In 1673 the Worshipful Society of Apothecaries of London opened a garden for their apprentices on the banks of the Thames. It's still there, bar the riverside stripe swept away for the Chelsea Embankment, and is now home to over 4500 medicinal, edible and otherwise useful plants. You can visit London's oldest botanic garden any day except Saturday, but the joy of this special after-hours Open House was getting in for free. In this case it probably is worth £13.50, so that was a real bonus.
The four acre walled garden is crammed with specimens, and has a microclimate that helps avoid nasty frosts. Close to the entrance is a cluster of Edwardian greenhouses with a connecting tropical corridor along the back, also a display of delphiniums doing far better than mine. The whole place is segmented by function or origin, so plants that might make you better are in the northern corner and those from the mid-Atlantic islands fill a border along the eastern wall. Some are properly poisonous and labelled with a skull and crossbones, others still brim with late summer colour. In no other garden have I seen a sign saying Please do not climb on our Grade 2 Listed Rockery.
This is a great time of year to stare at fruit, the gleaming orb-like pomegranates currently a particular treat. Over in the edible beds the bountiful selection of vegetables could easily grace the winners table at a village produce show, and that's without including the mighty gourds hanging from the cucumber pergola. Meanwhile the Dicotyledon Order Beds are now past their best, each laid out according to Bentham and Hooker's Victorian taxonomy, and the gingko hasn't quite turned yet. Some of the tropical trees are truly magnificent, the girthy Chilean palm in particular, while a dozen parakeets have already made the central yew their own.
The garden proved a marvellous place to potter round, densely packed with botanical interest and all individually labelled in case you want to have a go at home. If you fancy a look they're doing a second after hours Open House freebie on Friday, when the weather should be a lot better, but if you're of a horticultural bent the Chelsea Physic Garden's worth considering any time.
