A warm trip to Kew

 Hello, welcome to Kew.  

Despite the initial cloud, it was a beautiful sunny day (bit too hot)  at Kew

time for my favourite skirt!  

a bit more planting done in the parterre beds in front of the Palm House; the round beds at either end of the pond have been emptied ready for re-planing

the one at the top of the Broad Walk is still full

roses at the start of the Broad Walk 

fading alliums 

further along a drift of poppies

gorgeous roses

before the larger alliums towards the other end of the Broad Walk 

lots of purple this end

geranium

not sure what the other purple is in with the alliums!

the Orangery in the background

another favourite, the colour is developing rapidly - last week they were still very silvery 

fading peony by the Orangery

the wildflowers outside the Bonsai House are stunning 

the bed by the student plots is still mostly daisies this year

along the pergola through the evolution garden 

more poppies as companion planting in the veg garden

each set of posts on the pergola has a different variety

some smell, some don't! 

calendula in the veg beds 

back to roses

time to veer off to the poppies!

that's the new greenhouse in the veg garden

there were loads of poppies, and lots and lots of bees!  (all of which I missed) 

I might have got carried away

dragging myself away

my favourite part of the evolution garden where the echinacea and heleniums etc are, is growing well...

then it was peony time.... oh boy!

the pergola from the other end before we walked back up through the EG on the other side

blogger choosing it's own order

the ceanothus seems to be having a second flush

alpine house from the rock garden,

out of order, can't be faffed to change it.

looking back over the EG

back to the rock garden!

through the woodland garden to get breakfast

trying to find a shady spot, the able was very wobbly

next the waterlily house, open slightly before 10

pitcher plants in the doorway

lotus plant, light through leaves

lots of large flowers on some of the waterlilies

sun was bright through the windows 

semi submerged flower

then over into the Palm House 

the titan arun had long collapses 

huge fan shaped palms 

from the phone - I don't like changing lens inside here it's too humid, not good for the camera 

it was too humid to linger, 

through the wild rose garden

chive flowers 

the heron was at the lake

we got to a bench near the lake crossing and a large family (or families - there were several groups) of Canada goslings rushed up

and two mallard babies

they were trying to find some shade 

having a good peck at their fluffy tail feathers 

sweet chestnut

woodland walk, by the area that used to have the bird feeders

Dave, who runs the Merlin the Magic Squirrel FB page was there, so we chatted a while.

we were rewarded not by blue tits which we've not seen for a while

but Goldie

he was moving fast

but lovely colours!

heading off to the Temperate House 

past Queen Charlotte's cottage ( I thought I had managed to take this over the woman in the bottom corner doing yoga but wasn't quite high enough with the camera!)

they cleared a lot of the rhododendrons over winter so from this direction it is much more open   and planted some young trees instead 

they seem to have staked some of the strawflowers so we could get to see some of them now

then into the Temperate House.

you can't walk down the path here it's for staff access only 

outside into the baking hot

the Mediterranean garden at the end of cherry walk 

I love the colour combination of the blue delphiniums and the California popples 

we finished at the Princess of Wales conservatory

but it was so hot, Kim gave up and I just walked through by the pond and straight out 

before heading 

back past the pond 

and home

for once, timings were on my side and as I came out a bus came and back at Richmond so did the train, I was home in only just over an hour

thanks for looking, see you next week!