Kew’s wreath for remembrance

Ashley Hughes, resident horticulturist at Kew, will design the wreath laid out at the Cenotaph on behalf of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. This year's wreath will feature an array of colourful plants taken from Kew’s living collection and representative of the flora of the UK Overseas Territories.

11 Nov 2010

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Kew's Ashley Hughes makes up the wreath for the Cenotaph.

The wreath that will be laid at the Cenotaph on behalf of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office on Remembrance Sunday is provided as usual by Kew.

Choosing the plants

This week Ashley Hughes, resident horticulturist at Kew, finalised the list of plants and will collect the sprigs and flowers from the finest plants around the Gardens - olive will be used to represent Gibraltar, parrot’s plantain to represent the British Virgin Islands and the tussock grass from the Falkland Islands.

Ashley with the wreath that will be laid at the Cenotaph.

Remembering at Kew

At Kew Gardens a two minute silence will be observed at the gates at 11am on Armistice Day, 11 November, and again on Remembrance Sunday, 14 November. In respect the flag will fly from the flagpole at Victoria Gate at full mast from sunrise until sunset.

Many members of Kew’s staff fell in the First World War – and even more in the Second World War. A second wreath will be laid at Kew's own war memorial on the north-eastern side of Victoria Plaza, a place for visitors and staff to place their poppies and flags in remembrance.

Introducing the plants

This year the wreath will include:

Slipper spurge (Pedilanthus tithymaloides) from Anguilla.
Bermuda juniper (Juniperus bermudiana) and Bermuda snowberry (Chiococca bermudiana) from Bermuda.
Moss species from British Antarctic Territory and S Georgia & S Sandwich Islands.
Beach morning glory (Ipomoea pes-caprae) from British Indian Ocean Territory.
Parrot’s plantain (Heliconia psittacorum) from British Virgin Islands.
Olive (Olea europaea), common myrtle (Myrtus communis) and dwarf fan palm (Chamaerops humilis) from Gibraltar.
Anthurium hookeri from Montserrat

Detail of St. Helena boxwood (Mellissia begoniifolia)

Mangrove (Rhizophora mucronata) from Pitcairn, Henderson, Ducie and Oena Islands.
Codiaeum variegatum from Pitcairn, Henderson, Ducie and Oena Islands.
Old Father live-for-ever (Pelargonium cotyledonis), St. Helena boxwood (Mellissia begoniifolia) and St. Helena ebony (Trochetiopsis ebenus) from St. Helena.
Scrubwood (Commidendrum rugosum) from St Helena.
Hamelia patens from Turks & Caicos Islands.
Tussock grass (Deschampsia flexuosa).

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