebrate Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew’s (RBG Kew) pivotal role as a world-leader in plant science and conservation, now and for the next 250 years.

A dramatic Tropical Extravaganza will give an escape from chilly February. The Princess of Wales conservatory will be brimming with exotic plants such as orchids, Bromeliads and Anthuriums. The display, designed by Kew’s horticultural team, will also celebrate one of Britain’s greatest botanists, Charles Darwin, who studied orchids as an example of co-evolution. As well as 2009 being RBG Kew’s 250th anniversary, it is also the 200th  anniversary of Darwin's birth and the 150th of the publication of On the Origin of Species. RBG Kew’s Herbarium is home to specimens collected by Darwin during his voyage on HMS Beagle and Joseph Dalton Hooker, RBG Kew’s Director from 1865 to 1885, provided Darwin with the critical feedback he needed in his writings about natural selection.

UK native flowers will be celebrated in the Main Gate area with a display including magical British orchids and other wildflowers such as the reintroduction of a Thames Valley native – wild clary (Salvia verbenacea).  It will highlight to visitors the importance of plant conservation on our own doorstep and demonstrate the beauty of our native flora.  The native orchids will be grown in a similar habitat to that of the wild and will be the start of an exciting native orchid trail project for the future.

Kew’s much-loved spring celebration of over five million bulbs – the biggest display of seasonal spring colour in the country – will include an additional 13,000 bulbs as it returns for the birthday year. It will feature a stunning crocus carpet, delightful daffodils and snowdrops nestling in woodland.

Floral spectaculars in summer and autumn will add to the riot of celebratory colour in the Gardens throughout 2009. A stunning new garden design, reflecting RBG Kew’s international conservation work, welcoming you at the Main Gate will be just one of the fabulous horticultural highlights.

The Nash Conservatory will be home to an exhibition about Kew’s Millennium Seed Bank Partnership, one of the world’s most ambitious plant conservation projects. In RBG, Kew’s 250th anniversary year it will be gearing up to celebrate a significant milestone of its own  – smashing its target of collecting and banking seeds from 10 per cent of the world’s most vulnerable wild flowering plants species by 2010.

Family activities during the spring, summer and autumn holidays will feature in the celebratory calendar of events, so all ages can join in RBG, Kew’s birthday celebrations.

Until March, the newly opened The Shirley Sherwood Gallery will show ‘Hidden Trees’, an exhibition of historic and contemporary drawings paintings and prints of trees taken from both Dr Shirley Sherwood’s and RBG Kew’s extensive collections. This will include ‘Richmond Bridge’ by Lucien Pissaro, who strongly influenced Neo- and Post-Impressionist painters in England and was the eldest son of Camille Pissaro, the father of impressionism. Over the summer, it will mark RBG Kew’s anniversary with an exhibition looking at the role of botanical art in the future, as well as what it tells us about things learnt or lost, including species due to extinction, in the past.

From May to September, the International Garden Photographer of the Year will return to Kew following the success of its inaugural year. In recognition of the 250th celebrations, the special category for the 2009 Prize is World Botanic Gardens. Open to everyone, the Award brings together the very best amateur and professional garden photographers in an outdoor display.

Dave Yard, project manager for Kew said, “In our 250th year we will be pulling out all the stops to make the Gardens look even more spectacular than usual. We’re looking forward to sharing the glorious history of Kew and the important contribution we are making towards plant conservation with everyone who comes to visit.”

“Many millions of visitors from around the globe have enjoyed the Gardens to date and 2009 is going to be a bumper year.”

In autumn the Marianne North Gallery will re-open, unveiling its newly restored building and display of botanical and landscape paintings by the intrepid, globetrotting Victorian artist. Marianne North documented over 900 species in her own distinctive style, which is housed in this purpose-built gallery, constructed in 1882.

Wakehurst Place, home to Kew’s Millennium Seed Bank, will be marking the anniversary through its own programme of events. Set in the Sussex countryside it is a glorious place to visit throughout the year.

Ends

Further Information

There is a wealth of collections held at Kew that offer an opportunity to explore some of the lesser known aspects of RBG Kew’s rich history and heritage and its present day role.

