Special to Road Trips for Gardeners

This summer, immerse yourself in nature’s healing sanctuary, ‘Plantasia’, at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, England, and experience the stimulating, transformative power of plants: from barefoot walking trails and a gin and tonics garden, to herbal remedy workshops and truly spectacular horticultural displays of beauty and wonder, visitors will see how life-enhancing plants and fungi affect human health in mind, body and soul at the stunning setting of London’s Kew Gardens.

Wander along the Barefoot Walk in the Arboretum: Balance on beams and hop across tree trunks and experience the different textures upon your soles that nature has to offer. From the moist, bouncy softness typical of rainforest floors, to the muddy ‘squelch’ zone, walkers will experience a stimulating physical reconnection with their surroundings.

Enjoy botanical cocktails in the splendor of the Gin and Tonics Garden on weekends and learn their forgotten medicinal properties as you sip and swirl (In the Secluded Glasshouse, weekends and bank holidays only, cash bar).

Scale new heights this summer, as Kew’s iconic Pagoda opens for the first time in eight years to visitors: Get your heart racing as you climb the spiral staircase to the top of this 50-meter-tall, 250-year-old building for breathtaking views across the Gardens and to the London landmarks beyond (Entry fee of £3.50 applies; Adults and children +5 only; Tickets available for timed entry from the gates).

Visitors will encounter a Healing Giant (pictured): A human-shaped, raised horticultural display showcasing the effects of plants on different parts of the human body. Walk around the face and find the natural skin treatments people have used throughout the ages. Reach the heart and encounter the plants commonly employed as love potions and aphrodisiacs. A visual touchstone of the festival, this beautiful work will embody the cultural, medicinal and scientific links between plants and man.

The Queens Garden at Kew Palace is to be permanently updated for the festival, to provide a chronological journey through of the different uses of medicinal plants, from traditional remedies to the plants which form the chemical basis of modern drugs.

Children and adults alike will delight in engaging with roaming performers, from stories and tales with Mrs M’s Cart of Curative Curiosities, to a feverish game of Curious Croquet (during the children’s summer holidays) led by the singing, dancing and frightfully entertaining Kew Gardens World Croquet Team: Much more than a game of balls and mallets, this carnival of croquet is also an exciting journey into the healing power of plants.

Other activities for the summer include free drop-in Tai Chi sessions every Thursday and Sunday on Syon vista, decorated Marvellous Medicinal Trees throughout the Gardens and hands-on plant Lotions & Potions activities for children.

All of this will be set against a backdrop of spectacular swathes of floral color on the Sensational Broadwalk, forming a visual feast for the eyes and showcasing the uplifting, inspiring and life-enhancing power of plants.

Plantasia, open now, continues through September 7, 2014.

(Photo courtesy of Kew Gardens)