What's an "Orangery"?

[FuzzyPuffling]

Well, yes, I know what it is in my world, but I am seeing so much about them recently. Do people just mean a conservatory, but that's become unfashionable?

Is there a material difference?

And can I raise you a "camellia house"?

(In an Australian accent)..

Nah. They're not orangeries.

This is an orangery.

We had an orangery... I think? It was stone, big windows all around, big glass doors and a solid roof. Victorian stained glass and quarry tile floors. When we bought the house it was full of the previous owner's seedlings and house plants. It's gone now though :(

It's oron-jer-ree but the j is like the first syllable of je m'appelle.

As to pronunciation, if it's spelt with an ie a French method may be appropriate. But if it's ry then surely it's orange very?

I believe the name was commonly used with country houses in the 17/18 centuries.

Ha, a slightly pretentious relative recently had a conservatory/extension built and was telling me they weren’t sure what to call it - she was leaning toward ‘sun room’

So I bought her a little potted orange tree, and told her she could now legitimately name it The Orangery, which she has done

For reference, it’s a 1960s semi in a Leeds suburb

There’s a very big original one at Kew - still has lemon trees in it in winter IIRC, but it’s a cafe now. The Orangery Cafe, funnily enough.

I’ve had a very nice Afternoon Tea in the Orangery at Kensington Palace gardens as it’s open to the public ….(I sadly didn’t spot anyone from the Royal 👑 family though!)

I think they are lovely. More practical than a Upvc conservatory

@VeniVidiWeeWee - you call that an orangery? THIS is an orangery!

Incidentally, this orangery at Margam Park is one of the best-known "stately home" type orangeries in my mind, and doesn't even have any glazing in the roof. Just shows how definitions change!

We're buying a house with a "sunroom" which is all glass, a "conservatory" which has a stone roof and half stone/half glass walls, and a "greenhouse" which is a lean-to long thin glass roof brick walls thing.

After reading this thread I'm thinking that I should call them the Oranjerie, the Orangerie and the Orangery.

@NannyR

As an aside, how is orangery pronounced? I always thought it was orange-ry (with a sort of half syllable in between) but a mum at school was talking about her oh-RAN-jerry the other day.

Your way is correct. A British person giving it a French pronunciation is cringey Hyacinth Bucket territory.

When I think of orangery I picture a long narrow sun room running the length of quite a grand (from middling grand to very fucking grand) 19th century property.

Loving the definitions in this thread.

I think of an orangery as having trees growing inside it.

There is a distinction. I had an orangery, so classified by building control due to the percentage of wall to glazing. Simply, an orangery has more solid surface than glass, a conservatory more glass than wall.

When we bought this house we had an architect draw up some, er, drawings of the various changes we wanted to make. I asked for a large lean-to greenhouse on the south wall. He kept calling it a bloody orangerie! I had to get him to change it on his drawings too. He could not grasp that an orangerie and a greenhouse are very different animals, and I wanted something for actual horticultural purposes.

@CheltenhamLady

This is an Orangery

Only if you live in Cheltenham 🤣

My in laws had an original Victorian orangery on their house, it wasn’t a conservatory other than it was heavily glazed. It wasn’t a shape that you could really sit in though (long and narrow, opening up at the end)

Our friends inherited a lovely old Victorian house which had an orangery as described above. It ran along the back of the house with a slabbed path through the middle and plants on either side - a fancy timber greenhouse.

@SylvanianFrenemies

Everyone has beaten me to it... An orangery is to conservatory as burlesque is to stripping.