A world-leading botanic garden is celebrating after recording the first UK outdoor flowering of a hard-to-propagate plant from the other side of the world.

Botanists from Wakehurst, Kew’s country garden in West Sussex, ventured to Tasmania in seach of raw plants.

They found seeds which have allowed them to successfully grow rare and unusual shrubs and trees from these cold rain forests, including Banksia marginata.

Wakehurst garden manager Chris Clennett said: “Over the last two years we have planted several young specimens of Banksia marginata in the gardens near the Mansion to increase our collection of Southern Hemisphere plants.

“We believe this is the first time this species has flowered outside in Great Britain. It’s a tremendous achievement by the whole team to have these exciting plants flowering in the gardens.

“We may have a long way to go before they reach the size of their parent tree, but we have planted in our most protected places to give them a fighting chance.

“To have this many flowers so quickly shows how happy the plants are already, so I look forward to seeing them grow and flower each year.”

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