Kew Gardens excursion

Over the bank holiday weekend, we headed to Kew Gardens - my first time since a school trip a good few years ago. We had booked several months ago, and unfortunately the weather on the day of our visit was predominately rainy. Luckily they are quite a few conservatories at Kew so we headed to the Palm House - one of the largest glasshouses and built in Victorian times. The house plays host to lots of tropical plants including Coco der Mer, bananas, funky giraffe trees and Kew's oldest potted plant (supported by crutches). You can walk around the top of the palm house for a great view of all the plants, plus there is a marine section in the basement with jellyfish, seahorses and lots of other fishes.  

Palm House

Next up was Waterlily House - the Victoria lilies we saw in Oslo were here alongside lots of chillies and we learned that birds can't taste chilli! The dye the water black in here (a safe dye), which creates great reflections in the glasshouse. 

Waterlily House

We had our picnic lunch standing around in the doorway of one of the houses eyeing up the female resident peacock before heading to Princess of Wales Conservatory (cue memory trigger of school trip). We got sidetracked before entering as the rain had stopped so we went into the Rock Garden and Davies Alpine House. After that, we stopped off a cookery demonstration for a bit of risotto - we presumed the chef was using veg and herbs grown in Kew as we were next to a section with lots of edible plants - I tried some mint, super strong.  

Next up, time to brave the Treetop walkway, it was very cool although we did rush around it due to the wind! The lift doors on the upper level look like they are doors to nowhere. 

View from the Treetop Walkway

The lake in front of the Palm House is currently playing host to Bompas & Parr's Tutti Frutti Boating Experience - part of the bigger IncrEdibles exhibition. We were given polarising glasses which made everything pretty trippy and boarded our rowing boats. The banana grotto under Pineapple Island is very small, you enter through banana scented mist and here, your glasses come into their own.

Playing with my polarising glasses in the pub