This Is Going To Be A Big Post, So I Have Split It Into Three Parts,

part one,

first thing a new fox wandered into the garden, the old ones have not been here for a number of months,

and I knew this was a new one, as when I threw a few peanuts out for him he ran, but soon returned,

when one of the crows flew down and started eating them,

due to Diana's work rota and the tube strike Diana and myself did not go to Kew, but Steve and myself had booked tickets which thankfully missed the tube drivers strike,

so here we were at Kew Gardens,

we made our way around the end of the lake,

the fountain,

putting on a good show,

the daffodils looking nice,

but the crocuses past their best,

this is where we were headed, we had booked tickets to go into the Costa Rican orchid festival,

a fine display of orchids as we walked in,

but first we passed the cactus section,

with all manner of plants in this permanent display,

a description of what we are about to see,

we still had not entered the main orchid section,

so there were still lots of desert plants to see,

some putting on a great show,

and some old favorites,

barrel cactus, (Echinocactus grusonii or Kroenleinia grusonii),

it seemed strange to see orchids and cactus together, but there it is,

we continued towards the Costa Rica display,

all of these are here whenever a special exhibitions take place,

you may remember these from one of our many previous visits to Kew, like this one in 2016,

the first sighting of the Costa Rica animals,

and a note about them,

Steve takes a time out,

as we entered the main display,

there was so much to look at,

and everybody stopped here,

at the center piece in the pool,

a collection of orchids and bromeliads,

around the main display,

baskets of orchids,

whilst marveling in the beauty of the display, 

it is easy to miss these as you will have your back to them,

the insectivorous plant section, with favorites like these Venus fly traps, (Dionaea muscipula),

for this visit the waterfall was not working,

back to the orchids,

and flying turtles!

in the distance a seed we all take for granted,

cacao, (Theobroma cacao),

a little information about one of our favorite treats,

as we left this section there was a rather nice rhododendron, 

putting on a good show,

leaping monkeys,

everywhere!

a little about them,

we were soon walking trough garlands of orchids,

and bromeliads,

many putting on a nice show,

and easy to miss, monkey cup plants, (Nepenthes),

exotic plants everywhere we looked, 

looking to the left a wall orchids that we will pass later,

above us fantastical birds,

since returning to the UK, we have bought a few orchids for our windowsills, like the one above, as we do not have a garden,

and have not had success with some of them, after a couple of years I have developed a basic rule of thumb for them, the more expensive the orchid, the less likely it is to like our windowsill!

moving on,

the waterfall was still here,

looking even more natural since our last visit,

we passed more orchids,

and bromeliads, which as it happens are succulents,

a little about the forest nursery,

as we came across some Boruca masks,

which have a history dating back over 500 years,

and stunning they were too,

a huge column rose up to nearly the top of the house,

everywhere we looked on it,

bromeliads,

putting on a good show,

and not forgetting the orchids and bromeliads in bowls, 

were delighting us wherever we looked,

if it was not for the handrail, we could be in deepest jungle,

an archway,

with more unusual bromeliads,

in its display,

some almost totally white,

whilst others,

put out extended spikes,

looking at another tall column in the distance, 

I nearly did not look down and would have missed this flower spike,

and this,

the Malaysian orchid as it is known, (Medinilla magnifica), 

the Philippines national flower,

it was a tad crowded, I guess more people than would have normally been here just wanted to get out of their homes, now that thankfully that we all can,

the wall of orchids that we were looking up as earlier,

we came to the end of the exhibition,

past one of the model tree frogs,

I caught Steve up as he was contemplating the frog, I was reminded of the wide mouth frog joke, I have split this post into three parts, if you would like to see the next part of our visit, please click on 'Older Posts' at the bottom right.