A Grand Day Out

Spotting that there was an art installation and exhibitions celebrating trees, I decided to visit Kew Gardens for my Flower Friday fix today.

I arrived early to make sure I could park and was the first public visitor through the gates at 10am! I had a lovely wander with a couple of breaks for coffee and lunch (sadly missed out on the afternoon ice cream) and didn't leave until well after 5pm ( and over 16k steps according to my iPhone).

I concentrated on areas of the garden I missed in my last visit nearly 2 years ago, but in particular the Shirly Sherwood Gallery of Botanical Art, which was exhibiting botanical drawings featuring trees, and the Marianne North Gallery next door. The drawings were wonderful, but I was really struck by the latter which houses a permanent exhibition of 832 oil paintings by the Victorian artist Marianne North. She defied convention to travel the world solo recording tropical and exotic plants, and choosing to paint them in their natural settings. Her work is a powerful record of the dramatic landscapes she visited and the plants that inhabit them - years ahead of the invention of colour photography.  

One of my last ports of call was the art installation, Of the Oak  by Marshmallow Laser Feast which celebrates the adjacent and oldest oak in the garden, the Lucombe Oak.  This huge video screen shows the tree and its intricate internal life networks through the seasons and day accompanied by sound. A big attraction for children and adults alike is that it is interactive with the flow of energy following the movement people in front of the screen - an everchanging and fascinating display.  The extra is just one grab shot.

There was just time to visit the Waterlily House hosting one of the worlds giant waterlilies, the Amazon waterlily, whose pads could support a small child (though probably not attempted in today's more sensitive environment!)  The pads are still growing and any flowers are in bud or decaying, but I noticed a rather nice smaller specimen growing as a companion plant for my blip today.