Former Botanical Horticulturist at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. The natural world is such a beautiful place, I'm here to share it with you. Far too often we don't appreciate the plants and life around us, I hope we can all open our eyes and be closer to nature.
Would love to know some of the engineering behind this - for example im guessing those cast iron covers in the walkway are a drainage channel? How does the water drain from the beds into that whilst stopping the soil going down and then does that channel go to a mains drain or a soak away?
We were there 3 weeks. The Hive structure and sound was and still is the special attraction for me. Kew Gardens! Thank you for raising the Hive to the dark skies glowing in sound.
Ahh, Azaleas are a subset of Rhododendrons! I'm making a picture-book of garden flowers and have been trying to wrap my head around the differences between Rhododendrons and Azaleas for the past few days so that I accurately label the photos in my book. Your descriptions of the differences are exactly what I've been looking for, and thank you so much for taking the time to make this video!
Hello, thank you for watching! I would say the best time to visit is in the middle of summer and again towards the end of summer once the waterlilies have grown to there full size!
In 2023, we've had the cloudiest, coldest, wettest Jan-May in living memory. Hardly any days of sun this spring. Usually the Kew Rhododenrons are in full bloom by Mid May, but this year they are sparse. Back in the 1970s and 80s they would be much more impressive - thicker and more widepread - than in this video. What happened?
The summer droughts of recent years have been very unfavorable for the Rhododendrons unfortunately. Thankfully there is ongoing work at Kew to renovate areas of the Rhododendron Dell.
Although this is large and spacious, I find the straight paths and borders too austere and not natural and that upper balcony walkway looks a bit rusty and precarious 😳. The U.S. Missouri Botanical Garden Climatron tropical greenhouse has natural winding and gently changing slopes, natural looking waterfall and stream vignettes and occasional benches so young and old can stop for a moment to rest and reflect, you should visit it sometime 😁. Both are nice and very beneficial to city dwellers especially, but very different in style.
We visited Kew last Saturday for the first time and suddenly ‘discovered’ The Hive. I found it very moving and an almost spiritual experience, especially in light of the recent death of Queen Elizabeth II. Thanks for posting. 👏
I visited Kew Gardens about twenty years ago. Unfortunately, I knew very little about roses at that time. The rose garden is really impressive but it is quite, well, monotonous. I prefer mixed borders but I understand that this type of "mono-culture" is much easier to take care of. I spend a lot of time weeding the ground between my perennials, annuals and roses :-) I wonder how much watering the rose garden requires per year, the cost of the water must be enormous.
I hope everyone on the planet will develop love for nature, because some people I know won't even plant a single green in their home because they think that soil is dirty and plants are dirty because they have insects, stupid people
@@thebotanicalgardener9401 thanks for the info! can you recommend anything for our home conservatories? is it a form of bacillus thuringiensis? Im in Australia and we are in winter atm battling them with things like dish soap which isn't doing anything and having to top layer an inch is not really ideal for us. BTi is available in small quantities at 20$ a bag is not very cost efficient long term. I recently tried neem cake as a top layer but it is super hydrophobic and was suffocating the soil in plastic pots, a lot of mold would develop on it also (not to mention the interesting odour lol) then when I pulled off the top layers there were gnats and visible larvae under it...so not sure what happened there as I read it's supposed to help deter the fly and kill off the sciaridae larvae? wish I could work in an amazing place like that! what a life 😍
@@r3ck17rick7 For gnats I recommend a predatory mite called Hypoaspis miles which feeds of fly larvae and doesn't have any negative affects on anything else. It is a very beneficial biological control! I hope this is helpful! We always experiment and try new things. 👍☺
We visited Kew on Sunday and were Totally Amazed by the Hive. It was a Highlight of our visit. Thank you for the 'night view' , just wonderful So thank you for posting the video, MaryE & Family xx
I didn't see any bees. I read that certain rose petals stop heavy bleeding after childbirth I buy a lovely under eye cream , with rose petals in it at Whole foods.
Certain species do yes! Although, Diospyros kaki, the species that produces the large edible fruits you can buy in supermarket doesn't produce fruit reliably in the UK. Sorry I didn't see your question earlier!
