The Sherman Hoyt Cactus House, Kew Gardens

Abstract

THE outstanding feature of the Royal Horticultural Society's Show at Chelsea in May 1929 was the exhibit of cacti and other succulent plants which was shown by Mrs. A. Sherman. Hoyt, of Pasadena, California. The collection of living plants was arranged against a painted scene of the Mohave Desert, and the whole exhibit was a presentation of the desert flora of Southern California. At the close of the Show, Mrs. Sherman Hoyt very generously presented the collection of living plants to Kew, together with the painted desert scene and the rock and sand which she had brought over from California. Since it was impossible to make an adequate display of her exhibit or to make use of the very beautiful painting in any of the houses at Kew, Mrs. Sherman Hoyt most generously offered to build a special house for the display of her plants with the background. In the house, now completed and planted, the desert scene occupies the semi-circular wall of the apse, and in the foreground is a representation of the desert in conformity with the painted background. The stone which has been used for building up the foreground is old red sandstone from Dunster, Somerset, and matches remarkably closely both in colour and structure the Californian rocks shown in the picture. Cacti and other succulent plants have been placed among the rocks in positions as near as possible to those in which they are found in their native home, and the whole effect makes a remarkably striking picture, since the rocky foreground blends so naturally with the painted desert scene behind that it is by no means easy to detect any break between the actual living plants and those shown in the background. The house was opened to the public on March 24.