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Charmed by Kew Gardens' treasures

Steve McKenna is charmed by the bucolic surrounds at Kew, well away from London's hustle and bustle.

In the last 15 minutes, three huge airplanes have flown over my head. I must admit, I hadn’t noticed. It was only when my friend mentioned them that I glanced up and saw the last plane painting a vapour trail through the radiant blue sky. Kew Gardens, you see, had cast its spell on me.

Hugging the River Thames in south-west London, the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew (to use its official name) sits under the flight path of one of the world’s busiest airports.

Heathrow’s proximity, however, doesn’t shatter the tranquil aura that pervades this 132-hectare UNESCO World Heritage Site. One of London’s most cherished attractions, Kew pulls in two million visitors a year.

Strolling through its giant, enchanting arboretum, past families picnicking in the shadows of oak and chestnut trees and couples cuddled up on the grass beside a quaint thatched cottage, basking in the sunshine, reading books and daydreaming away, it kind of feels as if we’re in the middle of the English countryside.

Floral gardens pepper Kew. Picture: Steve McKenna

Yet eye-catching clusters of Atlas cedars, Antarctic beech, Himalayan bamboos, Norwegian maples and Chilean monkey puzzles - not to mention a Chinese-style pagoda, a Japanese minka and Greco-Roman-esque follies - hammer home the fact that we’re somewhere rather unique; one that’s stamped with global flavours.

Kew is dotted with historic buildings, art galleries, ponds and other man-made features, but its over-riding allure is the natural, with the gardens boasting the planet’s largest and most diverse collection of living plants. About 30,000 flowering species are sprinkled around the arboretum, while a herbarium hides over seven million preserved plant specimens - many gathered by legendary scientists and explorers like Charles Darwin and David Livingstone.

Kew was established, in 1759, on a three hectare plot of land near Kew Palace, a stately red-brick retreat of George III. Known as ’Mad King’ George to some, the monarch - the grandfather of Queen Victoria - was also dubbed ’Farmer George’, such was his love of agriculture and country living.

Kew really started to blossom under the esteemed eye of Joseph Banks, a botanist on Captain James Cook’s first round-the-world seafaring expedition. Banks - who had collected eucalypts, Acacias and Banksias from New South Wales, and other exotic flora from Latin America, Tahiti, New Zealand and Java - was appointed by George III to oversee the gardens’ expansion. During Banks’ tenure, Kew became one of the world’s leading horticultural research and conservation centres - as well as an inspiration to green-fingered souls who coveted their own desirable back gardens.

The Treetop Walkway gives great views of Kew and further afield. Picture: Steve McKenna

Kew’s reputation - and plant collection - has continued to grow, and the Australian links remain strong. Richard Barley, the gardens’ current director of horticulture, is a Victorian who spent a decade working at the Royal Botanic Gardens in Melbourne.

One of Kew’s most notable 21st century additions, meanwhile, is the Wollemi pine. Believed to have been extinct for two million years, a clutch of these jurassic-era relics were spotted in a rainforest gorge in the Wollemi National Park by a NSW National Parks officer in 1994. Seeds were gifted to Kew and, in 2005, Sir David Attenborough planted a Wollemi pine here - the first planted (outdoors) outside of Australia.

There’s a whiff of the Australian rainforests - and those of other tropical regions, stretching from Africa to the Pacific - in the Palm House, one of Kew’s iconic iron-and-glass buildings. Flourishing within its sticky, moist air is a wealth of towering tropical palms, yielding bananas, papayas and coconuts, as well as rubber, mangos and cocoa.

It’s a pleasant English summer’s day - about 22C - but when we exit the hot, humid Palm House, it suddenly feels as if we’ve time-travelled into late-autumn (it’s akin to swapping the steamy streets of Bangkok for one of its air-conditioned malls). Even warmer is the Palm House’s neighbouring Waterlily House - a snug haven of tropical and ornamental aquatic plants, such as the giant Victoria cruziana lilly from Bolivia.

We find the climate more comfortable in Kew’s arid and alpine conservatories, whose exhibits comprise orchids, cacti and crocuses. Incidentally, the Temperate House - Kew’s largest remaining Victorian glasshouse - is closed for restoration until 2018.

The Rhizotron and Xstrata Treetop Walkway is an al fresco crowd-puller, giving you the chance to survey not only the canopies of oak, sweet chestnut and lime trees - 18 metres above the ground - but also the rest of Kew and, further afield, central London.

Kew's collection includes a huge stock of wild orchids. Picture: Steve McKenna

"Wow, this is so cool," says one little girl, to her dad, as she breathes in the bird’s eye views, then hops, skips and jumps along this so-called ’wobbling’ walkway (Kew says the structure is designed to ’flex slightly in the wind’).

Children also love Climbers and Creepers, an interactive indoor play area where they can wriggle through tunnels and slide down flowery-looking installations. Elsewhere in Kew, educational hands-on displays reveal how many plants - such as aloe vera, Madagascan periwinkle and peppermint - have, for thousands of years, been exploited for medicinal and therapeutic purposes.

Kew’s character changes with the seasons. Spring, for example, is a treat for flower lovers, when beds of magnolias, camellias and rhododendrons vault to life. In autumn, the gardens ooze a golden leafy ambience, and in winter - when many leaves have fallen - there’s a stark beauty, especially when everything is blanketed in snow.

Summertime heralds a raft of outdoor activities. This year, one of the most popular experiences is the Barefoot Walk - a trail in which you and your shoeless feet tread logs and boulders and stomp through mud. "Mummy, it’s like Play-Doh," says the boy in front, squelching through. "No - it’s like poo!" says his sister, cackling away.

Afterwards, I join the queue for the taps, where people are washing dirt from their bare feet. The tap area is surrounded by muddy puddles and I wonder how I’m going to get to clean, dry land while keeping my newly-washed feet clean.

I decide to take a short cut by straddling the wooden barriers around the taps and leaping onto a patch of grass that looks dry, but, which, it turns out, is actually drenched.

I end up aquaplaning, slipping, falling flat on - and dampening - my derriere. A tip: don’t take a short cut. Be patient. Find a better way out. Walking round Kew with wet shorts and a soily shirt isn’t recommended.It’s at times like these that you could do with a stiff drink. Kew has heaps of refuelling spots, including cafes and snack booths, and in summer, a gin and tonic garden.

The most enticing rest-stop is arguably the Orangery. Built in 1761, this one-time hothouse for citrus plants now houses an elegant restaurant a stone’s throw from Kew Palace (which you can also step inside and peruse its period decor). When planning a trip to Kew, don’t make the mistake we did - which was to have a lazy lie-in, followed by an idle brunch, meaning we didn’t arrive til the afternoon.

Kew is definitely worth a whole day of your time. Even if you tire of the gardens - and that would be difficult, because they are so varied and photogenic, and you could easily spend a few hours simply dozing on the grass - the district of Kew rewards exploration. One of London’s loveliest villages, it’s sprinkled with handsome million pound mansions, independent boutiques and bookshops and myriad places in which to pause for tea, coffee and people-watching. Plane-spotting, too, if you’d prefer.

FACT FILE


  • Admission prices to Kew are £15 ($26) for adults and £14 for concessions, with free entry for children under 16 who are accompanied by an adult. The gardens open at 9.30am, but closing times vary throughout the year. See kew.org for help in planning your visit.


  • The most convenient station if coming from central London is Kew Gardens, which is connected to both the London Overground and Underground. It’s a five-minute walk from Victoria Gate, Kew’s main entrance. See tfl.gov.uk for transport information.


  • Visit London: visitlondon.com