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

From below and below from the other side of the glass floor

Dianthus in the wild flower meadow

Dome

Austin rose

Monkey puzzle tree flowers and becoming cones

Mandevilla laxa

Pelargonium enlicherianum

Arisaema ciliatum var. liubaense

Amorphophallus kiusianus

Oxalis lobata

Roscoe 'Red Gurkha'

Waterfall 1/10th sec. exposure

Bullrushes

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

Shrimp

Garden Eel

Butterfly fish