Gardens Worth Visiting: Kew

In 1998, on my first visit to the UK, I spent a week in London. One day, I set off on the Underground to visit The Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew – and was totally blown away by the beauty I found. I spent the whole day at Kew, staying (if I remember correctly) until they threw me out at closing time.  And I seem to have spent most of my time either snapping the shutter on my camera or with my eyes popping and my mouth hanging open.

I was still a novice gardener at this point in my life, so what was most exciting about my first visit to Kew was discovering new plants. When I look back at the photographs I took that day, I seem to have been most taken with the discovery of plants grown in more temperate and tropical climates and with new varieties of familiar plants. I was particularly excited to get my first glimpse of a Bird of Paradise (Strelitzia reginae) bloom and to suddenly understand its name. Among the familiar plants, I spent hours looking at varieties of poppies, roses, irises, and rhododendron.

By the time I visited Kew Gardens again a few years later, I was at a different stage in my development as a gardener, and I saw the gardens differently. I still took hundreds of close-up photos of beautiful blooms,

but I also paid attention this time to the aesthetic effects created by combinations of plants and the layout of plants in the landscape,

and to trees.

	An exhibit of African stone sculptures placed in the landscape was a special treat during this visit to Kew. (The combination of beautiful gardens and beautiful art is my idea of heaven.) Among my favorites were these birds nestled in a meadow
	and these children playing leapfrog in the grass.

When I look back on this last visit to Kew Gardens, one of the things that surprises me is that I kept no record to identify plants. It’s time for me to go back to Kew again. The gardens have changed since I was there last, and so have I. I would love to experience the Xstrata treetop walkway. This time, I would pay attention to plant identification, making special notes on those that might be suitable for my own garden. Having recently read Andrea Wulf’s The Brother Gardeners, which includes an account of the origins of the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew, I would also pay much more attention to the geographic origins of the plants and to the order beds, where herbaceous plants are arranged according to botanic classifications.

Kew Gardens is open every day except Christmas eve and Christmas. It is easily accessible by public transport, and once inside the gardens, you can take advantage of the Kew Explorer for getting around. If you have never visited Kew Gardens, I recommend that you add it to your wish list!