Have been in existence for over 250 years. The area of the whole complex – gardens and greenhouses, occupies 132 hectares. The gardens are included in the UNESCO list of sites because of the large number of living plants in the collection. The herbarium of Kew Gardens has over 7 million specimens. There are many sites to see – Lily House, Kew Palace, Palm House, Alpine House. Flower festivals, concerts, and exhibitions are held. In winter, an ice skating rink is poured.
Kew Gardens, or more precisely the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, is a botanical garden. Horticulture in Britain is a national hobby, a situation that has persisted for centuries, and most importantly, for many centuries Britain has been famous for breeding, which means breeding and adapting new varieties of plants, and before that, bringing new plants to Europe from the many English overseas colonies and introducing them into use. Therefore, the royal botanical gardens here have existed for a long time – originally they were created just for new plants brought to the court from the colonies.
Seagoing ships carried not only gold and freshly drawn maps to England, they often carried animal and plant specimens (trying to choose either very beautiful and unusual, or able to be of practical use). Plants were usually planted in the greenhouses of the royal parks, trying to breed them and adapt them to the European climate, and so in 1759 it was decided to create a separate garden for such cases.
At that time there was a garden of exotic plants, and the royal family bought it, significantly enlarged it and built several interesting buildings. Since then, the collection has only grown.
In 1840 the garden received the status of a national botanical garden, and other collections appeared in it: herbaria, drawings, seeds, etc.
About the plant collection
Now it is the largest botanical garden in the world – it cultivates more than 30 thousand different varieties of living plants, has a large horticultural library and an archive of drawings, a research center, a breeding center and a large seed bank. Scientific work is constantly being done there in various fields of horticulture, of all kinds, and it is one of the most respected organizations in the world in this field.
Kew Gardens covers an area of 121 hectares and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
The garden is a large enclosed space planted with lawn grass. Paths are laid out, but most of the land is enclosed just so – a well-kept, trimmed lawn, and it’s worth considering when choosing shoes and clothing to visit. On these lawns grow trees, of all sorts, of all kinds: some are common, some are rare, the latter predominate. There are also many flowerbeds, alleys and interesting buildings.
In a separate greenhouse at Alpine House is a collection of alpine plants. At Kew Gardens, there are high-altitude plants that are hard to see in nature – they grow too high.
Another famous greenhouse is Palm House, the Palm House, which contains a collection of tropical palms. This interesting building was built in 1844 and has not changed shape since then.
Also in the garden is a building called The Orangery, which is the oldest building here, built just after it was purchased – in 1761 – by the very famous architect William Chambers. Originally the Orangery, it was now a restaurant inside.
The next building is Temperate House, a greenhouse for temperate plants from around the world. It was built in 1859 and is notable for the fact that it has survived – it is the largest Victorian greenhouse surviving in the world.
Waterlily House is the water lily greenhouse. It is the warmest of all the greenhouses, and most of it is occupied by an artificial pond in which various lilies grow. The most remarkable and famous exhibit is the Amazon lily (or Victoria amazonica), which we all know from school biology textbooks, has leaves up to 3 meters in diameter.
Princess of Wales Conservatory – a new greenhouse, in which in one building recreated as many as 10 microclimatic zones, so in the greenhouse you can find simultaneously cacti, orchids, water lilies, bromeliads, carnivorous plants, and more.
Also in the garden are Kew Palace – Kew Palace, owned by the crown, a very nice little building, the Nash Conservatory – a glazed pavilion usually closed to the public and used for private celebrations (weddings, etc.), two botanical art galleries and several decorative buildings.
The most famous attraction is probably the Treetop walkway, the treetop path. At a height of 18 m there is a walkway on poles along the tops of the trees. It is well fenced, doesn’t wobble, and offers a stunning view of the park. The entertainment is sure to please the children.
About half of the area is open space, with different varieties of trees growing one at a time. The visitor is invited to wander around the park and look at them, periodically entering the greenhouses and greenhouses.