Magnolias – A grand display at Kew …. @kewgardens #springatkew #magnoliawatch

Magnolia campbellii (above and below) A chill hour spent in Kew Gardens but mightily impressed with the Magnolias - all I went to see and I confess I was not optimistic about seeing so much in flower, a delightfully grand show. Such a glorious sugar confection of pinks and white! I had been thinking we…

A gander at some star attractions at Kew Gardens today

The Chokushi-mon and Japanese Landscape at Kew Gardens today Chaenomeles speciosa adding some bright scarlet highlights to the many greens of the Japanese Landscape. Iris unguicularis elsewhere adds bright blue elsewhere in the scheme. Green, however, is the unifying theme. Prunus cerasifera is one of the first trees to come into blossom - you might…

Willkommen, bienvenue, welcome! Here life is beautiful. Even the orchids are beautiful…. The view from Kew.

Such a cold wet blustery day - outside - but inside the Princess of Wales Conservatory at Kew this afternoon, life is indeed Beautiful. Especially the orchestra Orchids! The annual orchid festival - Alluring Orchids - started last weekend and goes on until March. It is a riot of colour. Some of these huge displays…

Teddington Gardener Review of the Year – January 2014 – at Wisley and Kew. Winter breaks early.

JANUARY - Hamamelis x intermedia Orange Peel Cornus alba Sibirica in container displays at Wisley Rhododendron nobleanum Album Prunus himalaica Hydrangea paniculata Galanthus elwesii Sarcococca confusa Dogwoods at Kew and the Alpine House from the Grass Borders Galanthus elwesii at Kew and Berberis (below) Chimonathus praecox Grandiflorus Prunus subhirtella Autumnalis and Chaenomeles speciosa at the…

Gilded Trees – Ginkgo biloba and Parrotia persica at Kew Gardens – liquid gold, ruby & emerald

Ginko biloba - the prehistoric Maidenhair Tree, with a weeping form which is even more of an absolute gold mine, still, with generally larger leaves and longer leaf-stalks than its upright neighbours. Parrotia persica (below) gold with flashes of red and emerald. and finally, a Grandstand Wisteria... Just half an hour today at Kew Gardens…

This time around, a final Kew Gardens Miscellany – woodlandy, watery, with a little bird life and some proper Art

A grove, as far as I could tell, of Zanthoxylum .. The Botanical Art collection in this uber-stylish building... That's Magnolia stellata arching over the Camellia Walk and finally, Henry Moore, newly installed Reclining Mother with Child (1975-6).

A Kew Gardens Miscellany – Alpines, Trees and Random Autumn Stuff

Nerine flexuosa in the Davies Alpine House at Kew. Scilla maderense (below) This clam shell construction lies at the head of the Rock Garden, next to the Princess of Wales' Conservatory and the Grass Borders. Actually there wasn't a great deal to see in the Alpine House this time - a few cyclamen, Paperwhite narcissus…

Golden brown, texture like sun – the Grass Borders at Kew Gardens

The Grass Borders at Kew Gardens, another part of these gardens that really is at its peak at this time of year. Catching the late afternoon sun, the stems and seed heads are glowing in every shade of gold imaginable. A perfect place to see a whole catalogue of grasses, how large they grow, their…

Glorious Salvias at Kew Gardens

This very long border, packed full of all manner of Salvias, is looking just glorious - despite it being the 20th November - a late triumph of colour, with dark blue-blacks and palest blues, indigos and purples, reds, pinks, cerise and carmine set against typically aromatic leaves. These are tender, half-hardy and borderline hardy plants…