Talk:Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew/Archive 1

Archive 1

Temperature

On 10 August2003, a temperature of 100.6F was recorded at Kew, which is considered by many to be the highest temperature ever recorded in the UK.

No, the UK Met Office site says at http://www.met-office.gov.uk/climate/uk/extremes/index.html that it was at Brogdale, near Faversham in Kent, at 38.5C on 10 August 2003. 38.5 is an English and UK record. So I have removed that sentence - Adrian Pingstone 11:19, 15 May 2006 (UTC)

I suspect the reason for the above statement is that there is a widely held view that the Brogdale reading is dubious owing to the sheltered nature of the site. There was a discussion about this in "Weather" magazine in 2003 or 2004. 143.252.80.100 13:49, 20 November 2006 (UTC)

The Bedgebury Pinetum

I thought that Kew didn't have anything with the Bedgebury Pinetum to do since they "got" Wakehurst Place in 1965. It is certainly not mentioned on the RBGK-website... —Preceding unsigned comment added by 213.89.71.9 (talk) 09:45, 21 December 2008 (UTC)

Budget

What is the annual operating budget? Badagnani 07:03, 29 June 2007 (UTC)

Facts

How about adding some of this?: The Director of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, is responsible for the world’s largest collection of living plants; ... The organisation employs more than 650 scientists and other staff. The living collections include more than 30,000 different kinds of plants, while the herbarium, which is the largest in the world, has over 7 million preserved plant specimens. The library contains more than 750,000 volumes, and the illustrations collection contains more than 175,000 prints and drawings of plants. The Kew site includes four Grade I listed buildings and 36 Grade II listed structures in an internationally significant landscape --- from [1] Malick78 16:27, 2 September 2007 (UTC)

Yes, it seems worth aqdding these. As no one has demured I will do so.PRL42 (talk) 15:15, 2 May 2009 (UTC)

Why portals?

Why are there two portal things on the article page up the top just underneath the infobox? De Mattia (talk) 09:27, 24 March 2009 (UTC)

Good question. They were added in this edit by TruthbringerToronto (talk · contribs) on 25 May 2006. I assume he was just trying to be helpful - he wasn't a contributing editor to either portal. The documentation for {{Portal}} says the base template is used on 1,500,000 pages, so someone must love it. However, the England portal link isn't in use on e.g. Tower of London, Windsor Castle or St Paul's Cathedral, nor is the Biology portal link on United States Botanic Garden, Chelsea Physic Garden or Linnaean Garden. So both those links must be entirely optional for this article and I think you can remove them if you wish. - Pointillist (talk) 10:05, 24 March 2009 (UTC)

Well, those links are still here one month on. I've moved them down into the "See also" section, per the MOS. - Pointillist (talk) 14:09, 2 May 2009 (UTC)

I'd like to see the England one removed as it seems rather obvious and not particularly helpful. I think, perhaps, that if there are no objections, it could be removed at the start of June? PRL42 (talk) 15:12, 2 May 2009 (UTC)

As no objections the England portal marker is removed PRL42 (talk) 16:22, 4 July 2009 (UTC)

Templates added 5/May/2009

Three templates have been added. One (travel guide) specifies the particular areas of concern: telephone numbers and prices have been removed. Another states that there are too many sections which is probably correct: the plant collections have now been reworked so that those with no details are in a simple list. This has cut down the number of sections substantially. The third is rather non-specific and talks about style directing the editor to the talk page - however, nothing has been added so it's unclear what the problem is. As (I hope) the problems mention in the first two templates have been addressed I've removed these. If anyone feels they are still needed could they elucidate the problems here? As it's unclear what particular problems third template is refering to it doesn't seem appropriate to remove it yet so if anyone can spot any problems it would be helpful if they could mention them here. PRL42 (talk) 16:16, 5 May 2009 (UTC)

Good work. We still need to figure out a better way of incorporating the images, but this is a good framework for future improvement. Chris Cunningham (not at work) - talk 13:08, 6 May 2009 (UTC)

What do feel is wrong with them at the moment? They seem much better than a few days ago when the ranged freely down the right hand side and tended not to line up with the relevant text. If you can point out any problems I'll have a think about them. I'd like to get them as good as possible before adding some more. PRL42 (talk) 13:54, 6 May 2009 (UTC)

Basically, they're interfering with the article prose. We shouldn't have to hack around that with {{-}} templates everywhere. It might be possible to group them into floating galleries - I'll have a look at what I can do. Chris Cunningham (not at work) - talk 14:22, 6 May 2009 (UTC)

