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Saturday Morning Garden Blogging Vol. 19:28 - The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. [1]
['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']
Date: 2023-07-15
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.
Oh my, the gardens did not disappoint.
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:
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.
330 acres in one day
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!
The purple Allium we all probably know. The small pink flowers in the middle bottom are “St Patrick’s Cabbage” — Saxifraga spathularis. If you can’t read the sign in the golden leaves, it’s Heuchera ‘Caramel’.
The statues at the front entrance of the Temperate House are believed to be Flora (Roman goddess of flowers) and Silvanus (Roman god of woods and fields). The statue of the gardener is titled “In the Fields”. I think the larger ferns are Australian Tree ferns. The smaller fern has sori ready to disperse.
A Magnolia in bloom, the purple flowers in the middle look like Pasqueflowers, and at the bottom the bud of “Siebold’s Magnolia — Magnolia Sieboldii. At the right is one of the many sculptures in the Education Garden, where students have research plots.
Throughout the gardens were ingenious uses of natural materials to make lattices and wattle fences.
This looks like woven Red and Yellow Osier Dogwood.
Near the Education Garden is the small Bonsai House.
This Common Hawthorn (Crataegus monogyna) is about 45 years old. “A hawthorn sprig in the rafters of a home helped to keep ghosts and evil spirits away”.
The 263 Year old Pagoda Tree was fascinating.
Didn’t notice the bird dropping until I looked at the photo.
Has anyone ever seen this brickwork done anywhere else?
There are many massive old trees.
I can’t remember what type of tree this is. I’d hazard a guess of some kind of Oak (from the bark).
Some succulents and cacti in the Arid Collection.
A most interesting Geranium, and the largest Jade Plant I’ve ever seen on the lower right.
Lotus berthelotii threw me, because no way is that a lotus. It’s in the Legume family, native to the Canary Islands. I’ll have to look for it when we go to the Canaries in October!
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.
Part of the Queen’s Garden with Golden Chain Tree espalier.
Another surprise — The Hive Sculpture
The entrance is around the opposite side. It makes a vibrational sound that resembles the humming of bees. Mr. M really liked this.
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.
If only my veggie garden could look like this...
A medley of purple flowers:
The first flower I don’t know, the next two are the “Cuban Lily” — Scilla peruviana. Top right is Oxalis hirta ‘Gothenburg’, bottom right is Asphodelus fistulosus.
This is in the Asparagus family!
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.
The Waterlily House — we almost missed it!
More random observations:
Variegated Lemon Balm — Melissa officinalis ‘Aurea’, decorative urn with Allium, “Handkerchief Tree”- Davidia involucrata (I think someone here at SMGB has one), topiary, pine cone sculpture — it’s about the size of bathtub, European/Eurasian Green Woodpecker, Unicorn at one of the gates, the Palm House Conservatory.
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.
Branches have been pruned perfectly, vertically and horizontally to form a circle.
Wisteria is more badly behaved.
More examples of espaliered trees and vines.
A nice green hued Dogwood
Marianne North Gallery
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.
The lion at the top of the Lion Gate entrance
What a wonderful day at Kew Gardens.
All good things must come to an end.
– Geoffrey Chaucer
Shops at the Kew Railway Station, a few blocks from our little hotel and the gardens.
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.
I have many plans for the buckets and barrels of soil we excavated.
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?
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