Photos by H: Kew - still sunny, but cold today

The sunshine was pleasant but it was much colder than last week, but we found lots to look at...

there was more sun whilst we were waiting outside, but it started to cloud over...

the round beds at either end are sprinhing into life

the Crown Fritillary are looking good in yellow and orange/red

we decided to head for the Princess of Wales first to warm up as we'd got cold outside

little blue flowers under a tree

inside the POW

had to take this over the display unit it's in. looked like spiky hair

these are flowering again and now the orchids are gone you can stop and enjoy them

the jade vine is on display again too

it was nice to be able to go to the upper level again now

hanging overhead

little yellow passionflower

then it was back down to the lower level...

the leafy part of the titan arum,

stem

I tried to photograph the display that shows the stages it goes through - upper left, leaf stage - so it will die back and hopefully form a seed that will later flower (inflouresce)

Kew's social media pages have been talking about this during the week -

hopefully you can read this.

it's in a display case in the orchid room, hence all the reflections in the pictures that I couldn't avoid

I was surprised to see it still flowering as it is another short-lived one but as it is the first time it's flowered in the UK there weren't sure how long it would last.

it had drawn quite a crowd

on my phone

these are some of the permanent orchids that are on show

upstairs again, in the fern room

downstairs near the exit

alpine house

hellebore in the rock garden

quick walk through the evolution garden

edgworthia

I will be so pleased to ditch the hat and thick coat!!

tree near the back of the POW bursting forth

Kim had seen this last week with the curly bits - there were a few left still

they look like ribbons on a present!

chaenomoles (if that is the right spelling)

the small tree magnolias are still quite tightly budded but the sun caught the fluffy exterior!

we cut across the Broad Walk

and headed towards the huge magnolias that were starting to flower last week... it's been very mild and sunny this week so.....

we were in luck... much more flower

the ones on the side of the path as you approach the huge ones are not fully open still

blue behind us....

grey behind the huge trees

it was coming and going

there were a couple of trees with flowers lower down

then the prunus

we headed down rhododendron dell... they are starting to come into flower, but it's still frosty so I hope they are ok.

this was a gorgeous hellebore

camellias were pretty

at the lake

there weren't many birds about

so we proceeded past the treetop walkway

the davies exploration house (daisies) was locked for some reason

so into the Temperate House

growing at the top of one of the supports

in the extinction section

we headed round to the pavilion cafe for refreshments "breakfast" although it was nearly noon...

they don't have much cake selection (none at all really, just a few pastries..)

but it was still ok to sit outside

from there we headed up to the Japanese garden

where we found more blossom out

lichen covered branch

Kim thought the fallen petals under these tree looked like a reflection.. I had the wrong lens on really!

there were several bumble bees but I kept missing them

ribes, flowering currant

at this point Kim decided she'd go to the woodland to see if there were any birds about, I headed for the exit - the trains were affected by engineering works for part of my journey today so it would take me longer than normal, and I wanted to be home for the rugby...