Welcome to Saturday Morning Garden Blogging! Today we’re taking a break from our domestic gardens to travel Across The Pond. After our journey, we’ll resume local gardening programing.
The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, are pleasantly overwhelming. The garden was another one on my list to see, so we snuck in an extra day in London on our way to Croatia, in May this year.
Some background facts from Wikipedia:
Kew Gardens is a botanic garden in southwest London that houses the "largest and most diverse botanical and mycological collections in the world".[1] Founded in 1840, from the exotic garden at Kew Park, its living collections include some of the 27,000 taxa[2] curated by Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, while the herbarium, one of the largest in the world, has over 8.5 million preserved plant and fungal specimens.[3] The library contains more than 750,000 volumes, and the illustrations collection contains more than 175,000 prints and drawings of plants. It is one of London's top tourist attractions and is a World Heritage Site.[4][5]
The Kew site, which has been dated as formally starting in 1759,[7] although it can be traced back to the exotic garden at Kew Park, formed by Henry, Lord Capell of Tewkesbury, consists of 132 hectares (330 acres)[8] of gardens and botanical glasshouses, four Grade I listed buildings, and 36 Grade II listed structures, all set in an internationally significant landscape.[9] It is listed Grade I on the Register of Historic Parks and Gardens.[10]
While we did our best to try and see the whole garden, there was no way that was going to happen with only one day to spend there.
The official Kew Gardens Website has lots of information, including a timeline of the history of Kew Gardens and some entertaining historical facts and photos.
This diary is a picture overload, so many beautiful plants! I remembered to take pictures of some of the identification tags, but often forgot. Feel free to identify those that I did not, if you’d like. Let’s get started on our tour!
Throughout the gardens were ingenious uses of natural materials to make lattices and wattle fences.
Near the Education Garden is the small Bonsai House.
The 263 Year old Pagoda Tree was fascinating.
There are many massive old trees.
Some succulents and cacti in the Arid Collection.
The Queen’s Garden is quite formal. Kew is a wonderful mixture of very informal meadows and formal, highly groomed spaces, along with amazing sculptures. Although we tried to follow the map to specific things I wanted to see (Mr M patiently following along), there was always a surprise around the next bend.
Another surprise — The Hive Sculpture
The Kitchen Garden. There were cooking demonstrations scheduled throughout the day, but we unfortunately didn’t stop to participate — there was too much else to see.
A medley of purple flowers:
I had forgotten that The Waterlily House was at Kew.
This small, square glasshouse was designed specifically to showcase the giant Amazon waterlily (Victoria amazonica) - a natural wonder of the age.
It was completed in 1852 and is now a listed building, brimming with aquatic plants and tropical fruit.
More random observations:
All of the next three pictures are examples of espaliered trees and vines. Espaliered trees are a favorite of mine. I had no idea that this conclave of Linden trees was in the gardens until we happened upon it. Linden trees (Tilia x euchlora here) are known as Lime trees in Europe.
Tucked away near one of the old brick boundary walls is the Marianne North Gallery. There were rooms of incredibly accurate, detailed, and magical painting of plants that this 19th century independent woman painted while traveling the world. There were samples of types of tree wood that she collected as well. Check out the link for information about her life and detailed views of her paintings. I plan on looking for a biography of her life to read.
What a wonderful day at Kew Gardens.
All good things must come to an end.
– Geoffrey Chaucer
This is an open thread, so back to our flowers and veggies, our pests and weeds, not to forget those utility workers who spray paint and dig where they’re not wanted! If you’ve been to Kew gardens, we’d love to hear your comments and see your pictures.
Back home, my son helped me move my compost pile and uncover the soil that’s been forming over several years. It’s a sandy loam. The soil was bone dry, so easy to move (due to our drought conditions). We’re still in “moderate drought” status although we’ve been getting a little rain recently.
What’s growing in your garden? How is this crazy weather treating you? SMG Bloggers are everywhere — some are probably experiencing flooding, excessive heat, drought. How are you and your garden coping?