Staff from the Zoo’s horticulture department will be showcasing its national plant collection of Hedychiums (also known as ginger lilies) at the show, which opens to the public next week (July 6-11).

 Bristol Zoo Gardens holds a collection of around 80 Hedychium varieties and will be exhibiting 20 of them in the Plant Heritage tent.

 Hedychium, meaning sweet snow, are beautiful subtropical plants with highly scented spectacular blooms and attractive leaves. They are closely related to ginger and commonly known as ginger lilies.

 Matthew Bufton, Gardens Manager at Bristol Zoo, said: “It is a great honour to have been invited to show our great collection of plants at this prestigious flower show. Bristol Zoo is well known for its animal collection, but perhaps less so for its wonderful botanical gardens and amazing plant heritage, so this is a fantastic opportunity to give visitors to Hampton Court Palace Flower Show a taste of the inspiring gardens Bristol Zoo has to offer.”

 As well as being home to over 450 different animal species, Bristol Zooalso has12-acres of award-winning botanical gardens which house Bristol’s most important collections of plants.

 As holder of the National Plant Collection of Hedychium, Bristol Zoo Gardens has set up a three-year national garden performance trial, which aims to benefit all gardeners who wish to understand more and grow these spectacular plants in the future. Seven of the hardiest species were trialled at different sites throughout the UK, chosen to reflect our varied climatic conditions.

The Zoo also holds the National Plant Collection of Caryopterisand a number of trees which have been given the status of ‘Champion trees’ by the Tree Register. These include Cornus contoversa ‘variegata’, Trithrinax campestris and Crataegus laciniata.

 The Zoo is also home to many other unusual and rare trees, shrubs and plants from around the world, such as the monkey puzzle tree, tree ferns, Polylepis and the purple-berried flax lily.

 The Zoo’s dedicated team of gardeners work hard to make sure the gardens look their best all year round, and the gardens recently won a prestigious Bristol in Bloom award for the eleventh year running.

 For more information about Bristol Zoo Gardens, visit the website at www.bristolzoo.org.ukor call 0117 974 7300.

ENDS

 For media enquiries, or to arrange a press visit to Bristol Zoo Gardens, please contact the Bristol Zoo press office:

Lucy Parkinson, T: 0117 974 7306, E: lparkinson@bristolzoo.org.uk

Vanessa Hollier, T: 0117 974 7309, E: vhollier@bristolzoo.org.uk

Notes to the Editor

Hedychium (ginger lilies)
Hedychiums have rhizomes like ginger, and the leafy shoots and flowers are produced in a cone-shaped mass.
They make excellent conservatory plants and several are hardy enough to grow outdoors in mild areas of the UK.
Hedychiums naturally grow in clumps and need to be planted in a warm, sunny but sheltered spot, in good fertile neutral soil.  

Flowers are produced indoors from summer through autumn, or outdoors during late summer until the frosts.

Bristol Zoo’s award winning gardens

In 2009 Bristol Zoo’s gardens won the following awards:

• The Zoo’s new ‘Turtle Maze’ made the finals of Horticulture Week Landscape Award.
• Regional Bristol in Bloom gold award for best commercial and industrial landscape.
• Contributed to Clifton Village winning a national gold ‘In Bloom’ award for the first time.
• Contributed to Bristol winning the prestigious South West Tourism Cup ‘In Bloom’ award.
• The Zoo’s ‘Edible Garden’ project with a local primary school won an award from the British and Irish Association of Zoos and Aquariums.

Bristol Zoo Gardens

• BristolZoo Gardensis an education and conservation charity and relies on the income from visitors to support its work. 
• Throughout 2010 Bristol Zoo will be running a series of events to highlight the importance of conserving the world’s biodiversity, as part of the international Year of Biodiversity. For more information visit the Zoo website at www.bristolzoo.org.uk/about/conservation/campaigns/iyob
• To find out more about the UN’s International Year of Biodiversity visit the website at www.biodiversityislife.net
• Bristol Zoo is open from 9am every day except Christmas Day. 
• The Zoo is involved with more than 100 co-ordinated breeding programmes for threatened wildlife species. 
• Itemploys 140 full and part-time staff to care for the animals and run a successful visitor attraction to support its conservation and education work. 
• BristolZoo Gardenssupports – through finance and skill sharing - over 12 projects in the UK and abroad that conserveand protectsome of the world’s most endangered species.
• BristolZoo Gardensis a member of the British and Irish Association of Zoos and Aquariums. BIAZA represents more than 90 member collections and promotes the values of good zoos and aquariums.