Visit to the Kew Gardens in February 2013

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Sachi’s mum, Mrs Shinobu Negishi, is interested in plants. There are some gardens where they could offer attractions over the winter period. Kew Gardens is one of them. Hence, I took her there on Wednesday, 13 February.



Like the previous day when they arrived in London, it was bitterly cold on 13 February. Mrs Negishi treated me to the entrance fees for Kew Gardens. On entering the Victorian gate, the Palm House and lake appeared in front of us. She noticed some shrubs opening flowers and found a number of snowdrops, hellebores, etc, on the Woodland Gardens.



Having heard about the orchid exhibition, we headed for the Princess of Wales Conservatory. We firstly strolled through the Dessert room with the collections of cacti, and then looked round the orchid exhibition in the Rainforest room. There were a wide varieties of orchids displayed here and there, e.g. pots, arches, borders, and each of them looked very colourful and attractive, and some of them had distinctive scents. Lots of tourists were strolling through admiring the admirations of the awesome displays. We looked round the Temperate and Sub-arctic rooms, and plants & turtles on the Aquatic display as well.



Next, we approached David Alpine House, and saw a wide variety of plants grown on the mountains.



It was lunch time when we left the Alpine House. I suggested having lunch. I told Mrs Negishi that there are a huge variety of plants and trees collected from all over the world and they have been looked after by the botanists in Kew Gardens. I pointed out the ancient Wisteria, ginkgo tree, and monkey puzzle tree on the way to Orangery Restaurant. As it was a very cold day, we decided to have a hot meal. We shared the fish pie & scone and coffee. There were chunks of salmon, cod, prawn contained in the fish pie.



After the lunch, we walked to the Palm House. The temperature was set for the tropical or sub-tropical climate plants at Palm House. Our glasses got misted up as soon as we entered the Palm House. As well as palm trees and banana plants, we saw a wide variety of plants which are used for producing materials, e.g. papers, music instruments, cosmetic items, ropes, rubbers, medicines for cancer drugs, to name just a few. I explained to my aunt that Kew’s botanists have endeavoured to germinate and restore the endangered plants.



We walked past the rose garden, and headed to Minka House. My aunt found it interesting to see bamboo garden and an authentic thatched house.



I then took her to the viewpoint of the River Thames and Syon House, which is one of the historic houses along the Thames. Next, we walked along the lake and crossed over Sackler Crossing.



She was interested in walking on the vantage point, so I climbed up the step for the Treetop Walkway. In contrast to the scenes of a few months ago, almost all of the trees were bare and we couldn’t see any birds stopping on the branches. We could see the Temperate House, Pagoda, and skylines of Wembley.



David Nash’s sculptures were still on display, and I showed my aunt several wooden sculptures on the ground and Temperate House. We walked on the glasshouse walkway and overlooked plants and sculptures.



Afterwards, we walked past Pagoda, ruined arch, and shrubs of camellias on the way to Victoria Gate. My aunt did a bit of shopping. We flicked through the guidebooks of orchids. It seemed very difficult to grow orchids.

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