Lymington dot com - Historic diamond lily collection blooms early at Exbury

Home Merchandise THE Local Directory! Live WEBCAMS Shops Charity of the Month! Images of Lymington Local Information Business Resources Things To Do Weather Map of the Area Eating Out Accommodation Health & Beauty Marine Property Jobs Motor

You are here: Magazine › Community News › Historic diamond lily collection blooms early at Exbury

Historic diamond lily collection blooms early at Exbury

Exbury Garden’s unrivalled collection of sparkling ‘diamond lilies’ have burst into bloom early this year and will be on full public show from this Saturday (September 22) until early November.

“The Indian Summer we are enjoying has brought unprecedented September colour to the whole of Exbury and has forced our collection of Nerines, or ‘diamond lilies’ into early bloom,” said Nicholas de Rothschild, whose family owns the 200 acre woodland Gardens in the New Forest. “The unusual weather patterns mean many plants are blooming early, or out of their usual season,” he said.

The colourful plants are displayed in Exbury’s Five Arrows Gallery, lit to show their glittering colours to best advantage.

The Exbury/Vico diamond lilies, or Nerine sarniensis, have been developed over 80 years, collected and bred by Lionel de Rothschild in the 1920s and ’30s before passing in 1974 to plantsman and enthusiast Sir Peter Smithers, one-time MP for Winchester and then secretary-general of the EU in Strasbourg.

Sir Peter, who sadly died last year, selected only the best and most beautiful diamond lilies for his breeding programme, holding annual ‘beauty competitions’ on the balcony of his house, Vico Morcote, overlooking Lake Lugarno in Switzerland.

Twelve years ago, in 1995, the vastly improved collection came back home to Exbury, where Nicholas de Rothschild, Lionel’s grandson, took up the challenge of developing the strain, until a glasshouse at Exbury was filled with new hybrids that he has produced.

Nicholas, president of the Nerine Society, and an expert on nerines in his own right, has taken up the mantle of developing these sparkling, beautifully coloured plants with enthusiasm.
“I’m absolutely thrilled with the new plants and delighted that I am able to complete what my grandfather started so many years ago,” he said. “They normally start flowering in October but this year they’ve burst into bloom a full two weeks early, so we are giving them a longer period of display.

“We have produced more than 100 new hybrids and now collectors and visitors to Exbury may buy nerines that have never been seen before,” he said.

Originally found on Table Mountain overlooking Cape Town in South Africa, the diamond lilies flower in a spectrum of colours from their original oranges, scarlet and white through new purples, pinks, mauves, reds, scarlets, copper and bronzes which scintillate in the light with gold or silver crystalline flecks that make their petals sparkle.