When i embarked on my horticultural career as a 15 year old trainee on the 2nd August 1982, i was privileged to work at Brighton parks and garden's flagship nursery, Stanmer nurseries.
Back "in the good ol' days", we grew plants for fun. There was around 20 large greenhouse and 10 staff so we had two houses each.
When i started, i was a trainee in the palm house....a massive greenhouse full of the most incredible exotic plants (this is where i get my love of exotics from). There was massive bourgainvillia growing in the roof, hibiscus all around the sidesm massive kentia and phoenix palms, fruiting bananas, oranges, passion fruits, coffee and cheese plants as well as a host of other stunning exotics, some of which i've never seen since.
But my first two houses i looked after where fuchsias and coleus. A green house full of standard fuchsias used both for bedding displays and for decorating civic functions at the town hall etc attended by some major dignatries. The coleus...all named varieties and grown from cutting for years were used for the latter.
here's a photo of the coleus
So onwards and upwards we went and i was soon given the opportunity to look after the cyclamen and other winter and spring pot plants such as calceolarias and cinerarias.
This was ok but my dream was still to look after the palm house. By now, the man who had looked after the palm house for the past 35 years had retired and it was going down hill. I made no secret to the boss of my desire to go in "the bin" as the palm house was affectionately known due to where all the odds and sods (some would say rubbish....but not me) would go.
In 1989, i finally got my chance and took it with both hands. The thought of working in a jungle surrounded by hanging baskets full of goldfish plants (columneas), lipstick vines (aechenanthus), mahogony trees, loads of epiphytic orchids, ferns and bromeliads, huge crotons and much much more was just beyond belief.
Here's one of the better pics i have of it...the rest were a little dark.
However, along with the palmhouse came the orangery, a victorian style semicircular leanto greenhouse which was full to the brim with fruiting naval oranges, seville oranges and satsumas.
There was also a pond to which i added a small fountain and some fish and this was overlooked but the most gorgeous statue of Nausica, the greek goddess of naughtiness.
The orangery was a lovely retreat as it was away from the main nursery surrounded by a beautiful pleasure garden planted up with some seriously nice 300 year old cedars.
Unfortunatly, the nursery closed in 1993 and i was shipped out cutting grass on a tractor
. The orangery is now in a complete state of disrepair and has been smashed to pieces by the yobs.
The palmhouse was re-glazed a few years ago and has been planted up by the college with hardier exotics.
The rest of the nursery is enjoying a bit of a revival. Although we no longer grow crops like coleus etc, there is a shop there which sells bedding, shrubs, herbaceous and all the other nice stuff and it's all grown on site. Bedding is also grown there for the parks and gardens.
Hope you enjoyed
. The orangery is now in a complete state of disrepair and has been smashed to pieces by the yobs.
