I visited Kew Gardens many years ago and it has been on my list of must see gardens to visit this year.

As spring is well and truly here, this is a great opportunity to visit this beautiful large garden to admire the spring bulbs, cherry blossom and magnolias.

I visited the 300 acre gardens last week, with my husband, best friend and her children, and had a fabulous day.

If you visit before the 31^st April you can join a free guided walk – The darling buds of April to get the most from your visit. Pick up a guide and / or map when you enter the gardens as you will need this.

For children they have a special play area to help run off some steam, but the gardens are so large that there is plenty of space to run around in.

The children enjoyed looking at all the flowers, leaves and also the exquisite peacock!

My husband loved seeing the gardens, but particularly enjoyed the roast pork and apple roll for lunch!

There is plenty to see and do on a day visit, but in order to get the most out of your trip to the gardens, it’s best seen over a few days. It’s definitely a garden to see in each season, to truly benefit from their planting schemes.

I really wanted to visit the Treetop walk but unfortunately the lift wasn’t working, but hoping to visit another time as this looks wonderful.

Favourite areas:

One of the favourite parts of my daytrip was seeing the wonderful fritillary area which can be seen on the Princess walk. This area is fenced off to protect these wonderful delicate flowers, but you can still get a great view of them, as seen in our video clip.

You can also see these flowers alongside the river walk.

Dotted around the gardens are lovely areas of cherry blossom and magnolias. If you visit soon, you will receive a leaflet highlighting areas of the garden to see them.

The Japanese Garden was a favourite of mine on a previous visit and I have to say I wasn’t disappointed this time. It’s a very peaceful area, with very thoughtful planting, a place to sit and contemplate.

Many of the specialist daffodils have finished for this year, but there is a wonderful area next to the palm house, full with narcissus, tulips etc… don’t miss this!

Due to the wide variety of planting you can see beautiful plants and be up close and personal with nature, keep an eye out for the parakeets! While we were there we had a wonderful sighting of a green woodpecker.

Because the gardens are so large, I wasn’t able to visit the  Palm House, Temperate House or Princess of Wales Conservatory , as I was focussing on spring colour. I hope to visit again soon so that I can see the areas missed.

The Temperate House is in need of funds to restore the beautiful building. If you would like to make a donation please visit -The Temperate House appeal

Kew Gardens Millennium Seed Bank also run an adopt a seed programme, helping to preserve and keep seeds that are becoming rarer. We can make a difference in raising funds for this very important inititive. If you would like to know more about their work please visit – Adopt a seed, save a species website

Have you visited Kew Gardens?  What are your favourite areas?

Prices:

Adult: £13.50

Concessions: £11:30

Children: Free.

Kew Garden offer a yearly or lifetime membership scheme

Accessibility:

Kew Gardens has a very helpful website to help you plan your visit.

If you have a disability / mobility issues, they have a fantastic service where you can hire an electric mobility scooter, which is free, but a donation would help keep this service available. The paths around the gardens are smooth and wide, so using a wheelchair should present no problems.

For more details – Kew Gardens visitor information

To help plan your visit:

Kew Gardens have an interactive map – Explore Kew , to help you decide which areas to concentrate on.

Parking:

Parking is limited, so travelling by public transport is a good idea, especially in busy holiday times.

Video taken by Matt Hunt