Spent the day at Kew Gardens today. Austin left early by train and bus to spend a couple of hours at the herbarium, checking on some old Australian grass collections. Joy came later by bus, enjoying observing the shops, houses and architecture along the way. Lovely sunny day compared to yesterday’s overcast, cold day in Cambridge. The gardens are much flatter than Melbourne Botanic Gardens and has extensive areas of grassland and parkland. It does have some large glasshouses which allow the growth of plant species from across the world and a wide range of climatic conditions. One day is certainly not enough to take it all in. Joy enjoyed looking through the extensive range of goods on offer at the large gift shop, buying a carry-bag that became regularly used for botanic art classes.

The Temperate House is the world’s largest Victorian glasshouse. After major renovation work over five years, the house had just been reopened shortly before our visit, so the plantings were still rather sparse. It holds some 1,200 plant species from Asia, Australasia, Africa and the Americas.

Odd to see a Pagoda in the gardens. The Great Pagoda was built for Princess Augusta by Sir William Chambers in 1762, and typical of a garden ‘Folly’ of the time. It provides wonderful views across London, but we didn’t get to climb it. Instead, we did go across the Treetop Walkway, which one of us found quite challenging, given a dislike for heights.

The Palm House was completed in 1848 and specialises in growing palms and other tropical and subtropical species. Many of its plants are rare and endangered or even extinct in the wild. Very humid and hot inside, as might be expected.