Kew Gardens’ Temperate House to reopen after £41m restoration

Rare plants among hundreds of specimens being planted in new beds at world's largest surviving Victorian glasshouse

The scrawny trunk and dull leathery spiky leaves of one of the rarest plants in the world will soon be admired in a new light at Kew Gardens, as Encephalartos woodii flourishes again at the north end of the restored Temperate House, the largest Victorian glasshouse in the world.

As the 41m restoration of the Grade I-listed building nears completion, the gardeners are dodging the diggers and cranes still trundling through the enormous space, and planting out hundreds of specimens into the new beds. More light than when the house was first built in the 1860s pours in through acres of new glass, and the plants are visibly responding: the bitter orange tree is covered in fruit, and Bauhinia blakeana has thrown out a charming pink flower.