New garden shop launches at Glyndebourne

Also available to buy will be a selection of plants grown onsite enabling people to take a little bit of Glyndebourne home with them.

Phillipa MacDermott, head of retail buying and product development, said: “We are delighted to be launching the Garden Shop this summer. It will be a celebration of the Glyndebourne gardens and will stock a beautifully curated edit of garden related products, used and recommended by our gardening team. The gardens are such a huge part of the Glyndebourne Festival experience and we wanted audience members to have the opportunity to take a little piece of Glyndebourne home with them, whether it be a pair of Niwaki secateurs, a vintage herb pot, bespoke rose plant supports crafted by local blacksmiths or a plant grown by one of the gardeners.”

Also new this summer, Glyndebourne will be releasing two new roses developed by Harkness. The Lady Mary Rose and the Mildmay Rose will join the original Glyndebourne Rose which was first introduced in 2012.

The apricot coloured Mildmay Rose, is named in honour of the late Audrey Mildmay, an English and Canadian soprano and co-founder, with her husband, John Christie, of the Glyndebourne Festival in 1934. The Lady Mary Rose is a celebration of peach tones and is named in honour of the late Lady Mary Christie, who died in 2020 and who was married to Sir George Christie, executive chairman of Glyndebourne from 1959 to 1999. Lady Christie dedicated most of her life to the gardens of Glyndebourne and loved roses. In 2015, Glyndebourne unveiled a major new rose garden named in honour of Lady Mary Christie in recognition of her enormous contribution to the Glyndebourne landscape.

Kevin Martin, head gardener and in-house flower arranger at Glyndebourne, said: “The Glyndebourne gardens have been a huge part of my life over the last 29 years and I’m delighted that they’re such a talking point with Festival visitors. We are always being asked about the plants we grow onsite, so selling our own through the Glyndebourne Garden Shop is incredibly exciting and means little pieces of Glyndebourne will find their way all over the country.”

Glyndebourne has announced that it will be opening its gardens for its ticketed Family Open Days on September 2 and 3. The Glyndebourne gardens are usually only open to opera ticket holders. Annual Garden and Family Open Days provide a rare opportunity to visit the internationally famous venue outside of a performance season. Further details will be published on the website this summer.

All profits from the Glyndebourne Garden Shop are fed directly back to Glyndebourne to “continue its work to open all hearts and minds to the extraordinary art form of opera.”

Glyndebourne Festival 2023 runs from May 19-August 27 2023. Visit glyndebourne.com to find out more. The Glyndebourne Shop can also be found online at glyndebourneshop.com