Behind the scenes at Kew

There is much more to Kew than the average punter sees. Behind high walls there are acres of greenhouses and beds producing plants to rotate, show, propagate from etc. It is worth going on line to see what an important place it is for everything else. Each plant has a label that shows its name, country of origin and date that it was collected. Its number is linked to a database that records its exact place of origin, what kind of habitat, weather, soil, companion planting etc. it had so the geneticists can see whether it has slightly adapted from say a similar plant from the next valley. Kew Info here