World’s Oldest Pot Plant - 250 Years Old!

It is a giant cycad or Encephalartos altensteinii, native to the Eastern Cape province of South Africa and brought to the UK in 1775 by the botanist Francis Masson. In 1848, the Palm House was completed at Kew Gardens and this giant cycad was moved there.

He is toxic all the way through: very spiky, very stoic. We see him as a gentle giant, really – he just gets on with life. When you get to know a person very well, you can tell instantly if they look a little off colour. Caring for plants is the same. As I walk through the Palm House, I’m looking out for how the different plants seem, their colour, texture, the angles of their leaves, and I’m also paying attention to the quality of the air – is it too dry, or too hot?

Some plants are very dramatic, and will droop significantly or start to yellow as soon as something is wrong, but the giant cycad isn’t one of those. He’s more like a grumpy grandfather, who sits by the fire and doesn’t say much except, “Leave me be; I’ll be fine.” He just keeps on growing, slowly, approximately 2.5cm a year. Today, he’s about 4 metres long, and held up by a series of metal supports so his trunk doesn’t break.

Over the winter we probably water him once a week, and in the summer months he’ll get a little bit more. We’ll water him all the way through his pot, give him a good soak, which is a useful tip for most pot plants – give them a good soak through the pot rather than sprinkling a bit of water on top. Apart from that, he gets sprayed with water every morning like all the other plants, and is fed every week with fertiliser. It is sometimes seaweed-based but we like to change it up so the plants get all their minerals. Though generally we just leave him to do his thing.

It’s unavoidable in this line of work to personify plants and begin to feel for them. I think that’s something that humans always do. You might remember that one plant flowered fantastically one year, but then the next year it doesn’t do so well, and you think, “Oh god, what’s wrong?” So there is some anxiety. But equally in horticulture there’s a requirement to be detached – because something will always go wrong. Plants will decide whether or not they want to grow. And there’s nothing we can do about it. We just have to get over it.

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