Scottish Rock Garden Club Forum
General Subjects => Travel / Places to Visit => Topic started by: johnralphcarpenter on April 18, 2017, 07:21:26 PM
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Chester Zoo hold the Plant Heritage National Collection of Nepenthes, and on 12th April I took advantage of Virgin Trains 20th Anniversary sale to secure a cheap day return from London to Chester, only a two hour journey on the high speed Voyager trains. The Zoo is a short bus ride outside the city. The glasshouses are not normally open to the public but can be visited by appointment, something which I had arranged well in advance. In addition to the Nepenthes they have collections of other carnivorous plants and of orchids. I was warmly welcomed by the horticulturists and spent a pleasant hour browsing around the glasshouses. Here are some photographs.
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Finally
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A somewhat unexpected venue for that collection!
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I don't know, they have lots of carnivores!
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John, thanks for sharing the photos. I think the unlabelled Nepenthes in the last set of images is N. ampullaria. I've always found the tropical pitchers otherworldly... enough to have bought a young one while visiting the Montreal Botanical Garden earlier this month. I will share a photo of Nepenthes x Miranda when the first pitcher starts to open.
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They also have a very large cactus collection and National Collections of some Cactus genera. The team member responsible is a regular contributor to the BCSS forum. I keep meaning to visit.