When I was in London in early June I took a trip (en route to my friends house for the night) to The Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew. It is somewhere that I have wanted to go for a very long time and I was not disappointed. The Gardens were founded in 1759 and became a UNESCO World Heritage site in 2003.
The Victorian greenhouses were amazing - the temperate house, the tropical house and my all time favourite the water-lily house. I climbed the spiral staircases to the roof terrace in the temperate and tropical houses and walked in the footsteps of many many people since the Victorian era.....
The giant tree ferns from the Victorian walkway.
The world's oldest pot plant (above) also resides in a glasshouse in Kew. It was collected by Kew Garden's first plant collector, Francis Masson, in South Africa in 1773 and after enduring a long sea voyage it arrived at Kew Gardens in 1775. It is a cycad, called Enchepalartos altensteinii and apparently in the wild (although rare now) cycads can live for 2500 years!
The water lily house was just stunning! I wish I could have taken a panoramic photo of it.
Lotus Flower
I climbed to the top of the Xstrata walkway, high up in the tree tops. I did wait till after all the school children had gone home and I climbed the 90ft into the sky and wandered along the walkway, wondering for a while why I was up there, when I don't like heights.
Peacock feathers
Mr Peacock himself!
Cactus House
All in all a glorious day with plenty to keep all amused - places for family picnics, beautiful flowers, glasshouses, squirrels and birds.......
6 comments:
These are just gorgeous photographs! One of my favorite places here is Longwoods Garden which seems like a miniature newer version. I would love to visit Kew Gardens!
Haha - when you said longest living pot plant I thought you meant marijuana LOL. It looks like a gorgeous place to visit - how can I possibly manage - I have a month of activities to cram into just a few days!!!!
Looks absolutely amazing. I've never been there, despite many visits to London. It's definetely on my "must see" list for my next visit!
Hee hee... I had to add that when I was telling Craig about this, he thought you meant marijuana too! Ah well. It was worth the chuckle.
I can almost smell the flowers. What a lovely place! Thank you for that. :)
X
This iis great
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