Earlier this week, there was a tweet from the Kew Gardens twitter account alerting me (well not only me obviously!) to the magnolias that were flowering well....
The day dawned dull after rain over night but luckily it stayed away for my trip..
They weren't wrong... there are magnolias throughout the gardens, but the main group are in a little grove like area in the arboretum. they always look gorgeous..
there are also younger, prunus trees planted round too, this one was staggering (variety called Collingwood Ingram)
and lots of sunny daffodils...
forsythia
close up of the blooms
from further away...
zooming in...
more close ups!
Palm House framed behind the forsythia
like this one, with the huge tree in soft focus behind the close ups
underplanting with daffodils
Colour from the rhododendron glade beckoned
and hellebores
the glory of the snow has come from nowhere in the two weeks since I was here before
this magnolia was gorgeous - a beautiful scent (Royal Star)
chaenomeles (flowering quince) , vibrant scarlet
Headed up to the Hive... not many people around so did a lying on the floor shot for the first time in months...
view from halfway up the steps to the Hive
view up from the middle tier
and down..
bright citrus green...
I was amused to see the figures from the rickshaws from the orchid festival have been placed outside the princess of wales glasshouse to enjoy the "sun" - love how they look as if they're watching us go by!
in the rock garden, always loved these pasque flowers (pulsatilla)
this peacock was taking a rest in front of the matching bulbs in the bed behind him!
view of the Palm House through another magnolia
this is always one of my favourite spring trees at Kew, looking at it's peak today, I think.
especially this shot!
you should be able to pick out yellow and white in front of the Palm House...
this is what awaits....
beautiful!
there was some kind of photo shoot going on behind the Palm House, looked like some kind of Japanese fashion shoot or something... I pretended to be photographing this bright pink prunus...
but really I was nosing at this...
it amused me to see she was wearing long black trousers and boots under this finery against the cold/damp ground!
after coffee, I went and had a closer look at the Palm House Parterre and the daffodils... the end beds at each end of this are going to be tulips, they are coming into leaf now so it won't be long...
but I put the wide angle on
to get them all in...
the beds are planted with succession planting, so there is lots more to come after the daffodils finish... can't wait to see what!
by now it was lunchtime and I had a longer than normal journey home (replacement buses on my normal route so I was going the three rather than two train way which takes longer) so I headed home, past these huge tubs of daffodils at the exit that I hadn't stopped to look at on the way in 2 and a half hours earlier...
hope you enjoyed today's trip!
