Kew Gardens January 2023

[Foxpalms]

Back in January during the during the cold spell in the UK I visited Kew gardens. Unfortunately the price of Wales conservatory was closed so I only have photos from the temperate and palm house. Also a few pics of plants outside. To start off here's a photo of a monkey puzzle tree and a wollemi pine.

[Foxpalms]

It's worth mentioning for anyone who's unaware Kew gardens being a massive open area and being next to Richmond park gets much colder than the surrounding suburbs and especially central London a few miles east of Kew.  Quite a bit of frost at Kew that day whilst there was none where I live. Whilst the phoenix canariensis and Washingtonia robusta there are damaged none are spear pulling which isn't bad considering they had their coldest night since the 1980s this winter. Here are some of the plants outside at Kew.

[Foxpalms]

[Foxpalms]

Here's a few photos from the temperate house at Kew. They have multiple chamedorea radicalis and pochutlensis inside there that really could survive outside. I have both those outside and even though it's warmer here they should try some outside.

[Foxpalms]

[Foxpalms]

Finally here is the famous palm house at Kew. It was very humid in there so the phone camera may have been slightly fogged up for some of the photos. Very densely planted full of tropical palms. The only palm there that looked dead was a potted coconut, so even the Kew palm house which is in the 90s with extremely high humidity can't keep what probably is a Dutch greenhouse coconut alive!

[Foxpalms]

[Foxpalms]

[Foxpalms]

[Foxpalms]

Just a few photos didn't want to post them all otherwise this would be 30x as long!

[gurugu]

I've been to Kew gardens twice : first in 1986 and second in 1995, and I couldn't see any palm outdoors except some Trachycarpus. 

Has the climate changed there in these 30/40 years? Nope, because the garden is still over 100 hectares, and no concrete, or very little, in the vast surroundings. So no heat island effect. 

What has changed then? The availability of old and new species of palm trees, the effect of private people 's trials and the desire of a new  more exotic look for the gardens, the cities and the summer places. 

Bravo! 

[Foxpalms]

@UK_PalmsIf you visit later on in the year it would be nice to have an update of how the Washingtonia and phoenix canariensis have recovered.

[Axel Amsterdam]

They tried a large CIDP transplant but it was removed after 2010. They also planted these in 2009. No idea what happened. There are large CIDP’s in the neighborhood around Kew, so the vast area of grass seems to diminish their chances of survival, even in London. 

[Foxpalms]

42 minutes ago, Axel Amsterdam said:

They tried a large CIDP transplant but it was removed after 2010. They also planted these in 2009. No idea what happened. There are large CIDP’s in the neighborhood around Kew, so the vast area of grass seems to diminish their chances of survival, even in London. 

An area called iver outside of London has a small number of CIDP and butias and it gets colder than Kew gardens there. I know large CIDP transplants can often fail though. The butias I'm not sure if they are there since that area was closed off for refurbishment. Even if they are not there that wouldn't necessarily mean they died since lots of public gardens in the UK plant palms for a few years then remove them to change it up. Kew gardens is a zone 9a on the lower end with all its grass but can experience during bad winters zone 8b temperatures. Last year in March when I visited all the palms outside were undamaged but obviously this winter is different since we had the coldest night since the 1980s. Personally I don't think it gets cold enough there for butias or phoenix canariensis to be killed we will see how the Washingtonia do but obviously most years are much milder than this winter.

Edited February 6, 2023 by Foxpalms

[Frond-friend42]

Nice pics. Thanks for sharing. Definitely a place I'd like to go. One day...

[Arecaceus]

On 2/6/2023 at 12:59 AM, Foxpalms said:

@UK_PalmsIf you visit later on in the year it would be nice to have an update of how the Washingtonia and phoenix canariensis have recovered.

I subscribe to that!

[Cindy Adair]

Thanks so much for all the photos Foxpalms! I can’t wait to see them in May!

[GeneAZ]

Did you get an image of the Encephalartos woodii?   I think it's in the temperate house.

It was looking pretty sorry last time I saw an image, but I hear it has recently leafed out with a nice full crown!!

Rather important specimen since it is one of the original stems collected from the wild so long ago.

 

[Foxpalms]

1 hour ago, GeneAZ said:

Did you get an image of the Encephalartos woodii?   I think it's in the temperate house.

It was looking pretty sorry last time I saw an image, but I hear it has recently leafed out with a nice full crown!!

Rather important specimen since it is one of the original stems collected from the wild so long ago.

 

I unfortunately don't have a very good photo of it, showing the nice full crown. I took a photo of a birds of paradise and in the photo it shows the trunk of it but you can't see it very well.