Monday, June 26, 2023

A birthday trip to Kew

 Hi, I tacked today onto my week off as it's my birthday, I don't normally take the day off but well, why not.

despite it being my last chance for a lie in I got there for 8am  

dodging the sprinklers again!

as you can see the sun was shining




there were ants dipping in and out of the holes in the scabious

as I walked round by the POW I noticed the water was running down the slates on the water feature over to the left

beautiful bottle brush close to the POW






the bed in the grass garden turned over to flowers


top of the rock garden
agapanthas changing since Friday


















as I walked by the side of the veg garden I noticed an unusual feature - 3 bicycle wheels, I guess they're being used to train veg up. 








perhaps because it's a working day, the student plots were open to walk round already


this bed of cornflowers remains beautiful
and was humming with bees




beds in the evolution garden (blogger is reversing again but I don't have time to change them)



these next 2 are in the student beds





favourites!















sadly only got the butterfly with wings shut

lavetera, Mediterranean garden 
broom - gorgeous huge shrub
it's called Mount Etna broom - I guess cos it looks like it's erupting 


a beautiful white flowered smoke bush















those poppies again on the slope outside the temperate house




the Wander project trail by the Treetop walkway - was going to go up but - no!! the (new) lift is out of order!
wandered back towards the Orangery restaurant
down the far end of the Broad Walk - I told you on Saturday the yew trees needed a haircut - I said as much to one of the men working!




















I sat and waited for the restaurant to open 


















and then had an early pitstop for coffee and birthday cake  (cake was Eton Mess - so strawberry, cream and a bit of  meringue mixed in the icing)

sat outside (listening to Women's Hour on radio 4 before the women's Ashes cricket.  less said about that the better) 

before going round to the POW

these dahlias are outside
the inflourescence on the titan arum is growing














when I went into the cacti section, I was met by these -  loads of flowers (see above)  have opened since Saturday







and a bit further round they were replanting some cacti

passionflower -  in the rainforest bit, blogger is messing with me

back along by the cacti













this was the one I blurred on Saturday

it's called Candellila Gallito and it's a euphorbia













outside the alpine house the work is underway to the decking
you can see how rotten the old bits are
amazing clouds


they were like pillows!  

waterlily house

hibiscus
the new pad is growing fast
beautiful little passionflower by the side of the water

above headhight

up high in the corner
over the door

walked past the palm house
and headed into the temperate house

more passionflowers
coleus 



new iris coming - the ones I saw on Saturday have gone completely

another passionflower (I think) 


these flowers look a bit like the bird of paradise but are related to irises and is called 
aristea platycaulus
nice patterns on it's stems


sat outside for a bit

decoration on the walls 
and the top of the column

looking down at the trees leading up to the TH
more nice clouds












side on view
each of the "trails" has it's own theme.  


heading back to the exit, 

echinops by the exit/entrance.


thanks for looking - hope you've enjoyed my week off, i have to go back to work tomorrow!  


2 comments:

Anonymous said...

It looks so beautiful Helen! We will be visiting the Oxford Botanical Gardens when we go in August. Kew on a smaller scale. Thank you for sharing the beauty of Kew Gardens 😍😍😍

Celtic house said...

A sunny visit for your birthday, hope you had a lovely trip. Your birthday cake treat looks lovely too. The flowers are stunning as always, loving the architectural shots of the buildings too. xx