Restoring the Palm House

George the Third was a generous fellow, we can see this in his donating a spare royal dwelling and its grounds to the nation. But he was more than that. He took a keen interest in plants, horticulture and farming to such an extent that he was known to his subjects as Farmer George. The house and grounds had been acquired by his predecessor, George the Second, as a. pleasant home for the royal princesses, situated as it was on a bend in the Thames. George the Third made a fortuitous gift because the grounds were adopted as a royal garden, later to become a botanical garden and as this was a time when science was flourishing kew became a place dedicated to botany..

This age  was a time when exotic flora were being introduced to Britain, and as many of these plants were exotics at home in the tropics the problem of keeping them alive raised its head. The idea of heated houses was mooted. Some of the early glasshouses were orangeries, for cultivating citrus and pineapple beds were tested at many private estate gadens. Kew was not the first place to have a glasshouse, for there was a coal heated one in Belfast. But it was an early type and Kew was more ambitious. Kew decided that they would erect a massive palm house made of glass and cast iron. The palm house would be able to grow trees that would reach their natural size. It was the pride of the horticultural world. Over the years the palm house has undergone some refurbishment but now there is a major five year long refurbishment. This will renew the.structure and render the house fit for another couple of centuries.

I hope that if I reach two hundred I am in such good condition. Wishful thinking I am afraid. The building is showing signs of wear and tear. Some trees have reached the point where they are taller than the building and have to be pruned. Many of these trees will not tolerate a transplant, as they are not amenable to transplanting. The glass is still in good condition, but modern glass is better than older kinds of glass at  enclosing heat. Modern heating systems are more effective at using energy than the older systems are.  Kew scrapped the Victorian coal fired heating system years ago,but now there is scope for more improvement. Furthermore, the moist, hot atmosphere of the palm house is not good for the Victorian ironwork, which is showing signs of corrosion. 

Small scale repairs were deemed ineffective. Kew needed a repair that would last another two hundred years at least. A major project was required, and there was no time to waste.

Kew is fortunate enough to have its own highly qualified staff, all of whom possess the Kew Diploma, an advanced horticultural qualification. Entry to this qualification is by a very demanding interview and prospects for those possessing it are high. Thus the staff already had the skills required to do the job. They were ready to start.

First came the clearing of plants. Some plants are grown in large containers, and these are movable. Some of the plants to be saved will be moved to a  glasshouse in the grounds, where they will be grown on. This involved some heavy work using tractors and low loaders. But it remained within the skill range of all the gardening team. But the larger trees needed to be felled in certain cases. This may seem extreme and to a lay person cruelty to valued trees. But it is not. There are various methods of propagating a large tree, notably used by foresters. One of these is taking cuttings,which involves taking a sliver from a good tree and  growing from it. This is a straightf0rward task wel within the skill set of trained nursery workers. But it helps to have a propagation site working by the time that the tree has been thus  treated.  But independently of this process of what is known as vegetative propagation, it might be possible to collect seeds  from the trees to be felled and grow them on by seed based methods. But again the seedlings will have to be treated carefully.

While the Palm House is out of action, indeed its site will not have an erected building upon it much will remain to be done. The new glasshouse will have to be erected. This involves taking out thousands of panes of older glass, some of which go back to the victorian age. The whole structure will have to come down. A little appreciated part of the job will be to design each pane of glass to fit exactly into its allotted place,not an easy task when you are dealing with curved panes. Consultants will have been hired. The fitting of the panes in the construction processes involved giving a serial number to each pane of glass to ensure that it fitted into its space. To do this the constructors will have to use builders chosen from teams of climbers who where necessary will abseil down the glass dome to fit the panes into their place.

Attention to the heating system will  have to be paid because some of the plants in the Palm House are very sensitive to the climate in which they are grown.  Part of the design will be the provision of water. This is a complicated subject in the modern age, as climate change involves rethinking water supplies. The South East of Britain is predicted by climatologists to be liable to drought, and this places Kew in a dry region. Rainwater capture will have to be intensified and linked to systems of water storage.  This design may be an ongoing process ever open to new ideas.

Scope for wild life must be factored into the project, for modern thinking rejects the neglect of our fellow inhabitants  of the planet. 

Several years of hard work by skilled people lie in wait for the staff. I look forward in the hope of seeing the finished product.

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