Reviving Mary II's Citrus Collection at Hampton Court

Date: 23 August 2024

Author: Ian Tocher

In the late 17th century, William III and Mary II displayed over 2,000 citrus plants and other 'Exoticks' (17th-century spelling) at Hampton Court Palace. And now, thanks to the hard work of our gardeners, part of Mary II’s wide collection is displayed in the gardens each summer.

Here, Ian Tocher from our Hampton Court Palace Gardens team explores the superb citrus trees in the collection.

The Citrus collection in the Hampton Court Palace nurseries, showing oranges hanging from a branch — *Image: Citrus trees in the nursery at Hampton Court Palace. © Historic Royal Palaces*

Photograph showing small Citrus trees outside of a Baroque red bricked building within a garden. The trees are inside white pots with green horizontal stripes. — *Image: Citrus trees on display in the Privy Garden. © Historic Royal Palaces*

Queen Mary II Exoticks Collection

The Queen Mary II Exoticks is one of three National Plant collections at Hampton Court (alongside Heliotrope and Lantana). These National Plant Collections® are held as a valuable plant resource to educate and entertain our visitors and are a valuable asset for the conservation of garden plants.

The Exoticks are displayed in the Hampton Court gardens each summer. Heliotrope and Lantana are held in the behind-the-scenes nursery, available to view by appointment.

Our Exoticks collection currently has around 250 plants, a representative sample of the 2000 or so plants that Mary II once collected and grew. My colleague, Martin Einchcomb, was instrumental in recreating this collection and wrote a blog post about its creation and display.

Citrus trees as status symbols

Citrus trees, brought from overseas, were a status symbol in 17th-century Europe. One of my favourite parts of the Exoticks is the many citrus trees, which could be among the most extensive citrus collections in the UK, and deserves to be better known.

For William III, orange trees represented the virtuous circle of life, reflected in their unusual characteristic of having flowers, ripe and unripe fruit, on the trees simultaneously.

Het Loo Palace, William’s Dutch residence, even had a citrus tree depicted on its Golden Gate, leading out to the gardens.

But the citrus fruit wasn’t only for decoration and status – Mary II used the bitter Seville oranges at Hampton Court to make marmalade.

Close up Orange fruit, with white flowers. hanging from trees in a large greenhouse. — *Image: Citrus myrtifolia growing alongside flowers at Hampton Court Palace. © Historic Royal Palaces*

A green plant with finger-like branches. — *Buddha's hand at Hampton Court. © Historic Royal Palaces*

Citrus varieties at the palace

Our larger citrus trees, mostly Seville oranges (Citrus x aurantium), are displayed on Hampton Court’s Privy Garden terrace, while smaller trees grace the beds in the nearby Lower Orangery Garden.

Apart from the Seville oranges, our other citrus include examples of lemon (Citrus x limon), Persian lime (Citrus x latifolia), bergamot orange (Citrus bergamia), Mexican lime (Citrus aurantiifolia 'La Valette'), striped bitter orange (Citrus x aurantium ‘Variegata’) and the Buddha's hand (Citrus medica var. sarcodactylis).

If I must choose one favourite, it’s the Buddha's hand, with its fruit that has finger-like tentacles. These fruits usually have no juice or pulp, but the peel is used in cooking or for flavouring drinks.

Building a citrus collection

The largest trees were bought from nurseries in the 1990s and many other citrus plants have been acquired since then. We recently received some unusual grafted citrus from Het Loo.

There are strong similarities between the gardens at Hampton Court and Het Loo, since they both have formal Baroque gardens and citrus collections.

Both palaces also display citrus in traditional wooden tubs made by Dutch company Jac Blom, although Het Loo’s tubs are dark green, while ours are white with green bands. Our smaller citrus plants are displayed in terracotta pots, based on a 17th-century orange pot. These were specially made by M.I.T.A.L of Italy.

We maintain strong professional links with Het Loo’s Gardens team. I spent a week at Het Loo learning how they maintain their citrus. I was amazed to see some citrus trees in tubs, which were grown in William III's day. We now have some plants grafted from these historic trees at Hampton Court.

Citrus lemon - Queen Mary II Exoticks in the nurseries at Hampton Court Palace. Showing lemon fruit hanging from trees in a large greenhouse

Learn how to grow citrus plants

With fragrant flowers, glossy foliage and decorative fruits, citrus trees are an excellent potted plant for a summer garden. In the UK, they need a protected environment in the winter, such as a cool conservatory or greenhouse. Around 7 degrees Celsius is ideal (they don’t do well as houseplants).

Our citrus overwinter in a glasshouse. We use a forklift and tractor and trailer to take them out to the gardens in May, then in October we bring them in.

Tips for growing citrus

Looking after citrus is straightforward, but it’s important to get the watering and feeding right. Here are some top tips for growing citrus:

In the winter, keep watering to a minimum. In the summer, water your citrus more.
Use a balanced fertiliser year around, with additional high nitrogen feed in the spring and early summer.
Find a goblet or wine glass shape for your citrus, as they need minimal pruning. Citrus can be re-potted if necessary, moving up only to the next pot size.
Apply John Innes No.3 mixed with 20 percent of horticultural grit for good drainage. Most years, we top dress ours with an ericaceous compost, as they like the acidity.

Come and see our citrus in the gardens this summer, and perhaps you'll even get a few tips from the gardeners too!