{"id":11572,"date":"2026-03-03T19:33:46","date_gmt":"2026-03-03T19:33:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/poorlittlerichgays.com\/?p=11572"},"modified":"2026-03-03T19:33:46","modified_gmt":"2026-03-03T19:33:46","slug":"access-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/poorlittlerichgays.com\/?p=11572","title":{"rendered":"Access"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Tuesday 3rd March 2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

No room at the Orchid PV this year. The Chinese Ambassador had too many guests. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We decided to lay siege anyway. Sensationally arriving at Kew as paying members of the public. A jobsworth in the entrance booth said the Orchid show was ‘fully booked’ for the day. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

He had no idea who we were. We are not the kind of people to whom ‘fully booked’ means anything. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or what we would do. Never had Kew been under such a weight. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Royston telephoned to the director’s office. Within 30 minutes we were ‘on the list’. Interesting that there is a list upon which random greatnesses can be placed at short notice. Emergency top people access – how many institutions cater for it? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the meantime we carried out an inspection of Kew. Royston got ahead with identifying of trees without their leaves. Each Latin name was boomed forth like a 21 gun salute. ‘In the 90s, I was bored with Kew,’ he blasted. Quite frankly Kew was as if in a bag on the verge of being hurled in any direction, upwards to the heavens, or downwards into the mud. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Things picked up when Royston spotted an Acer Griseum, his favourite tree which he is having put all over London, in the teeth of some opposition. One park-keeper dared to denounce Acer Griseum <\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the Princess of Wales glasshouse the queue for the orchids stretched for miles. But for us all formalities were waived and we were waved through. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was worth it. The Chinese must have spent millions. Vast bowers of orchids as well as dragons and so on and then the joy of the plants in the glasshouse anyway. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There’s an aura of luxury about a winter glasshouse. I was reminded of Cecil Beaton’s account of Sybil Cholmoneley: her air of ‘pre-War luxury’ (he meant pre-1st World War) from an orchid being pinned to her dress with a diamond brooch. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Afterwards we went into Palm House. Robert Nevil and the Maharajah had been at Kew the week before. They’d seen the banyan tree there. The Maharajah said it was just like home. Also the Palm House is about to close for restoration. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Royston King said it’ll never open again in our lifetime. So we’d better take one last look. We poked at the iron beams. Royston King generated more headlines – Once you start on a building like this, there’s no end to it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well it is made of cast iron, which is probably the worst material for a tropical glasshouse which is permanently hot and damp. I thought its state not too bad considering. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We couldn’t find the banyan tree. Then someone called Brenda came to terf us out. Closing time. Brenda is i\/c the glasshouse. How long in fact is it to be closed for? we enquired. ‘Three to five years.’ ‘It’ll be at least ten,’ Royston blasted, straight onto the front page. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I did dare to wonder whether it might just possibly be finished on time. But Royston said Since when have you been an expert on public building projects? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Acer Griseum at Kew, Beloved of Royston King <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
The Orchid Show in the Princess of Wales GlassHouse Kew <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
The Orchid Show with Creatures <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
The Palm House, Kew. Condition Report <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
The Palm House, Kew. See it Before you Die<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tuesday 3rd March 2026 No room at the Orchid PV this year. The Chinese Ambassador had too many guests. We decided to lay siege anyway. Sensationally arriving at Kew as paying members of the public. A jobsworth in the entrance booth said the Orchid show was ‘fully booked’ for the day. He had no idea […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":111113,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11572","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-adrain-edge"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/poorlittlerichgays.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11572","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/poorlittlerichgays.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/poorlittlerichgays.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/poorlittlerichgays.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/111113"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/poorlittlerichgays.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11572"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/poorlittlerichgays.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11572\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11598,"href":"https:\/\/poorlittlerichgays.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11572\/revisions\/11598"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/poorlittlerichgays.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11572"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/poorlittlerichgays.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11572"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/poorlittlerichgays.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11572"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}