• Mediterranean Summer
• Visit the festival

Mediterranean Cuisine

The Mediterranean has a rich and distinctive cuisine based on the plants that grow within the region.

Olive Grove

In the Princess of Wales Conservatory an authentic section of a Spanish olive grove will be recreated. The characteristic tree crop of the Mediterranean, the olive display features many aspects of olive growing and will depict traditional olive processing to produce oil.

Pizza Garden

This new display in the centre of the Gardens will be in flower throughout the Festival. Using bedding plants split into segments, it recreates a spectacular giant pizza and uses herbs to show many of ingredients which help make this popular dish.

Hot ChilliEs

In and around the Waterlily House there's a display of over 100 chilli plants from the Mediterranean climatic regions of the world. It includes the hottest and coolest chilli varieties, with fascinating names such as the 'Big Jamaican Hot' and 'Thailand Heat'.

Chillies are not just suitable for cooking, they are easy to grow and make attractive garden plants too. See for yourself as they're fruiting throughout the Festival in a variety of shapes and colours.

Lavender Avenue

Famously grown in Provence, our stunning lavender avenue, behind the Palm House, releases the scents of the Mediterranean.

Mediterranean Veg

Kew runs a three-year diploma course in horticulture. One of the first year students' practical projects is to grow these vegetable plots and they are marked on cultivation and the crops they grow. See for yourself what you could grow in your garden.

Mediterranean Herbs

The Queen's Garden is a seventeenth-century-style garden situated behind Kew Palace. This year it features many Mediterranean herbs including sage, lavender and rosemary.