Albert's Greenhouse

The very first post on this blog, in spring of 2006, was about a reality TV show. My kind of reality TV show. It's called "A Year at Kew" and it's a British series, available on DVD only in PAL format ( your DVD player might not play it - I had to buy a region free player with a PAL to NTSC converter ). There are also a couple of companion books available in both the UK and the USA.

It's been 2 TV seasons since, and I just got season 3 in the mail. By "Royal Post" from amazon.co.uk. I'm halfway through the season so far, and there have been very interesting segments on trying to germinate 200 year old seeds, a trip to very very rural China in search of a medicinal orchid, and pest control in a really big, really old glasshouse, to name a few.

The series follows various projects and events at Kew in the framework of an entire year's worth of experience. Various Kew staff members have become minor TV stars. You get to see a whole lot of behind-the-scenes activity and the show follows botanists and horticulturalists from Kew as they travel to various locations around the world ( like China, Japan and Madagascar ) to study, assist local gardens, and collect plants and seed.

The accusation could be leveled that it's more of a PR vehicle for Kew than anything else, but while this is without a doubt true, it's an entertaining one which matches my interests quite well. They show a lot of glasshouse stuff, a lot of landscaping stuff, arboriculture, how some of the exhibits are put together, art and artists, backstage at the herbarium, library and millenium seed bank, and Kew's youth programs.

I've not been a big fan of reality programming on television, but this is more like a documentary about Kew that's managed to span 3 seasons of material and not get repetitive or boring. I strongly recommend that anyone with a little time and money to spare give it a try - it's a special series, and I doubt we'll see it in the USA anytime soon.