Hello Yellow! Easter at Kew's country estate

Press release, March 2010

Get back to nature this Easter at Wakehurst Place, Kew’s country estate in the heart of the West Sussex countryside.

A new children’s natural play area created from woven living willow will open in time for Easter. The play area, featuring tunnels and tents, is designed to fire up the imagination of young visitors and the design has been inspired by the shapes of seed pods in Kew’s Millennium Seed Bank (see below)

Over the Easter weekend (April 2 to 5), children can enjoy ‘Hello Yellow’, a fun family nature trail around the gardens discovering the sights and scents of the season, from drifts of golden daffodils to primroses and celandines. After searching for yellow signs of spring around the gardens, children can take part in a craft activity – making and decorating a paper kite, using plants they have spotted as inspiration for the decoration. The trail will run daily from Good Friday to Easter Monday from 11am to 4pm and costs £2, to include a chocolate egg and craft activity. (Normal admission prices apply – accompanied children under 17 are admitted free at Wakehurst).

Visitors can also find out about pioneering work being carried out to safeguard threatened species of plants in an interactive exhibition at Kew’s Millennium Seed Bank at Wakehurst Place. The Seed Bank is the largest wild plant seed conservation project in the world and last autumn celebrated collecting, banking and conserving 10% of the world’s wild plant species.

Wakehurst Place is home to formal gardens, natural woodlands, nature reserves and a Sixteenth century mansion; plus the Millennium Seed Bank, the largest wild seed collection in the world. Wakehurst is located on the B2028 between Ardingly and Turners Hill, West Sussex (Junction 10 off the M23) and open daily from 10am, except December 24 and 25. For more details see our Wakehurst visitor pages or ring +44 (0)1444 894067.

Note to Editors

For more information on Easter activities ring the Wakehurst Learning Team on +44 (0)1444 894055 or call +44 (0)20 8332 5607, email wakehurst@kew.org , pr@kew.org.

To download Wakehurst images please visit http://www.kew.org/press/images/wakehurst