Have you ever been to Kew Gardens? It is a famous place - relatively on my doorstep - SW London) but I had never previously been. I met up with my friend Jo for a visit a few weeks back (really behind with my blogs - ha!)
Why is Kew famous? Kew Gardens is a botanic garden that houses the largest and most diverse botanical and mycological (fungi) collections in the world. It was founded in 1840 from the exotic garden that was Kew Park. It consists of 330 acres at Richmond on Thames. It has 4 Grade 1 Listed buildings - huge complex glass houses plus 36 other Grade 2 buildings all set in a internationally significant landscape. It is of course a World Heritage Site.
Kew retains enormous expertise - has some of the world's most rare plants and is a repository for seeds etc. Kew Science is helping stop biodiversity loss and develop nature based solutions to some of humanity's biggest global challenges. It is a charitable organisation and clearly worthwhile supporting.
If you are into plants and fungi then this is the place to go. However if you are a layman like me - and just want to enjoy nature, its beauty, its variety , its scope - to see the amazing and the exotic then you cannot fail with a day out at Kew. It is a great place to visit - a wonderful relaxed day out.
Kew might have a number of huge glasshouses but it is predominantly an open parkland - an arboretum - full of wonderful established trees - many of which are ancient - some incredible oaks. You can just wander and get away from people. One tip - take a picnic - there is so much space and the commercial food outlets on the site are inevitably pricey and not great (typically).
The glasshouses are in themselves stunning. Several are Victorian in origin. They are huge - feats of engineering in themselves. But of course their purpose is to create specific climate conditions so plants collected from all around the world can be seen, thrive and be protected. They can create rain forest conditions for instance.
I attach some mob photos. In most instances I do not know what the plants are - but it didn't matter to us. I would recommend a visit without hesitation.
