The Kew Gardener's Guide to Growing Vegetables: The Art and Science to Grow Your Own Vegetables (7) (Kew Experts)

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I designed the Waterlily House this year, which was really exciting! The house has just opened for the season, so I am busy making sure it looks its best and guiding the plants as they grow. I am using a lot of passion flowers to make tunnels of flowers (best seen from June-September) but lots of the climbers are yet to be convinced that using the supports and wires are a good option. Most of them are trying to break through the roof! The world's smallest water-lily, Nymphaea thermarum, was saved from extinction when it was grown from seed at Kew, in 2009. [101] [102]

The Library, Art & Archives at Kew are one of the world's largest botanical collections, [93] with over half a million items, including books, botanical illustrations, photographs, letters and manuscripts, periodicals, and maps. The Archives, Illustrations, Rare Book collections, Main Library, and Economic Botany Library are housed within the Herbarium building. Following the Japan 2001 festival, [63] Kew acquired a Japanese wooden house called a minka. It was originally erected in around 1900 in a suburb of Okazaki and is now located within the bamboo collection in the west-central part of Kew Gardens. Japanese craftsmen reassembled the framework and British builders who had worked on the Globe Theatre added the mud wall panels. Lancelot 'Capability' Brown (1716–1783)". Kew History & Heritage. Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Archived from the original on 8 October 2012 . Retrieved 16 March 2012. Kew Gardens, together with the botanic gardens at Wakehurst in Sussex, are managed by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, an internationally important botanical research and education institution that employs over 1,100 staff and is a non-departmental public body sponsored by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. [6]The new house features a set of automatically operated blinds that prevent it from overheating when the sun is too hot for the plants together with a system that blows a continuous stream of cool air over the plants. The main design aim of the house is to allow maximum light transmission. To this end the glass is of a special low iron type that allows 90 per cent of the ultraviolet light in sunlight to pass. It is attached by high tension steel cables so that no light is obstructed by traditional glazing bars. Kew's collection of alpine plants (defined as those that grow above the tree line in their locale– ground level at the poles rising to over 2,000 metres (6,562 feet)), extends to over 7000. As the Alpine House can only house around 200 at a time the ones on show are regularly rotated.

To conserve energy the cooling air is not refrigerated but is cooled by being passed through a labyrinth of pipes buried under the house at a depth where the temperature remains suitable all year round. The house is designed so that the maximum temperature should not exceed 20°C (68°F).With authoritative advice from Tony Kirkham and the Kew Gardens team, this is the ultimate companion to growing and planting trees. In addition, there are 12 tree-related projects to inspire every green-fingered gardener. The Arid Collection (including Cactaceae and many other succulent plants) is housed in the Tropical Nursery, the Princess of Wales Conservatory and the Temperate House. [83] The Palm House (1844–1848) was the result of cooperation between architect Decimus Burton and iron founder Richard Turner, [48] and continues upon the glass house design principles developed by John Claudius Loudon [49] [50] and Joseph Paxton. [50] A space frame of wrought iron arches, held together by horizontal tubular structures containing long prestressed cables, [50] [51] supports glass panes which were originally [48] tinted green with copper oxide to reduce the significant heating effect. The 19 metres (62ft) high central nave is surrounded by a walkway at 9 metres (30ft) height, allowing visitors a closer look upon the palm tree crowns. In front of the Palm House on the east side are the Queen's Beasts, ten statues of animals bearing shields. They are Portland stone replicas of originals done by James Woodford and were placed here in 1958. [52] Suffragists burn a pavilion at Kew; Two Arrested and Held Without Bail– One Throws a Book at a Magistrate". The New York Times. 21 February 1913.