Cool fernery Reopens

The Garden’s Cool Fernery has reopened. We are all very excited to be able to share this fully restored space with all of you. This glasshouse is the first to be fully repaired. The other glasshouses will reopen in summer 2023 as part of our 350th anniversary.

The Cool Fernery is a little bit different to our other glasshouses. The other glasshouses are made of teak. Teak is a hardwood. The Cool Fernery is made of softwood. We don’t know for certain but we think it is made of douglas fir. Softwoods have a shorter lifespan and need to be repaired more regularly. The Cool Fernery was last restored in the 1980’s. In this repair, we replaced rotten wood, broken glass and fixed damaged ironwork. We also repainted the fernery making it look brand new.

Lots of work has also been done inside the fernery. A new Wardian case has been built for our filmy ferns. A Wardian case makes sure that the plants inside stay very moist. This is important for filmy ferns because they are only one cell thick. This new case lets us keep them nice and damp. The whole fernery has also been replanted. We have moved all of the ferns back from storage and added some new species. Ferns are ancient plants. They have been on the earth for millions of years. This means that they have been evolving for a very long time. Ferns have adapted to lots of different environments. Our new planting will show how evolution has allowed ferns to grow in many places.