When we reached this glasshouse I was so excited to get inside – I remembered my last visit, where this particular house was one of the highlights. This is Kew’s third major conservatory,  designed by architect Gordon Wilson, and opened in 1987 by Diana, Princess of Wales The conservatory houses ten computer-controlled micro-climatic zones, with the bulk of the greenhouse volume composed of Dry Tropics and Wet Tropics plants. I will never forget the brilliance of different orchids, water lilies, cacti and bromelias.

But…as I was lost in the cacti department, there was some buzzling and I heard people saying ”they are closing now”. But that must be impossible! There was one and a half hour left before closing time…and when I checked the site four days ago, before our flight, only the Temperate House and the Pagoda was supposed to be closed, and the elevator to the walkway out of order, nothing else…

I became rather stressed and had to rush the photographing in order to at least see the giant, Victoria amazonica, waterlilies. Their very large green leaves lie flat on the water’s surface, and they are up to 3 metres (9.8 ft) in diameter, on a stalk up to 8 metres (26 ft) in length. The genus name was given in honour of Queen Victoria…

…and I managed some shots there too before we were ”thrown out” in the cold. It turned out that the whole place was hired for a wedding – so, sadly enough not all of my friends managed to see the giants. Some lovely shots were saved for my next post, tomorrow.