Kew is one of the most amazing gardens in the world, it has an extraordinary diversity of plants over 14,000 trees, and it's all set within a beautiful landscape that has layers of history and heritage associated with it. It's an extraordinary place to visit and and to learn about plants but also learn about nature and learn about the history of this country.
01.Kew’s Old Lions
This is a gingko tree at Kew, also known as a maidenhair tree. It's one of our oldest trees at Kew. We call it an 'old lion' because it dates back to 1762 when it was planted, so we know the actual planting date.
It was planted by princess Augusta and prince Frederick in the creation of the Arboretum.
02.Kew Palace
Kew palace is where the royal family would spend short times but they love living there and this is where the original Botanic Gardens of Kew began.
03.Chinese Pagoda
This is the famous Chinese pagoda. It's one of the oldest buildings of Kew. It was built in 1762 for princess Augusta. It was the height of fashion and form the centre of pleasure gardens which were the basis of the Kew we know today and it's one of several beautiful historic follies guttered through our Kew’s landscape .
04.Waterlily House
This house was designed and built in 1852 by Richard Turner.
The star in here is the Victoria cruziana and this is one of the big water lilies from South America. The leaves can grow to a metre across. It produces about 14 leaves a year, but the amazing thing is that we grow it from seed every single year, so it's one of the biggest annuals that can exist.
We also have the smallest waterlily in the world. We've helped conserve this plant and actually is no longer existing in the wild, so we've actually saved it from extinction
05.The Marianne North Gallery
So we are here in the Marianne North Gallery. At the moment, there are more than 800 paintings in here. As a woman traveling across the world through America first, Australia and South Africa, it’s clearly quite amazing and through her paintings you can see her love for nature.
06.The Arboretum
I describe the arboretum as a living library of of trees, every tree is a page and every tree has a story and that's an amazing part of the Arboretum, a wealth of information and knowledge in the Arboretum.
07.The Princess of Wales Conservatory
The Princess of Wales Conservatory contains 10 different climatic zones, and it's the most complex glass house at Kew.
Because of the structure of the conservatory, you can really feel the environment as you walk through. Starting, for example, the desert, then you go through the rainforest, and when you open the door, you really feel 'oh I'm in the rainforest'.
08.The Davies Alpine House
The Alpine House has been specifically designed to grow plants that occupy that very special nature in the world of the Alpine regions, the parts that are often covered with snow in the winter and then have a very short period in which to grow and flower and attract pollinators and set seed. They often have spectacular flowers. They know how to exist in those very very specific natures, perhaps in in the crack of a rock or or in some sand or gravel or something like that.
09.The Treetop Walkway
We're right in the center of the gardens here at Kew. We're 18 meters high on the treetop walkway. It's a unique experience where you can walk for a hundred meters through the tops of the canopies of some broadleaf trees and conifers and witness trees on a trees level, so you get the different smells, you get the different feelings, you get the wind different temperatures and you see trees from the bird's eye view basically, and see right across the gardens and an experience, a unique opportunity of Kew.
10.The Palm House
The palm house is one of the world's most extraordinary glass house structures built in the 1840s, a unique design, and still stands alone as one of the greatest glass houses in the world. The ribs that run right across were one of the first large uses of wrought iron for a structure like this, so it was constructed in this way so it requires no supporting column so you have this amazing open cathedral-like structure and its really the temple of the balms.
There's a diversity of plants from tropical regions of the world, so visitors can come here see these plants growing as they would be naturally among other tropical plants within this extraordinary glass house and, always, something new happening - new festivals new events new displays - always an incredible landscape just to relax and enjoy.