Kew earlies are finally here again!

The day all Kew members long for - 1 May and the 8am opening... I had to wait for today of course but it was worth it....

beautiful blue skies, and warm sunshine 

we headed round to the left of the Palm House to find "Of the Oak" a new interactive installation that is here for summer. 

hope you can enlarge this to read 

or here is the link to website 

either side of the installation are cameras. If you stand on the mat just in front of it, and wave your arms, the blue swirly dots you can see react to your movements. 

if you just sit and watch, it plays a 12 minute video 

it was mesmerising 

this is on the back of the installation 

as we headed to the lake the Egyptian geese and their rapidly growing family raced towards us looking for food.... luckily Kim had some

at the lake itself now

the beautiful mandarin duck was shooing the pigeons away!

several pairs of Canada geese have babies now as we saw last week

the Egyptians came along the path to join in 

the iris by the lakeside are flowering now 

crossing the lake

heading round the other side of the lake 

another gaggle of babies!

we headed back to the cafe as they offer members a free cup of tea or coffee before 10 in May

I had chocolate and beetroot cake with my free tea!

Kim had a pecan Danish

after, we paused at the wisteria hanging over the cafe and shop

before walking round the back of the pond

the gunnera is as always, shooting up!

cow parsley

and the peony beds at the end of the evolution garden 

there are some real whoppers!

we worked our way through the evolution garden 

it'll soon be "proper" poppy time but these are always early

in the student veg garden, they have some gorgeous (and all beds are different) plant labels

I love these ones 

the pergola running through the evolution at the far end near the veg garden, is already flowering.  this variety smelled delicious

wisteria along the back wall of the veg garden

cleamatis at the foot of one of the brick posts on the pergola 

another wisteria along the wall at the far side of the evolution garden

viburnum on the other side of the wall - in the rock garden 

the acer at the intersection is turning colour

scilla, cuban lily 

love this!

the fabulous spiral aloe

alliums in the alpine house 

fir tree between the alpine and POW 

fern in the POW

checking on the titan arum   

the growth chart has been put out yesterday, and the 

inflorescence is starting to bulge, signalling opening before long... 

it was very humid in the POW today so we didn't stay very long

in the arid section

and a flowering cactus

back outside and on the Broad Walk - 

the sprinklers were going

and the alliums have really opened out in the last week 

although most of the tulips are fading now these were illuminated by sun this week

heading over to Kew Palace

most of the huge peonies have shed the petals but one or two remain

formal beds outside Kew Palace

the laburnum arch is still blooming but I would say past it's best

some kind of thistle round the other side of the arch

we headed through the acer garden (this is a tulip tree)

to head to rhododendron dell 

the rope is left from when they rope off the fritillaries, which are long over 

still lots of blooms on all the rhododendrons

they have some stunning varieties

this on the phone gives more of an idea of scale!

most of the camassia have finished, but there is still some left 

it's grown quite tall!  

I love the little paths through that you can walk through 

at the top of the garden close to the river

we came across a big patch of dandelion seedheads. sadly I didn't catch them properly when Kim dispersed them! 

off to the woodland walk 

blogger is doing it's usual with the order...

there is loads of wild garlic still, seems much more this year 

I wish I knew the names of more of the wild flowers

still quite a lot of bluebells too

heading back towards the Temperate House

huge patch of wild garlic - apparently someone put a load in the compost so it got spread under the trees.... I think it looks great personally!

the bird of paradise are flowering

there are several plants dotted around

we weren't sure what these are!

in one of the connecting octagons. 

on our way out 

the tulips in cherry walk are fading now

and the grass is as tall as they are

california poppies and ceanothus in the new part of the Mediterranean garden 

the installation - now very popular!   

as we headed back towards the waterlily house before leaving

white wisteria near the waterlily house

the tulips outside the waterlily house, some are still pretty, lots are fading 

lots of waterlilies inside 

back outside again 

side of the palm house pond 

It was really good to be back at 8 again, for the early entry - shall cherish this until the end of September!

On my way home when I got back to Sutton, I went down the high street as they had a static Spitfire on display as part of the town's VE Day 80 "celebrations" 

so I went to have a look - Mum served in the Wrens in the war, servicing Spitfires

so this was for her! 

there were crowds of kids queuing up to have photos taken by the cockpit 

and lots of the lamp-posts had these silhouette soldiers tied to them and there was bunting everywhere.  

they looked better in the grass at Hampton Court a few years ago, but it was a nice touch

Thanks for looking - see you next week, bright and early again for Kew!