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Pressing flowers is a popular hobby today, and it has a very long history. For centuries, people have been pressing and drying plants in order to preserve, study and classify them.A herbarium is a collection of these preserved specimens, created for the purposes of research and education. Winterbourne now looks after the University Herbarium, and for the last two years we have been investigating this collection and all the archival material that sits alongside it.
Our new exhibition, The Dry Garden, has just opened! Based on the first floor of the house, the exhibition contains botanical prints, photographs and, above all, magnificent plant specimens. The exhibits date from the 1790s to the 1970s.
One of the themes the exhibition explores is the link with the Nettlefold family. Back in 1907, when funds were being raised to acquire collections of specimens for the Herbarium, Margaret Nettlefold contributed towards a major collection of mosses. She would surely be delighted to know that the Herbarium is now located and celebrated at Winterbourne.
Join us for our Plants Preserved Forever lunchtime lecture on 18 July