The Palm House
The gardens' most notable feature is the Palm House conservatory. The foundation stone was laid by the Marquess of Donegall in 1839 and work was completed in 1840. It is one of the earliest examples of a curvilinear cast iron glasshouses in the world. Designed by Charles Lanyon and built by Richard Turner, Belfast's Palm House predates the glasshouses at Kew and the Irish National Botanic Gardens at Glasnevin. Turner went on to build both of these glasshouses. The Palm House consists of two wings, the cool wing and the tropical wing which contains the dome. Lanyon altered his original plans to increase the height of the dome, allowing for much taller plants. In the past these have included an 11 metre tall Globe Spear Lily. The lily, which is native to Australia, finally bloomed in March 2005 after a 23 year wait. The Palm House also features a 400 year old Xanthorrhoea.
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Plaque in 3 languages
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Early Spring flowers
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Urn
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Aloe saponaria
Read more about this topic: Belfast Botanic Gardens
Famous quotes containing the words palm and/or house:
“How did you get in the Navy? How did you get on our side? Ah, you ignorant, arrogant, ambitious—keeping sixty two men in prison cause you got a palm tree for the work they did. I don’t know which I hate worse, you or that malignant growth that stands outside your door. How did you ever get command of a ship? I realize in wartime they have to scrape the bottom of the barrel. But where’d they ever scrape you up?”
—Frank S. Nugent (1908–1965)
“But will God indeed dwell on the earth? Even heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain you, much less this house that I have built!”
—Bible: Hebrew, 1 Kings 8:27.
Solomon at the dedication of the temple.