Another early trip to Kew

Have had a few days off work this week, and was keen to go to Kew - the weather has not been favourable but at least today was meant to be dry if not sunny... and it definitely isn't June warm!

So I didn't set the alarm but woke at my normal kind of work waking time anyway, and got to Kew not for the 8 am members opening, but just before 9 anyway.  It was nice and peaceful, and much has grown in the time since I last visited.. sit back, there are lots of photos again.

I started in the rose garden behind the Palm House.. glorious scent, from the early blooming roses.

 shame about the grey skies, but you know I don't doctor my photos!!

wild meadow grasses, I could smell the azaleas in the azalea garden in the distance..

 they were gorgeous!

 more wild grasses, knee high, it was lovely to walk through them (on parts that had already been downtrodden)

 kneeling down for the buttercups

 think this is lilac, it smelt divine

 the beds in front of the Palm House are just beginning to be replanted for summer (ha ha!)

 round the lake, the irises are looking stunning

 and the acid green leaves on this (no name evident) set off the purple to good effect.

 the gunnera is truly gigantica at the moment!

 and until my cousin photographed the flowers on the ones she saw recently at her favourite haunt, I had never noticed or looked at these before.

 luckily the grass wasn't too damp for all my kneeling to get low level photos

up on the top of the hill now, overlooking the rose pergola covering the walkway through the Order Beds

walking down the hill, through the shady wooded area, loved this foxglove

 the roses at ground level, looking gorgeous even in the grey light!

 Peonies...

 lots of peonies!

close up of the roses climbing the wall of the pergola

 California Poppies hoping for some sunshine... not yet sadly, still tightly curled shut

This was a pretty bush, and I've forgotten it's name..








more irises, this was called Carnival

 wisteria, dripping with blooms

 a quick trip inside the Princess of Wales glasshouse found this hanging at headheight over the path

 outside the work on The Hive is coming along, landscaping around it...

looking forward to visiting when it's open (meant to be in a couple of weeks...)

the newly replanted Broad Walk is looking fabulous now, these are about a third of the way down..

and these thistly beauties

 Red Hot Poker..

it's going to look fantastic in a few weeks when there is more out

 inside the Waterlily House, the collection of gourds were notable...the intense heat was playing havoc with the lens constantly misting up so I don't have many good photos in here today...





but the bottle gourds inside the doorway have to be held up in nets to support them

 cistus look great, lots of these out right now

 the Chinese Fringe Tree, that I discovered last year, looking fantastic again

 went inside through the branches to see it from under the branches

I was about to go, when I remembered reading that the Laburnum in the garden by Kew Palace was in bloom...
what a treat,

great pendulous droplets of bright sunshine-y yellow!

heading for the gates I walked past a pond I rarely visit, past some fluffy bullrushes.

 and finally this beautiful blue Ceanothus (Californian Lilac) - long been one of my favourite shrubs - caught my eye.

 four hours - with a short break for coffee and a muffin and a breather - was glad to sit down on the train home!  Thanks for looking; hope you liked them. Which is your favourite?