Hi, my name is Jordan.
I'm a gardener here at Osborne,
and I'm going to be your tour guide around the grounds today.
The walled garden was originally
for the Blatchford family to produce vegetables for the house.
The size of the walled garden is about an acre, so it wasn't
big enough for Victoria, Albert and all of their children.
So instead they decided to turn it into a cut flower garden
and a small tree nursery for Albert.
The walled garden as we have it today
is taken back to when Queen Victoria was here,
so she would have had cut flowers in here
as opposed to vegetables, but she would have also had fruit,
which we've got trained over arches and up against the walls.
As you walk around walled garden,
be sure to brush up against all the lavenders and smell in the pelargoniums
in the glasshouse, those are really sweetly scented.
Here we find ourselves on the terraces.
During the wars, the terraces were mostly grassed over,
so in recent years we've uncovered
where the original beds were using watercolors and photos
and now we plant them up in the same Victorian style
that Queen Victoria would have enjoyed.
So here we've got a dahlia and this is one of the first plants
we're going to be putting into the bedding scheme of about
15,000 plants that typically bloom from the end of June
all the way to October.
One of the key features on the terraces is the palm tree behind me.
It was originally planted by Queen Victoria in 1851.
That sadly died 20 years ago,
but was replanted by Queen Elizabeth in 2004.
As you walk around the terraces, you'll notice myrtle,
growing up against the walls.
This was originally given to Queen Victoria by Prince Albert’s grandmother.
The myrtle represents good fertility and good luck.
A sprig of open myrtle has been used in every royal wedding bouquet
since Princess Vicky got married.
One of the first things Albert planted on the terraces
were these magnolia grandifloras.
They were planted almost 170 years ago.
As you're enjoying them, be sure to listen out to the trickling of the fountain next to it.
Here at Swiss cottage, Albert had nine plots made up, one for each of the children.
Each plot had about 14 beds in which the children grew
cut flowers, vegetables and fruits.
The reason for Albert doing this is so that children could sell
the produce back to him to learn about commerce
and also to learn the value of hard work.
Although records are sparse,
we do know the children grew strawberries, gooseberries
and raspberries, which we still grow to this day.
Swiss cottage and the gardens around
it were built in a clearing within the woodlands.
So as you walk around, you should be able to hear the birds.
We're going to head down through the valley, to the beach.
This is just part of typical site check
to see if there's any fallen trees.
Something that sets Osborne apart,
is we've also got a private beach.
So as the visitors walk down through the valley,
the first thing that experience is the sound of the lapping waves
as the beach then reveals itself.
This is actually the first place Queen Victoria swam in the sea
and a bathing machine is still here for visitors to see.
Thank you for joining me at Osborne.
With over 350 acres, there's plenty more to explore.
Hope to see soon.
For more information on tours and events, please check out our website.