Exbury gardens near Southampton is a 200 acre woodland garden in Hampshire which was created in the early twentieth century by Lionel De Rothschild. It is open to the public and well worth visiting especially in May and June when the rhododendrons and azaleas are in full flower.

Visitors can also enjoy a trip round the garden on a narrow gauge steam railway, a meal at one of several restaurants or visit an exhibition at the Five Arrows art gallery.

Exbury gardens has many wheelchair accessible paths and is dog friendly. You should allow several hours for your visit as there is a lot to see.

The Rothschild family

The Rothschilds were originally a family of Ashkenazi Jews from Frankfurt in Germany. Mayer Rothschild (1744-1812) established a successful banking business which he was able to pass on to his five sons. They became known as the five arrows and established branches in London, Paris, Frankfurt, Vienna and Naples. During the 19th century the Rothschild family possessed one of the largest private fortunes in the world.

The British branch

The British branch of the Rothschild family take a keen interest in botany and zoology. Walter Rothschild established one of the largest private zoos. He was also well known as an eccentric. Famously driving a carriage pulled by zebras in an attempt to prove they can be docile.

My favourite member of the family is Miriam Rothschild. She was the first woman to serve on the committee of the National Trust and became a member of the Royal Society. Her father was a keen amateur zoologist and is famous for identifying the flea responsible for carrying bubonic plague. He met his future wife, Miriam’s mother while on a butterfly collecting trip in Transylvania.

Miriam carried on his interest in fleas and published several scientific papers on the subject. However I am more interested in her work on wild flower conservation. She disliked what she called the snooker table appearance of garden lawns and noticed the gradual disappearance of wildflowers and insects from our gardens. Later she recalled reading an article stating that it would take a thousand years to establish an English hay meadow. She disagreed and said she could do it in ten years. In the end it took her 15 years to develop the right mixture of wild flower seeds and grasses. One of her achievements was saving the cowslip from becoming an early victim of global warming. She discovered that the seeds need a cold spell before they will germinate and she decided put them in the fridge for a few weeks. Luckily it worked.

She worked closely with Prince Charles to establish wild flower meadows at High Grove house, his home in Gloucestershire. The Highgrove shop still sells the grass and seed mixture they developed thirty years ago and when I visited the High Grove gardens the wild flower meadows were looking beautiful. She named the first packets of seeds she marketed as “farmer’s nightmare”.

Rhododendrons

When we visited Exbury gardens last week I was pleased to find a large wild flower meadow complete with cowslips. An enormous dragon fly pond was evidence that the family are also still supporting insect conservation. I was delighted to see that it was full of tadpoles and that a few dragonflies were beginning to emerge. There were also lots of trees planted by various members of the royal family.

The sandy slightly acidic soil at Exbury is ideal for growing rhododendrons and the garden was full of them. As south west China opened up to plant collectors English aristocrats were eager to try to recreate the landscape of the Himalayas. Providentially they found that this style of woodland garden needs fewer gardeners than traditional English gardens as rhododendrons are extremely hardy.

The downside is that as animals won’t graze on rhododendrons because the leaves are toxic and taste unpleasant, they can easily out compete native flora if not kept in check.

If you are staying in Hampshire there are plenty of other places to enjoy visiting

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