

| The Palm and Temperate Houses are tremendous--you could probably spend the whole day in just one of them! And the Alpine House is quite small--but apparently it always looks great because it is where the finest Alpines grown in the nonpublic glass houses are brought to be put on display when they are at their peak of perfection. With its undulating beds of tiny gravel holding the finest specimens, it was one of the best presentations of Alpines I've seen. Looking this good in early September, I cannot imagine how it would look in the spring! |
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The Palm House was the ultimate jungle--it would bea great place to visit in the winter. Here a red Passion Flower vine dangles in front of a tremendously tall Banana.
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| Just one of the many very tall species of Banana reaching for the top of this very tall glass house. | ||||
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Having seen Abutilons similar to these two very different plants in different gardens, I was most amused to see them growing side by side in the Temperate House.
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| This was a great vine--a South African native, climbing over 30 feet and covered with fragrant Foxglove-like flowers-- not surprisingly in the Bignoniaceae family--looks like a lavender Campsis radicans! | ||||
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My favorite part of the Temperate House was a section in the northeast quarter of the main part housing a splendid collection of tender Rhododendrons--some of which apparently bloom quite profusely throughout the winter.The name says it all--and it was wonderfully fragrant, too.
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| Another tender Rhododendron--and blooming in early September just like everything else in this report. It really would be terrific if Kew could post photos of this whole collection as it blooms. | ||||
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Already seven feet high and still growing, this Bolivian native with its clusters of long slender flowers was an interesting contrast to the modern hybrids shown at Wisley.
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| Moving on to the Alpine House, it is the summer blooming Campanula mollis, native to the western Mediterranean. | ||||
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And a white Campanula.
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| A tender, diminutive member of the Amaryllidaceae family known as the Oxblood Lily. | ||||
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This was one of the most amazing plants I have ever seen. Native to southwest Australia, about the only think I could discover about it is that the common name is Rose Tipped Mulla Mulla--somehow I think the name is appropriate for this plant I am sure Dr. Seuss would have appreciated.
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| A member of the Amaranthaceae family, the stems can hardly hold the puff balls which are so much larger than the small leaves. |
RBG Kew--Water Lilies and Other Tropicals Under Glass
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