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I do not think anything symbolizes Kew more than the Victorian Palm House. And what could be more appropriate for the lawn in front than a Victorian bedding scheme?
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Victorian Bedding and the Palm House
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Victorian Bedding and the Palm House
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Moving in closer and starting at the back-- ricinus carmentia, Rudbeckia 'Indian Summer,' Petunia 'Blue Daddy' and a scarlet Begonia.
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Looking in the other direction--east--we see the same plants silhouetted against mature trees.
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Victorian Bedding
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Victorian Bedding
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The ricinus is a shrub grown as an annual in this climate. This cultivar of Rudbeckia seems to be quite popular--they also had a huge number of them at Wisley on the Terrace with dark leaved Cannas replacing the ricinus.
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Leaving the Palm House, the promenade to the Orangery is lined with beds of interesting summer plants. One of the beds had this Canna iridiflora ermanii with its demure flowers quite the contrast to the more flamboyant hybrids.
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Canna iridiflora ermanii
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Cannas and Grasses
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Another one of the promenade beds had Canna indica purpurea with Arundo donax in the back, the greyish-green Leymnus racemosus and we can just see a bit of Scaevola 'Blue Wonder' and a Datura sneaking in on the right.
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Well, I was expecting the unexpected, and this was it. A spectacular collection of grasses in a formal planting. Being soft and fluffy, and a sort of "new age" plant, grass gardens are usually designed to be informal. But here at Kew, the Grass Garden was a formal design.
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The Royal Grasses
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The Royal Grasses
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Standing under a Eucalyptus perriniana and looking across one of the hardy Water Lily pools to the grasses.
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The Grass Garden filled a square of about 125 feet on a side and although I am curious to know just how many different grasses it contained it was obviously a lot.
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The Royal Grasses
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The Royal Grasses
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Moving in a bit closer we can see some of the grasses shown on the left in more detail.
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And moving in closer we again see more detail.
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The Royal Grasses
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The Royal Grasses
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Not only is this an outstanding garden, I may have been fortunate enough to arrive a peak time with many of the plantings loaded with mature seed stalks.
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Still interesting in the Rose Garden with a large planting of Rosa 'Arthur Bell' with its yellow fading to light yellow flowers silhouetted against some of Kew's famous old trees.
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Rosa 'Arthur Bell'
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Rosa 'Arthur Bell'
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We always say that we do not show a lot of Roses on GardenWeek--but then we do. What can I say? This one looked great in the late afternoon light.
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