Kew Gardens visit
- Rhidian Maltby
- Jul 22, 2025
- 4 min read
My visit to Kew Gardens turned out to be one of the hottest days of the summer. Despite the heat, it was a really fantastic day and I had a really good experience which left me feeling enthused about where my career may lead me.
The first view I got as I walked through the gate, was of the historic Palm House, but I wanted to save that for last, so I turned left towards the Winter Garden, which was designed and planted only three years ago in 2022. On the way I could see how the hot summer was affecting the grass, it was yellow and really struggling with the lack of rain we have had this year so far.
I passed a whole section of Lime trees, I had no idea there were so many Lime species. I also noticed that the irrigation was working over time, this would become more apparent as I explored the whole site. I would like to know why they choose to use a spray irrigation pipe rather than a drip pipe, I would have thought a drip pipe would use less water due to the lack of wasted water sprayed on paths and evaporation from the surface of the beds, this is something I shall be looking into.
The Winter Garden was a nice short pathway with many recognisable plants such as Sarcacocca spp, Helaborus spp, Cornus spp and Dryopteris spp ferns, and many others, it still feels like it is in its infancy.
I was then on the path leading to the Temporate House. On the way I could see the struggling lawns once more, but the thing I found most interesting was that the giant Cedrus atlanticas that flanked the path were still looking really healthy and putting on new growth. This reminded me about a book I am reading at the moment, ‘The Hidden Life of Trees’, which outlines how trees store up water and nutrients when then live in areas that don’t have abundant resources, this then helps them when they need to draw on these reserves in times of drought, obviously, they have incredibly large roots systems too, which helps them, unlike the grass which has very shallow roots systems therefore will struggle very quickly when the rain stops falling.
The Temporate House was an incredibly large greenhouse, housing some incredible plants from all around the world, these are the type of plants that usually wouldn’t be seen in this country. It It is the home to some plants that are rare or extinct in the wild, Kew Gardens along with some of their partners have worked together to bring these special plants back.
The Temporate House reopened in 2018 after an extensive refurbishment, and it looks incredible. Find out more here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k8RqhFoe7aA&t=11s
The next stop for me was The Shirley Sherwood Gallery of Botanical Art. This was a fantastic exhibition with some incredible pieces, even though these were hand drawn and painted, some of them looked like they could be photographs. The exhibition also included a mesmerizing video installation by Finnish artist Eija‑Liisa Ahtila (Horizontal–Vaakasuora), a multi-channel homage to a 30-meter spruce, complete with creaking trunk sounds and bird calls.
I then walked for quite a while, following the Larch Walk, Redwood Grove, Riverside Walk, before getting to The Orangery, which used to house the cirtrus plants over winter, but is now just a café, a very nice café though. Outside are some fantastic perennial beds, these are the beds that I am most familiar with as they consist of the plants that I work with on a day to day basis, for example; Eringium spp, Perovskia spp, Salvia spp & Veronicastrum spp etc.
Next was the Broad Walk, which is a formal path way flanked by tall topiary towers of Buxus sumpervirens and lead straight back to the Palm House. On the walk I came across an incredible piece of artwork called the Hive, it is a giant metal structure that you can walk inside, it gets lit up at night time and have low music and sounds vibrating through it, it was very impressive.
Lastly it was time to enter The Palm house. Built between 1844 and 1848, this is an example of outstanding Victorian architecture. It has had two major restorations in it’s life time, one in the 1950s and one in the 1980s, it is just about to go through another one, which will cost approximately £60m, this will have extensive improvements such as rainwater harvesting and other green initiatives.
The Palm House houses one of the oldest potted plants in the world at 250 years old. The heat inside is incredible especially when you go up to the top level, which was almost unbearable, and was quite a amazing to me that plants can live in such environments. I have never been to the rain forest, which the Palm House is trying to replicate, but it is a tough place, and it’s fantastic that we can see these plants thrive here in the UK.
Overall the visit was very educational and inspiring, I would love to come back again as I feel that I have only covered about half the area of the gardens, and have not seen half of the exhibits.
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