TREE FERNS

Ahh, the old Victorian palm house at Kew (above). Probably Kew's most famous piece of architecture and even today it still has that 'something special' which seperates it from the multitude of other glasshouses that have cropped up since its construction. To do even a sketchy report on the plants being cultivated at Kew would take weeks of work and hundreds of images and there are plenty of books, DVDs and television documentaries to help enlighten you on that. My little report here will not visit the palm house atall but focus on the 3 other main glasshouses and in particular the tree ferns that are being cultivated within them.

Our tour starts in the Princess of Wales conservatory (above). A sprawling and futuristic looking building which houses a wonderful array of plants from tropical orchids to desert cactus. This building, rather than being a single floor split into various areas is actually a split level multi halled affair with lots of doors, steps and sloping pathways which take you from one climatic zone into another.

This is the image that greets you as you walk in through the arid zone main entrance.