Today, I left my hotel room and walked a mile and a half down the road to Kew Royal Botanical Gardens. It was cool and a little overcast, but no rain was forecast. So I decided that today would be a good day for a long walk through the park.
Kew Gardens is way too big to do in a single day, or a single trip. I had no chance of seeing it all, so I decided to do a tactical strike and just skim the top. I was a little worried that it wouldn't be fun because it's a cold February for the UK. How pretty would a garden be on a day like today? The answer: real pretty.
I totally underestimated how interesting a garden can be when the green stuff is just bursting out of the ground. There was snow on the ground just weeks ago. Today, the crocuses were flooding the ground beneath naked tree limbs. The light was just right.
There were still some leaves on the ground and most of the trees were just beginning to bud out. And all over the gardens, in swathes of color, tiny flowers were bursting up out of the green, green grass.
Full disclosure: I'm not much of a gardener. I don't like to spend time with my hands thrust in the soil, coaxing life to grow. I get sunburned and overheat in the bright sunlight. That said, I want a nice yard and I adore looking at a well planned garden. Just because I don't want to DO it, it doesn't mean I don't like it.
Kew Gardens has been continuously cultivated for over 250 years. Part of what makes it charming is that visitors are encouraged to walk on the grass, climb the trees and enjoy all the growing things. Not pick the flowers, mind you, but you are not confined to the walkways.
Throughout the giant property, there are greenhouses devoted to specific collections. One of the biggest is the Princess of Wales Conservatory which was hosting a Tropical Extravaganza. An orchid show. All month long.
I felt like I won the national lottery. I love orchids. I've never owned one. I know you have to work at keeping them healthy and getting one would be a guaranteed slow death for one, so I've avoided them. I used to have two employees who raised orchids as a hobby. They talked about it all the time. Did you know that they clone orchids? It's quite a passion for a lot of people. I know enough to know that I don't need to own one, but I dearly love to look at them. The Tropical Extravaganza was colorful, fragrant and glorious.
They displayed the orchids on huge pillars. Combined colors were cultivated on towering heights and different varieties mixed together. I could have spent hours just trying to decide which ones were my favorite. There were huge blooms, tiny blooms. Hanging baskets, wall mounted clusters. More orchids than I've ever known existed.
It was fascinated and beautiful. If you want to see ALL the pictures I took, check this out.
Some of the other highlights of the visit were the Palm House and its formal gardens and guardian statuary and the Davies Alpine House and the Rock Garden.
Like I said, you cannot see it all in a single day. All I could do was skim the big stuff and keep my eyes (and my camera) open to capture all the sights I could see.
Combined with the three mile walk getting there and back, I spent the whole afternoon toddling about, admiring the greenery. I lost count of the number of groups of school kids and 'explorers' wearing red hats doing specific tours. It was a great day to be out and about.
--Sandee Wagner
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