Wednesday, February 6, 2013

A few scenes from the streets, and nurseries, of London…


Sadly I’m down to the final two posts from our September trip to London. Today I’ve got some random photos from around London, plants and buildings that caught my eye, and we'll stop in at a couple of nurseries; The Kew Gardener which is cleverly set up just outside the Kew Gardens station as you get off the train and Frosts Garden Centre which I visited with Mark and Gaz.

Nice balcony plantings eh?...

I looked for signage to explain these distinctive fragments, but found none.

These fabulous cordyline trees were spotted from the train as we moved through a neighborhood…

And this tall tree fern on the walk to Kew.

These beautiful phormium and cordyline plantings were along the Thames, by the Garden Museum.

And so was this shaggy happy grevillea…

More cordy trees…

With blooming yucca “trees” behind them.

This very densely planted front yard (?) had several curvy agaves squeezed in, along with some aloes…

I looked and looked but never did spot that low tree.

Can you imagine the beautiful light in these apartments?

Most, but not all, of my London destinations were garden related. I did venture to shopping must-sees like Habitat, Harrods and of course The Conran Shop located in the Michelin House

The building is gorgeous!

And love those roof-top plantings.

The Kew Gardener was closing as we walked up, but the kind owner let us look around a bit.

Most of the larger plants were safely tucked behind the building…

It was nice to chat with a fellow plant nerd and get a little of the local “dirt”…

And finally a few photos from Frosts Garden Centre which Mark and Gaz were kind enough to take me to while I was visiting with them. It was very interesting to see just how similar this kind of large mainstream nursery is to our versions back home. In addition to plants and garden tools there was the nick-knack department, furniture, and even some clothing.

But of course we were there to look at the plants!

For late in the season they still had a great selection.

And I’ve never seen a nursery back home with a pigeon condominium on the roof!

Only one more place to visit in London, the Chelsea Physic Garden, hopefully I'll get to that one in the next couple of weeks!

23 comments:

  1. I can never tire of visits to London town. They are horticultural gurus of sorts. I remember loving to meander through the little side streets to see people's tiny albeit epic gardens. I just dream that one day the urban heat island of vancouver will support more cordy "trees!" I love love love it!

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    1. I kinda thought Vancouver was already there? With an enviable heat island I mean.

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    2. Pretty much. There are tree size cordys and huge tree ferns... But only right within the downtown core. Even still 2008 did most of the cordys in. Apparently there is a nice livingstonia palm near Granville island.

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  2. Very nice share, and your posts even w/ 2 left make me smile. Sure different than what some in the US still think UK gardens are about - far more diverse and even spiky!

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    1. The diversity of an English garden is remarkable. There is such a hint of the exotic and highlight of plants from around the world.

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    2. You're right David, I saw an amazing amount of spikes while in London. I wonder if I had ventured further out into the country-side if that would have still been the case?

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  3. I love foreign gardens (and by "foreign" I mean containing plants that I can't grow myself)!

    I don't think I could visit a garden center there, as I'd get too excited about each price tags before doing the exchange rate conversion in my head... "only 15.00!! Oh, wait..."

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    1. Yes the price tags certainly made me pause while I calculated that something wasn't nearly as affordable as it seemed at first glance. Interestingly (to me) the best "deals" I found were on the magazines that usually cost an arm and a leg here in the U.S. even with the conversion rate they were still so cheap!

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  4. Another great post from London! I love all of the spiky plants you found. Michelin building is way cool!

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    1. I want to live in the Michelin building! You walk in through an open air flower shop which I neglected to photograph.

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  5. My favorite thing to do in a new city is wander aimlessly, seeing what might pop up. My only time in London was long before the gardening bug bit. You have done a super job of capturing the London I'd be seeing now.

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  6. You make me long for a visit to my homeland! I'm quite amazed to see the wealth of warmer weather plants you photographed. I wouldn't have thought the temps were consistently mild enough to allow them to get so big. I guess the city heat is part of the secret...

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    1. Indeed it must be, Mark and Gaz shared stories of cold damage in their garden while these plants seem to have escaped.

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  7. HI there! Love this post and now I'll be sure to catch the last two! I've never maid a "gardening" trip to London and I would love to someday. One question I have (that may be very naive) is whether you could buy any plants and bring them back through customs? Just curious... Looking forward to seeing more!

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    1. Actually now there's only one, this was #2. You can see the rest here though: http://dangergarden.blogspot.com/search/label/London%202012 there is some pretty good stuff in there, if I do say so myself.

      As for the plants no, it's not that easy. You need to get them inspected ($)...and even then I doubt you'd make it through with all of them.

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  8. I have been to the Kew Gardener. When we were there they had tree fern stumps (no foliage) stacked like firewood in piles graded by size. Apparently you just stick the trunk in the ground and it would come back to life, at least in England.

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    1. I've seen that here too at an industry trade show. I wish now I'd asked if I could buy a couple!!!

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  9. Thanks for bringing back memories :) the yuccas on the balcony, the towering Cordylines, just shows how mild the microclimate of London is compared to its surrounding areas.

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    1. I guess there has to be a reward to those gardeners making do with a small space right?

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  10. Thanks for the educational and inspirational tour! I guess I never realized the climate in London was so mild. Is it zone equivalent to Portland? Alot of what can be grown seems similiar.

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    1. Yes I think it is very similar to Portland, although certainly in the city proper (of London) they are a little warmer. Most of our phormium and cordylines here in Portland got knocked back to the ground in a couple of recent cold winters.

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  11. I lived just 5 blocks away from the Kew Gardener when I did my internship at Kew! Bought my landlady a few plants from them.

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