This past weekend I was in the mood to get out of London. I had visions of train rides outside the city to somewhere lovely and beautiful. But, as is so often the case weekend laziness and the desire to sleep in kept that from happening.
Instead, Ryan and I went to Kew Gardens with our friends Adam and Angie. Kew is absolutely wonderful and just as good as a trip outside the city. At one point, Kew was considered the countryside (in the way that uptown Manhattan was once the countryside for downtown). Anyway it’s such a beautiful space, so large, and so charming that it really does feel like being away from the city.
We jumped on a tour and I fell in love pretty much immediately. The tour guide and our walk through Kew melted away my winter blues and showed me that spring is coming. The skies were blue, it was sunny, and I was wearing a light jacket. I know that’s a mean image for my east coast American friends who are enduring snow – but I don’t care. Spring is coming and I saw it.
Our tour guide had such a great way of explaining things. She talked about the “perfumes, the colors, and the shine. Seriously, shine. Look back at the first picture from the top of this post, and that tree on the bottom right shines as if it’s been polished. It’s the kind of thing I would never notice is someone didn’t point it out to me. She would pull down branches and show us tiny buds and flowers that were starting to peak out. She’d point out bright and astounding splashes of color that were showing off through the brown and grays of winter. In addition to lovely plants, we saw a peacock! And that peacock was straight chillin. He was sauntering around, not at all penned in, as if he owned the place.
Kew is also incredible for it’s history. And sure, there were Kings and Queens who were here – but that’s not the cool part. It was at Kew that people started to index all the botanical names of seed plants. This project started in the 1880’s, and has evolved and today is done in partnership with some other organizations. But back then, people were calling plants all kinds of different things and that wasn’t great for medicines and things like that. So this project, directed by Joseph Hooker at Kew, started to name the plants. This place named plants. That’s awesome.
There are also some hugely awesome trees at Kew. In the photo just above this, the tree on the right, and bottom middle, is a weeping beech. The branches grow downwards and then when they touch the ground those branches take root, and form a new tree! Isn’t the crazy!! Why does a tree grow down?! I thought it was beautiful, all gnarled and a bit tragic, but also tall and dignified. But that is not the coolest tree at Kew. The coolest tree is the pagoda tree in the photos below.
This tree is older than the United States. That fact astounds and humbles me. Seriously, I feel humbled by a tree. Because, old is relative. What’s old for a person, for the U.S., for the world, is so varied. This tree dates back to 1760 and was there for the beginning of this wonderful garden. As you can probably see, it’s in slightly rough shape. Over two hundred years will do that to you. There’s a brick wall build around it and metal crutches to hold it up. Our tour guide said that every fix known to man has been done, and while everyone expects it to go soon, no one wants it going under their watch. This tree is important not only because it’s old, but because they believe it was planted on the original acres of land and was one of the first 5 of its kind in the country.
We ended our tour with a trip to the orchid exhibition. Orchids are the biggest show offs don’t you think? What with their vivid colors and crazy shapes, orchids are all “look at me.” And how could you not look at them?! They are gorgeous. I took dozens of close up shots of orchids, but I’ll spare you each individual photo. My favorite orchid is the one in the top right in the photo above. I like that rusty, wine color. I always think of orchids as white or jewel tones, and I like that this one surprised me. Orchids feel special and tropical and like vacation. They’re just wonderful to look at/
And speaking of looking, did you know that insects can see into the ultraviolet spectrum of light? I don’t know if it’s all insects, but some can. In the photo above, in the middle left, that’s an ultraviolet look at an orchid. Kew had a whole room with photos and then changing lights to show the difference in how insects and people see the colors. It was a nice bit a science, and that’s how we ended our trip.
We were at Kew for a few hours, and saw a lot, but in actuality only scratched the surface. We didn’t see the pagoda or the tree top walkway! But it doesn’t matter. I am smitten with Kew and will definitely be going back to see more when the weather warms up.
