Last month’s article was about a personality this month’s article is about a place.
“The Royal Botanic Gardens Kew” Richmond, London.
The gardens plural began in 1759 with Princess Augusta, Mother to George III. Richmond Lodge was itself owned by Augusta then later added to the Gardens of Kew House next to Richmond Lodge. This amalgamation then meant the total of the gardens, were three hundred acres. The first Director, not in name but in fact was the Earl of Bute a botanist of some distinction and the Curator was one William Aiton, who served the gardens for 34 years. Bute was followed by the famous Sir Joseph Banks, under whose direction the collections were greatly augmented and the introduction of exotic plants was accelerate. For a period the gardens were neglected, but in 1841 the gardens and the parkland taken over by the state. Presented by Queen Victoria, with the proviso that they were to be maintained in their semi-wild state.
As a little girl in the last year of primary school I remember the various temples that give Kew its well known form. In the nineties when training as a florist I became conversant with the teaching aids in the gardens where the various plant types were in allotment strips for students to identify umbels and compound umbels being one example of this.
Right here in our village a dear lady that so many of us know, Rheinhild Raistrick has a long connection with Kew and this amazing place has been very much part of her botanical journey.
In early 2000 Rhinehild spent sometime working and recording the wild African Violet in the Tanzanian rainforest the monograph of this species was acquired by Kew and the whole set of 15 paintings are now housed as part of the permanent collection in the Library archives. Also of very
worthy note is the recently completed project of all the orchids Holy Island Lindisfarne. Kew have now acquired the 21 paintings to add to their archive collection. “My thanks to Rheinhild for letting me include these details in this article.”
Kew is internationally known, through out the World and to write about each section of their work would not really be possible in this article. It is a museum a library an archive used for educational in the world of horticulture. Trees, plants of every kind are to be found in gardens and green houses. It is a place to study, research and much much more. Do go and see all of this for yourselves a wonderful day or week out .
Opening hours are daily 10 am to 6pm last entry 5pm. There is a wonderful website to explore, try and learn more of this incredible place.
From a Gardener’s Notebook November 2024