Ian Watt of Abbotsbury Subtropical Gardens, United Kingdom, and his colleague, Stephen Wagner, studied Montgomery Botanical Center’s (MBC) cycad collections, evaluating their horticultural potential for southern England. Abbotsbury Subtropical Gardens, located on the Jurassic Coast (a World Heritage Site), is a location where many fossils continue to be recovered from the local shale deposits.

While at MBC, Mr. Watt presented a seminar on the history of Abbotsbury Subtropical Gardens, established in 1765, which shared visuals of the rare and exotic plants grown there. In 2006, Abbotsbury Subtropical Gardens received a Silver Flora at Chelsea for their presentation, which featured cycads and other Jurassic plant lineages.