Have you ever visited Kew Gardens? These botanical gardens are based out near Kew in London (as the name suggests!) and are an amazing green space with tonnes of specimens of different plants and trees from all over the world, with hot weather species in the famous green houses.
Gorgeous planting in front of the main tropical greenhouse from Victorian times.
The more modern Princess of Wales greenhouse and fantastic pool planting
Whilst the gardens are fantastic in the summer for picnics etc, Kew always has interesting events and installations or exhibitions going on.
Some of the ones I’ve seen in recent years include <add links gin club outings>
The Hive
Exterior of The Hive installation/sculpture
This year the large interactive installation at Kew is The Hive. This installation was originally created as the centrepiece of the UK Pavilion at the Milan Expo in 2015 and has been moved to Kew now until November 2017.
It is the design of UK based artist Wolfgang Buttress. It is an open air structure constructed from around 170,000 parts including thousands of pieces of aluminium which catch the changing sunlight.
Entry to The Hive is included with day admission to Kew Gardens.
What is it?
It’s a large metal and glass structure that is all overlapping similar (but slightly different) hexagonal shapes built up to represent a hive structure.
Inside there are lights and music that represent the activity of a nearby bee hive. When you enter you experience to the activity of the hive and it’s really magical! There are 1,000 LED lights dotted around its core which glow and fade, while a unique soundtrack hums in response to the activity of real bees in a beehive behind the scenes at Kew.
Looking up from inside the Hive – it was a quiet time with not many lights or much music
My parents enjoyed the Hive!
Can you see the red lights?!
Looking up into the main body of the Hive from underneath – hello I see you!
The rest of the gardens
To see The Hive you need a ticket for Kew Gardens. So why not check them out whilst you’re there?! There is lots to see:
Great varigated varieties!
Curious cacti
Wonderful water lilies
Those water lilies can hold a relatively high weight. I remember watching Blue Peter as a child and seeing a little girl sit on one!
My sister, Sarah, jumping for joy because we found the pagoda!
The art galleries – there is a great Japanese plant exhibition on at the moment
The greyhound – or is it Scooby Doo?!
Inside the tropical greenhouse – steamy!
View from the gallery inside the tropical greenhouse
Hello down there!
The tree top walk
One of the other things that a ticket to Kew gets you access to is the tree top walk. You climb the stairs (lift available for the older/younger legs that can’t manage this) until you are at canopy level with the trees.
Don’t look down!
It’s a bit disconcerting being up there when it’s windy. The whole platform sways with the wind, just like trees do.
The views of London at the top aren’t fabulous…The whole point is seeing the tree tops up close so they tend to be in the way of the wider views! There are several informational plaques and I could see oak trees and horse and sweet chestnut trees, some of which appeared to be suffering from a disease 🙁
Autumnal trees or diseased trees?! ?
In amongst the chestnuts
Learn all about the trees from their roots to their tops!
Kew Gardens is worth a visit at anytime of the year and especially to see The Hive in action, when are you visiting?!
Laila says
I love going to Kew Gardens! IT’s such a beautiful place. I wrote a post about why bees are important if you fancy a read! Great pictures by the way.
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Katie Hughes says
Thanks Laila, I will check your post out! I do know that the government tries to quantify the value of bees on the economy by supposing what would happen with no pollinisation, scary thought if there were none..