Kew Serves Up a Delicious Wonka Whipple-Scrumptious treat for Easter 2014 Roald Dahl’s best-loved tale Charlie and the Chocolate Factory will be brought to life at Kew Gardens for Easter 2014 (5 – 21 April 2014). Get your Golden Ticket and join us in celebrating 50 Whipple-Scrumptious years of Charlie and Willy Wonka. Activities are brought to you in partnership with the Roald Dahl Museum and Story Centre. Get stuck into our themed arts and crafts workshops – based around the four main Chocolate Factory rooms featured in the book – or join our traditional Easter Egg Hunt on Sunday 20 April 2013. You will collect tokens from around the Gardens to pick up your prize – a delicious chocolate treat from the Easter Bunny. 2014 marks a phenomenal 50 years since Charlie and the Chocolate Factory was first published. The story of Charlie Bucket, the five Golden Tickets, the devilish Oompa-Loompas and the amazing Mr Willy Wonka has become embedded in our culture, having twice been adapted for the cinema and most recently as a hit West End musical. Kew Gardens is delighted to join in the celebrations. Claire Field, Director of the Roald Dahl Museum says, “We are so excited about sharing one of Roald Dahl’s best-known stories with visitors at Kew Gardens and can’t wait to bring a little bit of his magic to such glorious surroundings. We’re sure that visitors, young and old, will enjoy discovering more about Charlie Bucket (and friends!) through crafts, storytelling and, of course, a little bit of chocolate.” Activities on offer at Kew Gardens include: Create your own Willy Wonka-inspired chocolate bar… In the Chocolate Room, next to Climbers and Creepers, get creative with a chef from the Roald Dahl Museum café to decorate your very own chocolatey creations. Take your inspiration from Roald Dahl and come up with an ingenious name for your chocolate bar and create a wacky label and package. Sessions run at 11am; 12pm; 1pm; 2pm; 3pm daily. There will be a small additional cost for this activity, please check kew.org closer to the time. Everlasting gobstoppers and hair toffee in the Inventing Room…. Join Willy Wonka and his head Oompa-Loompa in the Inventing Room, located near the Palm House, for songs and music. You will also be concocting and creating wonderfully weird designs for chocolate bars and indulging in sweet-themed crafts. With your creative juices flowing, you just might come up with a brilliant recipe idea for a creation to top Willy Wonka’s everlasting gobstopper. To take part, drop into the Inventing Room from 11am – 4pm. This activity is free. Go nuts…. Colouring-in and drawing are the focus in the Nut Room, near the Waterlily House – just beware of the mischievous squirrels…To take part, drop in to the Nut Room from 11am – 4pm. This activity is free. You’re a poet – you just don’t know it… If you are all crafted out, then head to the Television Room in the Princess of Wales Conservatory film room to sink into some beanbags and listen to Oompa-Loompa poems and Roald Dahl’s hilarious Revolting Rhymes as told by storytellers from the Roald Dahl Museum and Story Centre. Sessions run at 11am – 11.30am; 12 noon – 12.30pm; 1.30pm – 2pm and 3pm – 3.30pm daily. This activity is free. Spring at Kew Gardens: The Biggest Display of Spring Colour in the Country If all the Easter chocolatey fun on offer wasn’t enough, April also sees Kew Gardens in full spring bloom. Come and enjoy the stunning beauty of over five million bulbs. The swathes of snowdrops, crocuses, and daffodils are a riot of colour that is sure to melt away the winter blues. The snowdrop collection on the Rock Garden is always worth looking forward to. Plants are sometimes in flower as early as December. At Victoria Gate (from mid February), you will be greeted with a sea of over two million blue, white, and mauve crocuses (Crocus vernus), which stretch beyond the Temple of Bellona and towards King Williams Temple. Daffodils can be seen around the Temple of Aeolus, and as you stroll down the length of the Broad Walk, the perfect setting for a gentle amble on a spring day, you can also bathe in their glorious sunny glow (from March). For more unusual, exotic bulbs visit the Davies Alpine House, with changing displays from March to May. For updates on what is on display, visit the Alpine House and Rock Garden blog (kew.org/blogs). Peak time to view the species tulip collection is late March. You will also be able to enjoy the sight of Kew’s trees as they awaken and burst with new life (keep an eye on the Arboretum team’s blog for updates on the many colourful and wonderfully scented spring flowering shrubs and blossom kew.org/blogs). Cherry Walk is a popular highlight from mid-March. The 250 magnificent magnolias across the Gardens are a sight to behold in early April. The trees grouped together at Elizabeth Gate, with their large pink and white flowers, stand out as a special highlight for your visit. Magnolias are also celebrated in The Shirley Sherwood Gallery of Botanical Art with an exhibition (15 January – August 2014) featuring breathtakingly beautiful and detailed paintings of Magnolia species, by award winning botanical artist Barbara Oozeerally. These stunning images and many more will be published in a book, Magnolias in Art and Cultivation, by Kew and the RHS to coincide with the exhibition in 2014 kewbooks/asps/ForthcomingDetails.asp?id=1036 Later in the season, thousands of deep blue, starry flowered Chionodoxa siehei carpet the lawns surrounding White Peaks. These delicate alpine plants are known as ‘Glory of the Snow’ in western Turkey as they emerge from the melting snow of the mountains. Lovely lilacs also flourish by White Peaks. Keep up to date with Kew’s spring flowering and plan your visit using the Bulbwatch Map kew.org/visit-kew-gardens/BulbWatch/ (Bulbwatch goes live in January 2014). If you have been inspired by Kew Gardens in spring bloom, pick up a copy of Growing Garden Bulbs in the Victoria Gate shop. Written by Kew’s Head of Hardy Display, Richard Wilford, and the driving force behind Kew’s beautiful spring displays, this book will help you get the most out of your snowdrops and daffodils kewbooks/asps/ForthcomingDetails.asp?id=1024
Posted on: Mon, 11 Nov 2013 16:01:28 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015