Blog - Kew Gardens

A trip to the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew

A trip to the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew

by Chris, 6 November, 2018, 0 comments

A small contingent set off from Woodlands HQ in SE London to visit Kew Gardens. A trip to Kew is always a pleasure but there were a number of things that had induced us to face the rigours of the South Circular - notably The restoration of the temperate house The exhibition of “a legacy of ancient oaks” by Mark Frith A visit to the gallery of Marianne North’s paintings / work It was a beautiful sunny but autumnal day We arrived and accessed the car park near the river via Ferry Lane (where there are a good number of disabled spaces - which is not always the case at certain public venues / attractions). A short walk took us to the Brentford Gate and into the gardens. For those with limited mobility (or stamina), there is a Kew Explorer stop nearby. Here you can board the Kew Explorer Land train which runs each day between 11 am and 3 pm. A complete tour of the Gardens takes about 40 minutes and ticket holders can get on and off at any stop on the route, re-boarding the ‘train’ when ready. Read more...

Oaks by frith

Mark Frith’s ‘Legacy of Ancient Oaks’ at Kew Gardens.

by Angus, 5 November, 2018, 0 comments

"At times the tree appeared to draw itself", says Mark Frith in describing his 3-year project to draw 20 veteran oak trees. Mark was sponsored by Felix Dennis to criss-cross Great Britain finding venerable oak trees, most of which had been alive for 500 years and some of which were over 1,000 years old. Many of these trees have become local celebrities such as the Gospel Oak in Hertfordshire or the Major Oak in Nottinghamshire, part of the original Sherwood Forest. One of them, the Pontfadog Oak which was known as Wales' National tree got into the news in 2013 when a storm blew it over - so Frith's drawing caught this one just in time. Read more...

Actress Dame Judi Dench arrives at The Orange British

Judi Dench has a “passion for trees” and her BBC programme explains why

by Angus, 31 December, 2017, 0 comments

Best known as an actor, and a "national treasure", Judi Dench has had a passion for trees since she was a young girl and she owns a small 6-acre woodland which she's had for about 30 years. This ultimate woodland programme can be seen on BBC catch-up TV - just search "Judi Dench my passion for trees". It's a single one hour programme and takes us through a whole year, mostly in Surrey and often looking at older oak trees. As Judi says, at one point, "my life now is just trees ... trees and, er, champagne." Shakespeare has always been a big part of Judi Dench's life and she has acted in some thirty Shakespeare plays starting in the late 1950s and culminating, according to some, in her playing "M" of MI6 in James Bond. Read more...

"Action Oak" - should oak tree research be funded by DEFRA or by charity appeal?

“Action Oak” – should oak tree research be funded by DEFRA or by charity appeal?

by Angus, 31 October, 2017, 2 comments

Oak trees are under threat through disease and climate change and it will cost serious money to research causes and solutions. This could be paid for either through general taxation or by an appeal for charitable donations with help from high profile people such as celebrities and the Royal family. The rate of required spending on oak disease is increasing. It is proposed to set up an "Action Oak" charity appeal spearheaded by Woodland Heritage - an organisation based in Haslemere just 10 miles from the Forestry Commission's research arm at Alice Holt in Surrey. Many people will wonder why the government isn't doing more directly through DEFRA Read more...

emergent seedling

Trees, seeds and the Millennium Seed Bank.

by Chris, 2 December, 2016, 1 comments

Plants are vital to all food chains, to our existence. They provide foods (rice, wheat, peas, beans), building materials (timber), fibres for clothing (cotton), medicines (aspirin, quinine etc) and fuel (oils, biomass). However, habitats are being rapidly destroyed by activities such as agriculture, deforestation, road building and urban developments. This habitat loss is happening rapidly and conserving plants within threatened habitats is not always possible. Collecting seeds and preserving them ex situ (away from their natural habitat) offers a cost effective way to save seeds and keep them for posterity. Later, and if, required they can be germinated (hopefully) and reintroduced to the wild, or used in scientific research. The Millennium Seed Bank (MSB) - which is based at Wakehurst Place in Sussex, Read more...

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