Celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Orchid Study Group at the Welsh Orchid Festival, where every room of Aberglasney mansion will be adorned with a stunning array of orchids this September.

Aberglasney’s mansion will be full to the rafters with Orchids for the Orchid Study Group’s Welsh Orchid Festival on Saturday and Sunday, September 6 and 7.

As well as learning about rare species and popular hybrid orchids, visitors will also be able to purchase orchids, carnivorous plants, orchid companion plants and botanical paintings.

Helen Scutt, director of the Carmarthenshire attraction, said:

“The Welsh Orchid Festival is held at Aberglasney in conjunction with our Late Summer Fair. The two events together will completely indulge our visitors’ horticultural senses as the Welsh Orchid Festival will completely take over the Mansion while we completely take over the Cloister Garden with plants and produce stalls. We hope everyone comes to enjoy this unique horticultural experience.”

The Orchid Study Group was established in 2005 to provide a focus for orchids and their study in Wales. This region of Wales has a long and rich orchid history. Penllergare was home to the pioneer photographer and orchid grower John Dillwyn Llewelyn, son of famous botanist and Swansea Pottery owner Lewis Weston Dillwyn.

It was here in Wales that John built a greenhouse, and it was here also that tropical orchids were grown for the first time ever under semi-natural conditions. Newly discovered orchids flowered here for the first time and it is probable that John was the first to record them by means of photography. Even today, the name of this influential family is commemorated in the names of orchids such as Eria dillwynii.

Dr Kevin Davies from the Orchid Study Group and co-organiser of the Welsh Orchid Festival said:

“We are looking forward to holding, once again, our annual Festival at Aberglasney. It is the perfect backdrop for our event. This year sees the 20th anniversary of the Orchid Study Group, and we invite you all to join us in celebrating this special event. As usual, there will be an opportunity for you to enjoy the very best of the UK’s orchid nurseries and purchase colourful, rare and unusual orchids, with experienced orchid growers on hand to provide advice and to help you with their cultivation.”

New for this year at the Welsh Orchid Festival, as part of the Orchid Study Group’s anniversary celebrations, there will be a series of formal, structured talks by experts in their field for those who are interested not just in the cultivation of these remarkable plants, but also in their biology. Seating for these free talks is limited, so please be early to avoid disappointment. The full list of talks is available on the Aberglasney website.

Entrance to the Welsh Orchid Festival is free of charge when visitors pay the £10 to enter Aberglasney’s Summer Fair, with children 16 years old and under having free entry. The Festival will be open between 10am and 5pm on Saturday and Sunday.