Outing - Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, Surrey - August 11, 2018
The visit to the Royal Botanic gardens at Kew is the longest undertaken by Allestree Gardening Club on our day trips but it is always worth it for the experience of seeing one of the UK’s pre-eminent gardens. This particular day was hot and the gardens very busy.
Whilst renowned for its parkland and diversity and beauty of it’s trees many visitors are attracted by the exotic plants not seen in many other gardens in the UK. The greeting at the Kew Road entrance typifies what one is likely to see.
The Palm House is an iconic Victorian glasshouse with a rainforest climate showcasing many exotic plants from around the world. See the gallery below for photographs of palms, strelitzia, bananas and many gingers such as heliconia, curcuma and zingiber.
The Prince of Wales Conservatory contains plant collections from 10 different regions of the world including cacti & succulents, orchids, giant water lilies and carnivorous plants.
The Temperate House was recently re-opened in Spring/Early Summer of 2018 having been closed for 5 years for refurbishment to return the Victorian glasshouse to its former glory. It now contains ca. 1,500 plant species many rare and endangered. Essentially the house is divided into 7 regions of the world, Australia, New Zealand, Africa, Himalaya, Asia, Islands & the Americas. Whilst in time it will no doubt be a spectacle, presently the planting is new and there is no maturity to many of the plants. The hot summer had not been kind to many of the herbaceous perennial plants with most having gone over, the same in the Rock Garden which was showing very little colour. However, many ‘exotic’ plants were doing well particularly the cannas and gingers near the Conservatory, see gallery below for more photographs.
All in all a good day and a chance to see many plants which will struggle in our own garden conditions.
