Travels after Chelsea

Evening in the Palm House, Kew, the splendidly named Caryota no in top right.

The giant plastic pineapple on the lake at Kew, viewed through polarising spectacles as part of the TuttiFrutti experience in the IncrEdibles summer feature. One can row a boat below it through a banana-flavoured grotto.

A strangely rare tree, Xanthoceras sorbifolium, at Kew.

Halesia carolina 'Rosea' at the Harcourt Arboretum. It is a good year fro halesias - this one was laden.

Preparing (home-grown) timbers for a cruck-built shelter at the Harcourt Arboretum , a very exciting project.

Magdalen Tower and Oxford Botanic Garden.

The revolution in growing Castilleja has been extraordinary: from 'ungrowable' to broadcast-sowing. This is in the prairie area created by James Hitchmough at the Oxford Botanic Garden.

One of the few older survivors of the general clearance of the botanic garden extension, Magnolia sieboldii subsp. sinensis smells as good as it did 25 years ago.

The very elegant and appropriate design by Simon Bagnall for a new quad at Worcester College, Oxford, featuring standard  Magnolia 'Elizabeth'.

Wisteria floribunda 'Yae-kokuryu' (syn. 'Black Dragon') in the front quad at Worcester College.

The old orchard at Worcester College has been transformed into a delightful space by judicious planting and the creation of meandering grass paths.

A magnificent Zelkova carpinifolia by the Cherwell, Christ Church meadows, Oxford.

Paeonia mlokosewitschii at its best in Sibylle Kreutzberger's garden.

An old African friend: Hagenia abyssinica at Pan-Global Plants.

New growth on the odd hybrid Mahonia 'Pan's Peculiar'

Tilia henryana at Pan-Global Plants.