Gardens To Visit In Spring And Summer – Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew

The Royal Botanical Gardens is not just a geographical location, it is also the name of the organisation that runs Kew Gardens and Wakehurst Place in Sussex. It is an internationally important botanical research and education institution with a multi-million pound budget.

Kew Gardens, the international botanical force, originated in Kew Park, the 'garden for exotica' created by Lord Capel. The gardens as we know them today were founded by Princess Augusta, the widow of Frederick, Prince of Wales, in 1759. George III went on to enrich the gardens, and in 1892 the buildings of the old Kew Park were torn down to make way for his plans. The Dutch House alongside the site had already purchased by him in 1781 and served as a nursery for the royal children.

Early in the year, Kew has a lot to offer, given that it has lovely warm glasshouse for the keen but chilly gardener! The Palm House was built by architect Decimus Burton and iron-maker Richard Turner between 1844 and 1848, and was the first large-scale structural use of wrought iron. The Temperate house, which is twice as large as the Palm House, followed later, and is now the most extensive Victorian glasshouse in existence. Then it was a long wait until 1987 which saw the opening of Kew's third major conservatory, the Princess of Wales Conservatory which was opened by Princess Diana in commemoration of her predecessor Augusta's associations with Kew. The conservatory houses ten climate zones and most people erroneously believe it commemorates Diana herself.

One of the nicest locations in Kew is the Great Pagoda built in 1762. From the base to the highest point is 163 feet and it's wonderful to think that during World War Two, a hole was cut in each floor from top to bottom and model bombs were dropped down it to test the way they fell and landed – fins on bombs, in other words, result from the Great Pagoda at Kew!

Kew photograph by .martin. used under a creative commons attribution license.