Press Release

Shopping for your Mediterranean Year

Kew is conjuring up a feast for the senses this summer, celebrating the Mediterranean regions of the world. This festival highlights the plants, climate and foods of these areas. A completely new Mediterranean garden, beach and display of over 100 different varieties of chillis is just the start of the experience. Visitors will also be able to take a part of this unique culture home with them.

Taste
The Mediterranean has a rich and distinctive cuisine based on the plants that grow in the region, many of which we are familiar with. Taste the difference and take home one of the finest olive oils in the world, produced from organic olive groves on the Greek island of Kytherea. There are also wholesome pastas from Italy and jams produced to traditional recipes, free from preservatives and colouring, sourced from the Almafi Coast. Rustic crockery and cooking utensils are also available for purchase.

Scents
Lavender, cedar, lemon and olive are just a few of the scents which evoke the Mediterranean. Discover them in a host of bath products, essential oils and home fragrances. There are luxurious soaps available to purchase, each bar still created using old cauldron baking traditions of the saponeria. Choose from a selection of Kew’s own-mix pot pourri, dried flowers and beautifully scented Italian soaps, made using traditional methods.

Colours
Visit our Garden Shop and you’ll discover various Mediterranean plants which will brighten up your garden, including lavender, rosemary, chilli, citrus fruit and stone pine trees, as well as grapevines and cacti.

Books
Kew’s Book Shop stocks a comprehensive range of titles on gardening and the natural world. To complement this festival there are informative guides to help recreate a slice of the Mediterranean in your garden in particular the sumptuously illustrated Subtropical and Dry Climate Plants, the definitive guide to more than 700 obtainable perennials, orchids, trees, shrubs, bulbs, climbers, cacti and succulents, bamboos and grasses, ferns and annuals, commonly grown in the balmy regions of Europe and the USA. Other titles will also be available on gardening techniques in warmer and drought affected climates.

For Children
Within the White Peaks Children Shop there are a host of interesting and interactive products to stretch young minds, such as rock pool explorer kits, seeds and cacti.

Notes to Editors:

A selection of products available in Kew Mediterranean range are:

Artichokes 3100ml - £24.99
Sun dried tomatoes 1080g -£18.99
Olive oil 500ml - £9.99

Terracotta roaster (round) - £34.99
Terracotta roaster (oval) - £36.99
Terracotta roaster (square) - £39.99

Lavender and olive oil scented large candles - £19.99

Pepper tree - £9.99
Bay tree - £49.99

View images of Kew’s retail products at http://www.kew.org/press/images/retail.html. Contact the press office to obtain a username and password to download high resolution images.

The Victoria Gate gift shop is open Monday to Saturday from 9.30am until half an hour before the Gardens close.  The White Peaks gift shop is open Monday to Friday from 10am until 5.30pm and on Saturday 10am until 6.30pm.  On Sundays, both shops are open from 12noon until 6pm.

All proceeds from the Kew Garden shop go towards funding RBG Kew’s vital research and conservation work around the world.

Kew Gardens opens at 9.30am daily and will close at 6.30pm weekdays, 7.30pm weekends and bank holidays throughout the Mediterranean Year festival.  Adult admission £12.25; concessions £10.25; children aged 16 and under FREE.  Visitor information at www.kew.org, email info@kew.org, or call 020 8332 5655 (24-hour recorded information line).  Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Richmond, Surrey, TW9 3AB.

Subtropical and Dry Climate Plants: 256 pages, 280 x 214mm, hard cover, ISBN 13: 978 1 84533 199 3 (ISBN 10: 1 84533 199 0), £30.  Available from the Kew Gardens Book Shop or online at www.kewbooks.com.

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