Members of the media interested in a behind-the-scenes look at RBG Kew should contact Catherine Owen, Bronwyn Friedlander or Bryony Phillips, RBG Kew press office, telephone 020 8332 5607 or e-mail pr@kew.org

RBG Kew’s collections include:
The Illustrations, Library and Archives Collections
The collections of letters, books, maps, journals, manuscripts, photographs, botanical art and illustrations in the Library and Archives at RBG Kew are one of the premier sources for botanical information in the world.
For more information visit www.kew.org/library/about.html#colls

The Economic Botany Collection is a rich collection of more than over 83,000 plant based artefacts from around the world that illustrate the significant role plants have played in human culture and development. Medicines, clothing, weapons, jewellery, paper and musical instruments are just some of the items that feature.
For more information visit www.kew.org/collections/ecbot/

The preserved collection in the Herbarium is made up of more than seven million plant specimens from around the world. In addition to dried and pressed plants it also includes a Spirit Collection – 70,000 fleshy flower and fruit specimens preserved in fluid and stored in glass jars.

The Herbarium is also home to the personal collections of some of Britain's most celebrated historic scientists and explorers such as Charles Darwin, Joseph Hooker, David Livingstone, John Hanning Speke, Richard Spruce, Ernest 'Chinese' Wilson and Miles Joseph Berkeley.

For more information visit
Herbarium Collections http://www.kew.org/collections/herbcol.html
The Spirit Collection http://www.kew.org/collections/spiritcol.html

Founded in 1879, RBG Kew’s mycological collection in the Jodrell Laboratory is one of the most important reference collections of fungi in the world and mycologists (fungi scientists) at Kew have carried out pioneering research on fungi for over a century.

From Antarctica to the tropics, more than 800,000 fungi from every part of the globe are represented in the collection – and it continues to grow at a rate of three to four thousand specimens every year.

For more information visit http://www.kew.org/collections/fungi.html

Kew’s Millennium Seed Bank (MSB) is the largest wild plant seed bank in the world. Based at Wakehurst Place, in West Sussex, the MSB is home to more than a billion seeds, each with the potential to become a plant. By 2010, it will contain seeds from 30,000 (10%) of the world’s wild flowering plant species as an insurance policy against loss of these species in the wild. The seeds are stored in an underground vault at a temperature of minus 20C. To access the vault, visitors have to don a protective suit.

Kew’s Millennium Seed Bank has the capacity to store up to half the world's wild flowering plant species and already holds 96 per cent of the UK's flora. Species for collection and conservation are prioritised by Kew’s partners: all are endangered, rare or of potential economic value. Kew’s Millennium Seed Bank has been made possible with generous funding from the Millennium Commission, the Wellcome Trust and Orange plc and other donors; however, it has no secured funding beyond 2010.
For more information visit http://www.kew.org/msbp/index.htm

DNA Collection
RBG Kew’s DNA Bank contains over 31,500 samples of plant DNA material, representing more than 5000 families of plant species, all stored at -80°C. The DNA Bank is growing all the time all the time, with more than 4,500 samples added in 2007. DNA samples are sent to organisations involved in plant research all over the world.

Anatomical Slide Collection
RBG Kew also has an extensive reference collection of around 100,000 anatomical microscope slides of plant fragments including leaves, stems, roots and a high proportion of wood sections. The collection is often called on to help identify plant material for organisations such as the police, HM Revenue and Customs (identifying products made from endangered timber such as ramin), archaeologists, antique dealers, furniture restorers, hospitals and vets.
For more information visit www.kew.org/scihort/applanat.html

The Living Collection
Kew Gardens has the largest living plant collection in the world of 30,000 species.
The oldest glasshouse plant in the Gardens, a cycad, is found in the Palm House. Encephalartos altensteinii was introduced from South Africa in 1775.
For more information visit www.kew.org/collections/plants.html

International Garden Photographer of the Year
Building on the success of 2008, the Garden Photographer of the Year offers photographers the opportunity to win in excess of £20,000 cash and equipment as well as international exposure. The Award is open to all photographers who are invited to submit works within seven categories: Wildlife in the Garden; Plant Portraits; Garden Views; People in the Garden; the Edible Garden; Trees and World Botanic Gardens. There is also an award for the Young Garden Photographer of the Year for photographers under 16 years old. For more information visit www.igpoty.com

Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew

In 1759 Princess Augusta, mother of King George III, started an ambitious nine-acre garden around Kew Palace. Every generation has added to the charms and curiosities of Kew, now a major international visitor attraction with its 132 hectares of landscaped gardens attracting over one million visitors per year.  Kew is a UNESCO-inscribed World Heritage Site and houses over 40 listed buildings and other structures including the Palm House, Temperate House, Orangery and Pagoda as well as two ancient monuments, Queen Charlotte's Cottage and Kew Palace.  RBG, Kew is a world famous scientific organisation, internationally respected for its outstanding living collection of plants and world-class herbarium as well as its scientific expertise in plant diversity, conservation and sustainable development in the UK and around the world.

For more information visit www.kew.org

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