Header image: Lupinus albus (altramuces o chochitos), by Calapito via Wikimedia Commons.
21.08.2023 - 11:48 / theunconventionalgardener.com / guest
Header image: Melburnians admire the first primrose to arrive in the colony, transported by a Wardian case, in Edward Hopley’s A Primrose from England, circa 1855. [Bendigo Art Gallery, Gift of Mr and Mrs Leonard Lansell 1964]
Luke Keogh, Deakin University
The first journey of a Wardian case was an experiment. In 1829, the surgeon and amateur naturalist Nathanial Bagshaw Ward accidentally discovered that plants enclosed in airtight glass cases can survive for long periods without watering. Four years later he decided to test his invention by transporting two of his cases filled with a selection of ferns, mosses and grasses from London to Sydney, the longest sea journey then known.
On November 23 1833, Ward received a letter from Charles Mallard, the ship captain responsible for the two cases, telling him: “your experiment for the preservation of plants alive … has fully succeeded”.
The next challenge was the return journey. In February 1834, the cases were replanted with specimens from Australia. Eight months later, when Ward and friend George Loddiges, a well-known nurseryman, went aboard the ship in London they inspected the healthy fronds of a delicate coral fern (Gleichenia microphylla), an Australian plant never before seen in Britain. The experiment was a success.
The Wardian case, as it would become known, revolutionised the movement of live plants around the globe. They were shaped like a miniature greenhouse, made of timber and had glass inserts in the roof. In the cases, plants had a greater chance of survival when in transit.
Often thought of as only a product of the gardening crazes of the Victorian era, the Wardian case was actually a notorious prime mover of plants. Some of the key uses of the case include
Header image: Lupinus albus (altramuces o chochitos), by Calapito via Wikimedia Commons.
Header image: <a href=«https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/pink-water-lily-lake-goldfish-142067443?src=» http:>NagyDodo/Shutterstock
Header image: Suited up to simulate the conditions of working outside on Mars. Jonathan Clarke (the author, left) with visiting engineer Michael Curtis-Rouse, from UK Space Agency (right). Jonathan Clarke personal collection, Author provided.
Header image: *Psyche Delia*/Flickr, CC BY-NC
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Header image: Brooke Lark/Unsplash
Patrick Major, University of Reading and Chris Scott, University of Reading
Stephen M. Cullen, University of Warwick
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Emma White, University of Surrey and Sarah Golding, University of Surrey
Daniel Brown, Nottingham Trent University