A Kew Gardens Miscellany – the Roses (some flower, lots of hips), a glide through the Davies Alpine House and of course, some autumn leafery (see the Ginkgos) …

Getrude Jekyll

Gertrude Jekyll

Rosa canina hips

Rosa canina

Unnamed rambler

Rosa acicularis

Rosa setipoda

Rosa rugosa Thunbergii?

Rosa rugosa

Rosa mulligannii

Rosa mulliganii

Rose du Roi

Rosa Madame Abel Chantenay

Madame Abel Chantenay

Madame Butterfly

Skylark

Sophy’s Rose

Rosa x hibernica

Rosa gallica var officinalis

Lichfield Angel

Grace

Lady of Shalott

Rosa virginiana

Geranium

Mary Rose

Stanwell Perpetual

Rosa virginiana

Stanwell Perpetual

Geranium

Rosa rubrotincta

Rubrotincta

Rosa elegantula Persetosa

Rosa rugosa Alba

Rosa rugosa

Rosa rugosa Alba

Hansa

Claire Austin

Madame Issac Pereire

An unexpected bit of free time today and lo! A parking space by the Victoria Gate which meant I had to stop – and (first things first) smell the roses. Gertrude Jekyll, Stanwell Perpetual and Madame Isaac Pereire brought High Summer right back on a mostly overcast mid-November day. Soul food.

From the Rose Garden, a walk took me through the leaf-strewn lawns to find the grove of Ginkgo trees (amazing) and over past the grass borders (equally amazing) to the Davies Alpine House and out through the rock garden. Off a side path, below and behind the Temple of Aeolus is the Chilean Bell Flower, Lapageria rosea in flower – by more of the lanterns being put in preparation for the seasonal light-fest throughout the gardens – and back around the lake to the Victoria Gate. The magnificent Cotinus obovatus was obligingly backlit and in full stained-glass-window mode. Is is too much to say ‘Awesome’. Well it is!