Kew Gardens-Orchids

Since I was a teenager friends have told me to visit Kew Gardens. ‘It’s beautiful’ they said, ‘you have to go’. Well fifteen years later I finally did!

Last weekend me and my partner booked tickets to visit Kew Gardens and chose our time slot for the temporary indoor exhibition; Orchids.

I’m not sure why it took me thirty years to visit. It could be that it’s the other side of London or the fact that I imagined it just being a pretty garden full of flowers, but how wrong I was!

Kew Gardens is a botanic garden that houses ‘the largest and most diverse botanic and mycological collections in the world’.

And it is huge! We started our day with a walk through the beautiful grounds and as it was a sunny but chilly day, spent some time warming up and looking at the indoor photography exhibition.

As our time slot for Orchids neared, we got in line to show our tickets.

Orchids shows the wonders of Indonesia, all of the stunning tropical plants, volcanoes and other nature that exists there.

I felt like I was back in the jungles of Borneo, it was a wonderful exhibition and experience that we spent an hour and a half taking in.

As the sun started to set, we further explored the grounds and saw the gorgeous Japanese Pagoda.

Neither me or my partner realised Kew Gardens was so vast or had so much to see. We covered only a small part of what it has to offer, so we’ll definitely be back in summer when it’s warm enough to spend the whole day there and take a picnic.

Orchids has been extended and is now on until 15th March. Online tickets for Kew Gardens cost £16.50 for adults and £4.50 for a child.