kew-august

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The Cullens went to Kew on a very hot day, but with very good light and an excellent lunch in the Orangery

Sun through the canna leaves	Bold bedding	Palm House
		The Waterlily House	Salvia bedding plant
Dahlia	Nelumbo flower	Plant grown in a tub	Inside the Waterlily House with Victoria amazonica
'Kew's Stowaway Blues'		'Camembert'	'Bull's Eye'
		Nymphaea carpentariae 'Julia Leu'

	Alamanda	'Kew's Stowaway Blues'
The accidental creation of Nymphaea ‘Kew’s Stowaway Blues’ resulted when Kew received the tuber of a rare waterlily species native to Australia. When the waterlily flowered it became clear that it wasn’t the species it was expected to be, leading waterlily expert Carlos Magdalena to suspect a brand new hybrid had been created by chance. Hybridisation is a crossing between two different species or fertile hybrids. In the case of N. ‘Kew Stowaway Blues’ it is believed that two Australian wild species of waterlily, Nymphaea carpentariae ‘Andre Leu’ and Nymphaea aff. powlathanga ‘Barre Hellquist’ cultivated in the same pond in Queensland, cross-pollinated and produced fertile seeds. One of these seeds floated away and fell into the pot where a rare waterlily species to be sent to Kew was being cultivated. It germinated and grew unseen amongst other species forming a stray tuber that, quite by chance, was picked and sent to Kew under an entirely different name.
We had a look at the roses, but most of them were having an August break before the next flush in September	Rosa rugosa heps	An elderly tree	Massive trunk
Broadwalk borders Helenium 'Rubinzwerg' - Red dwarf		Cirsium rivulare 'Atropurpureum'	Enormous bumblebee enjoying the Agastache
We visited the Hive	From below and below from the other side of the glass floor	Dianthus in the wild flower meadow	Enormous bumblebee enjoying the Agastache
	From below and below from the other side of the glass floor	Dome
		Austin rose	Monkey puzzle tree flowers and becoming cones
Mandevilla laxa	in the alpine house	Pelargonium enlicherianum	Monkey puzzle tree flowers and becoming cones
	Arisaema ciliatum var. liubaense	Pelargonium enlicherianum	Amorphophallus kiusianus
Oxalis lobata	Arisaema ciliatum var. liubaense	Roscoe 'Red Gurkha'	There were some colchicums flowering, but not much else in the Alpine House. We moved on to the rock garden.
Waterfall 1/10th sec. exposure	Bullrushes	Princess Diana Conservatory	Cannas outside the building
		Everlasting flowers	Sacred Lotus
Nelumbo nucifera (The Sacred Lotus) An aquatic perennial with large showy flowers, the sacred lotus has long been considered a close relative of water lilies. However, lotus flowers differ markedly from those of water lilies, most notably through the obconical (ice-cream cone-shaped) receptacle in the centre, into which numerous free carpels are sunken. Recent molecular research has shown that the closest living relatives of the sacred lotus are the plane trees (Platanus spp., Platanaceae) and members of the protea family (Proteaceae). Their isolated phylogenetic position indicates that both Nelumbo and Platanus may be living fossils (the only survivors of an ancient and formerly much more diverse group).
Nelumbo seedhead	Flower above the leaves here	Sacred Lotus	Kleinia abyssinica
in the palm house		Shrimp	Garden Eel
Butterfly fish			We went home a bit early because of the heat.

Cirsium rivulare 'Atropurpureum'