Kew Gardens - July 2006
I've never been to the world famous botanical gardens at Kew before and I can't believe what I've been missing. Bristi and I spent the whole day there, but we could have easily have spent a whole week.
The glasshouses are superb. The Victorian palm houses contain a superb collection of tropical plants, including huge trees. I cannot describe the heat and humidity at the top of the palm house viewing gallery!
The Victorian glass houses...
are huge.
The view of the palms from the gallery.
The stairs up to the gallery.
What's more impressive, the architecture or the plants?
That's what I call a fruit.
Giant water lilies in the Lilly House. We were a week to late to see the flowers.
There were lots of odd plants packed into the small Lily House
The modern Princess Of Wales Glasshouse is divided into about a dozen carefully controlled micro-climates.
The lower braches of these mangrove plants grow downwards to provide stilts to hold them upright in the swamp.
Nice hanging basket!
Can you see the glass wall? The water feature is both inside and outside the glass houseOutside
Justified test intro
The graceful curved bridge over the lake is a new feature.
Bristi is smiling as ever.
A Weeping Purple Beech apparently. It looks like a bit of poor army camouflage.
Inside.
Don't touch - it's sticky!
I couldn't find any information about this superb building, but later I found out that it was the Victorian chimney for the huge palm-house boilers.
Taking a boat from Kew Gardens Pier to Westminster Pier is highly recommended. It's much more interesting than taking the tube and doesn't take that much longer.
