Visit to The Mathers Foudation

Visitors will enjoy a guided tour of the glasshouses which house over 10,000 cool and warm growing orchids from around the world together with over 8,000 alpine pleiones.

During the tour, you will:
• Explore the different areas of the site including the Oncidium, Stanhopea, Cymbidium Pleione and Bulbophyllum houses with with ample opportunities to take photographs
• Discover the wonderful variety of species and hybrids within the National Collections of Oncidiums, Pleiones, Stanhopeas and others and hear about how they are cultivated
• Delve into the fascinating history of some of the older hybrids whilst hearing about the way new hybrids are being made
• Observe the state of the art greenhouse technology and learn about how this enables the collection to thrive
• Have the opportunity to buy selected orchids.

The event will conclude with refreshments.

Located in Pulborough, West Sussex, The Mathers Foundation was established in 2019 to preserve and develop substantial collections of orchid species and hybrids, supporting both ex situ and in situ conservation. It holds the National Plant Collection of Oncidiums with over 1,000 different species and hybrids together with Ian Butterfields' unique Pleione collection and the Hartley collections of Stanhopeas, Anguloas and Bulbophyllums together with a substantial collection of Cymbidiums and Masdevallias.

Other information :-

1. We are a working nursery so please advise everyone to wear appropriate footwear as floors can be slippy and uneven. A briefing will be given before the tour which will start just after 2pm once everyone arrives.

2. We do allow photography and indeed sometimes take photos ourselves for our social media. If anyone does not want to be photographed please just let me know but all your members are welcome to take photos of the orchids.

3. We will be selling surplus plants on the day together with accessories(Jim’s compost) and souvenirs if anyone wishes to buy anything. There is a catalogue of some of our Oncidiums online with prices but availability does vary.

4. Teas/coffees and snacks will be served but if anyone has allergies please let me know.

5. Donations made for the tour will help support Plant Heritage with a portion going to support an in situ conservation project in Colombia (La Reserva Orquídeas).  Thank you for supporting us with our conservation work. We really appreciate it as this helps conserve the incredible biodiversity of the region where many of our orchid species come from.

© The Mathers Foundation

© The Mathers Foundation - Jim Durrant