I had hoped to get down to the Hillier Gardens this week, or at least to RHS Wisley but time seemed to be against me. And then I remembered that my annual membership to the Romsey garden also includes entry to Kew, which I happened to be passing, (after spending a couple of hours in a thicket of pyracantha – I won) and lo! a parking space right by the Victoria Gate. And I had my spare camera with me (Canon SX260HS) with enough juice to do the visit some justice.
The magnolia blossom in particular, and the concentration, was both a tour de force and a revelation. Nothing gentle about the display, and while the colours are mostly pure whites and soft pinks, with a foray into richer tones, this is an assault on all the senses, a disorienting, fragrant blizzard while the sun shone high in a cerulean sky. Ah, poetry!!
An unexpected pleasure to steal an hour at Kew and one that I shall repeat more often, though I doubt that anything later in the season will match the intense frenzy of the magnolias today. Spring, compressed.
The Teddington Gardener 