File:Kew Gardens Waterlily House - Sept 2008.jpg to appear as POTD soon

Hello! This is a note to let the editors of this article know that File:Kew Gardens Waterlily House - Sept 2008.jpg will be appearing as picture of the day on August 2, 2010. You can view and edit the POTD blurb at Template:POTD/2010-08-02. If this article needs any attention or maintenance, it would be preferable if that could be done before its appearance on the Main Page so Wikipedia doesn't look bad. :) Thanks! howcheng {chat} 02:14, 1 August 2010 (UTC)

Picture of the day

A view of the interior of the water lily greenhouse at the Royal Botanic Gardens, located between Richmond and Kew, in southwest London, England. Covering an area of 121 hectares (300 acres), the gardens are a UNESCO World Heritage Site and contain four Grade I and 36 Grade II listed buildings.Photo: David Iliff

File:Kew Gardens Palm House, London - July 2009.jpg to appear as POTD soon

Hello! This is a note to let the editors of this article know that File:Kew Gardens Palm House, London - July 2009.jpg will be appearing as picture of the day on October 6, 2010. You can view and edit the POTD blurb at Template:POTD/2010-10-06. If this article needs any attention or maintenance, it would be preferable if that could be done before its appearance on the Main Page so Wikipedia doesn't look bad. :) Thanks! howcheng {chat} 00:21, 5 October 2010 (UTC)

Picture of the day

The Palm House at the Royal Botanic Gardens in Kew, an area in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames in South West London. The institution has the world's largest collection of living plants (over 30,000) as well as one of the world's largest herbariums, with over 7 million specimens.Photo: David Iliff

One penny entrance fee

There ought to be mention of the one penny - or was it a happenny or farthing? - old money entrance fee. This continued unchanged from Victorian times, until in recent years it was increased, probably by an Act of parliament I imagine. 92.28.244.31 (talk) 13:46, 6 October 2010 (UTC)

File:Princess of Wales Conservatory, Kew Gardens - July 2009.jpg to appear as POTD soon

Hello! This is a note to let the editors of this article know that File:Princess of Wales Conservatory, Kew Gardens - July 2009.jpg will be appearing as picture of the day on March 10, 2011. You can view and edit the POTD blurb at Template:POTD/2011-03-10. If this article needs any attention or maintenance, it would be preferable if that could be done before its appearance on the Main Page so Wikipedia doesn't look bad. :) Thanks! howcheng {chat} 17:26, 9 March 2011 (UTC)

Picture of the day

The Princess of Wales conservatory at the Royal Botanic Gardens located in the borough of Richmond upon Thames in South London. The building was opened by Diana, Princess of Wales, in commemoration of Princess Augusta's efforts to expand the garden in the 18th century. Of the buildings constructed during this time, only a few remain, including a ten-storey pagoda.Photo: David Iliff

Seedbank

Why under the section 'Seedbank' does the article then comment on the unfavourable growing conditions for the living collections? Surely this info about Wakehurst and Bedgbury belongs elsewhere in the article?

Corrected. PRL42 (talk) 07:39, 27 March 2011 (UTC)

Also, there is a contradiction between the statement here that "Kew remains one of the most comprehensive plant collections in Britain" and the statement in the leading section which claims "The Director of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, is responsible for the world's largest collection of living plants" - so it's the largest collection in the world, but only one of the most comprehensive in Britain? PaleCloudedWhite (talk) 05:14, 26 March 2011 (UTC)

Kew has one of the most comprehensive collections. Between Kew and the other locations under his control the director is responsible for the most comprehensive. That is just a semantic explanation. Whether the information is backed up with adequate citations is another matter. PRL42 (talk) 07:39, 27 March 2011 (UTC)

Treetop walkway lift

The lift for the treetop walkway is out of order and looks like it will continue to be for the foreseeable future. I see from the Article history someone made a (rather clumsy) edit to mention that in the Article. However, I think it probably would be worth rephrasing that access is available by the lift. If citation is required that it's out of order for a long time then http://www.kew.org/visit-kew-gardens/garden-attractions-A-Z/treetop-walkway-FAQs/ mentions it several times. 62.25.109.195 (talk) 14:46, 4 April 2011 (UTC)

I did think about rewriting the removed lift information but I thought it probably violated 'Wikipedia is not a travel guide'. It's probably worth removing the lift data for now as there is no working lift and readers are not necessarily aware of WNTG (or whatever it's called). PRL42 (talk) 16:34, 5 April 2011 (UTC)

I just added one word to indicate that the lift is not currently working. PRL42 (talk) 16:39, 5 April 2011 (UTC)