Kew Royal Botanical Gardens, 2021

We visited Kew in 2016, and I did two longish posts (https://roadeveron.blogspot.com/2016/09/kew-gardens-1.html and https://roadeveron.blogspot.com/2016/09/kew-gardens-2.html) that pretty much capture what we saw that day. If you like plants, gardens, and such, and the science that goes with them, you have to see Kew. There's nothing better. I'll try to keep it shorter this time, just what was new to us or otherwise special. We pretty much opened and closed the place July 23rd.

Kew is colossally huge: we could go a couple more times
and hardly see it all

New to us department: the Marianne North collection and gallery...
an intrepid Victorian woman who traveled the world more or less
solo for many years, painting the scenes, mostly plants, that she saw;
not that she was poorly connected...her dad was an MP and an
associate of the director of Kew...she visited Australia and New 
Zealand on the advice of one Charles Darwin...anyhow, about a
thousand of her oil paintings are on display at the building she
funded and built; it is the only permanent solo display of art by a
woman in the UK and well worth some time, even at the expense
of other wonders at Kew

Also new to us: the "temperate" building(s) were closed for
renovation when we were there in 2016--they were closed for some
years, and one can understand why, looking at how all the plants
work themselves not only into the ground but also the structure
itself; it's back open now, but we suspect the "palm" building is
in even greater need of renovation

Emerging tree fern frond; we've seen cousins in New
Zealand

Golden lotus banana (flower)

Also new and startling to us: the kiwi is not a kiwi after all:
the Chinese gooseberry was exported and first planted in New
Zealand in the early 20th; WWII personnel stationed there
picked up the name and carried the association with NZ; my 
world is forever changed...

Interior of the Temperate House: the plants are
already taking back over...

Back outside traversing the enormous grounds, admiring the
enormous trees and such

London plane trees are popular in London...our Bloomsbury
neighborhood is loaded with them--this is a particularly large
and old specimen; the 2nd largest and oldest is about a block
away from our flat...

Also new to us: Kew Palace, the sometime abode of King George III,
one of England's least popular kings (after John and the Charles, and
maybe some others); compared with other royal palaces it's just a
cubby-hole

George and Queen Charlotte had fifteen (15) children, as
imaginatively represented here

Two of them, George IV and a William eventually ascended
the throne; but you have to go pretty far down the list to find
a legitimate heir after William...the daughter of Edward, Victoria,
who outlasted and out-bred them all

A bit of the modest interior

Throne Room

Back outside, a particularly nice Monkey Puzzle

Now on the humongous boardwalk with its bed after bed...and
excellent signage

Later July, but still plenty to appreciate as we make our way 
to the Princess of Wales buildings and the Evolution Garden

In the ever-popular giant-lily-pad-that-ate-Cleveland house

New entry emerging from the primordial pond

Another emergent

Rebecca, Penelope: this is what carrots look like, above-ground

Last stop of the day was the Palm House

Emerging palm

Ebony: really is black

More emerging

Plants have completely taken over

Next time we're here we'll probably be riding around in one of
these