Search our Plant Records Database

You can search our online plant records database (BG-BASE^TM) to discover whether a particular plant or group of plants is represented in the Gardens' Living Collection or the Harold Hillier Herbarium, or both. Please note that the herbarium is only open to visitors by prior arrangement.

Notes on specifying search criteria

Here are some guidelines for searching our online plant records database:

Enter one or more words from the scientific or common name of the plant(s) you are seeking
Exclude authorities and cultivar indicators (for example, cv or quotes) of scientific names
Entries can be either upper or lower case
Either * or ] can be used as wildcard characters at the end of any search values
Multiple search criteria should be separated by a comma

Examples:

To search for all scientific or common plant names starting with Gent, enter: gent* or gent]

To look up Gentiana asclepiadea L. without using wildcard characters, enter: gentiana asclepiadea

To look up both Gentiana asclepiadea L. and Rhododendron lepidotum Wall. ex G.Don, enter: gentiana asclepiadea, rhododendron lepidotum

For further information on BG-BASE, see the BG-BASE homepage or contact the BG-BASE team bg-base@rbge.org.uk.

Acknowledgment

The search engine and data extraction tools that are used to present the results of the database search were developed at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh (RBGE).

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RECENT PLANT NEWS:

Puya: The once-in-a-life-time flowering plant! (June - July 2007)

In early summer this year, we saw the first flowering of a Puya alpestris near Jermyn's House. This plant is not fully hardy in all parts of Hampshire, requiring the right micro-climate to thrive.
This relative of the pineapple plant is native to South America where it grows in rocky places, in the lower Andes. The plant grows as a rosette, some 40 to 50 cm across with a very attractive silver grey green leaf. Even just growing the plant for the leaf alone is worth while. The second point of interest is its vicious protection system.
Barb-like spines on the leaf edge ensure that once you have made contact with the plant, you are not likely to forget about it in a hurry. With spines much stronger than those for the bramble, it is a very good defence against grazing animals.
Several Puya plants were planted at the Gardens in the past, although most did not survive. However, the Puya in question was planted by the current Head Gardener some ten years ago near an oak tree a few metres away from Jermyn's House. It was obviously suited to this location, with the tree taking up a lot of the moisture in the ground. Seemingly the plant was mature enough and must have enjoyed recent summers to decide to come into flower. From a low rosette no more than 1 foot high a 5 foot spike emerged with a few hundred turquoise blue flowers on it. The plant expends all its energy on producing this flower spike as it dies afterwards. Biologically, it is designed to produce flowers and hopefully seed, thus ensuring a new generation of plants will develop.
We were fortunate to attract the attention of BBC South Today as well as Meridian TV, resulting in a large number of visitors wishing to see this unusual plant. Within 2 days, the Gardens had ‘The Puya Trail’, with several signs leading to the plant.