Botanical gardens are fascinating places where you can discover a large number of plant varieties that in many cases you can only find in a specific garden. Today I would like to write about the Royal Botanic Gardens in Kew , a small town that is only 15 kilometers from London, in a south-west direction. They are officially known as Kew Gardens.
This spectacular garden is an incredible 120-hectare paradise where you will find plants and trees of different species and from different countries around the world. It is also a perfect place to spend a day with the family as it has many gardens and greenhouses. It is one of the oldest botanical gardens in the country, with more than 250 years of history.
The garden
There you can discover a large part of the history of this type of garden, especially the art associated with them since the 18th and 20th centuries. It has many collections of plants that have been preserved for many years, and also many documents of great historical importance. It was created in 1759, and since then it has been growing with very diverse contributions from the plant and botanical world.
Visiting
In Kew Gardens there are more than 60 volunteer guides , so it will not cost you anything to discover every corner. Guided tours are for a maximum of 15 people for each group, and they give you a place on a first-come, first-served basis. One of the most interesting parts is the Casa Alpino , which was built in 1887 and is a glass building that is only 10 meters high and 16 meters long. It was built so that the natural air would flow much better, which helps the plants to ventilate better.
Also worth seeing is the Casa de las Palmeras, another glass building that has wrought iron arches. Finally, the Chokushi-Mon was built for the Japan and Great Britain Expo in 1910 and is a scale replica of the Karamon from the Nishi Hongan-ji Temple in Kyoto that is surrounded by a spectacular reconstruction of a traditional Japanese garden.