Week Ten

There's only one more week left in this internship with Kew.  Wow!  That's hard to believe.  This week was a short week because there was a "bank holiday" across the country on Monday.  I spent the weekend touring some really fantastic Hosta collections near Wokingham and visiting with some friends from Tennessee.

Tuesday
Tuesday we were back to work.  As you know, Monday is normally our edging day, and the grass had gotten a bit shaggy.  Shelley decided to have the whole lot of us tackle edging in the order beds and grass garden and get it done that morning.  Our crew was back up to seven people, because we got a new apprentice and Martin returned from paternity leave.

Daisy and I were hard at work digging
Hemerocallis in the peony border

It was a bit rainy that day, and both of our normal volunteers called in because of the poor weather.  We finished by lunch time, and then the skies opened up and began to really "chuck it down".  There just wasn't enough room for all of us to be sharpening tools in the shed that afternoon, so Daisy and I spent the rest of the day working on internship assignments from the School of Horticulture computer lab.

Wednesday
Nearly all of us spent the entire day Wednesday working in the peony beds.  The peony beds are large mixed borders that contain a great deal of Paeonia between the order beds and the woodland garden.  We were doing what Shelley calls a "general tidy", which means we were weeding, deadheading, and removing dead foliage and spent biennials.

Leadership Experience
Shelley used the time to encourage Beth, one of the horticulture students, to get some personnel management experience.  Beth oversaw Daisy and me for a while, which involved explaining the tasks we were needed to do, how to do them, and why they needed to be done.  My understanding was this is a normal part of the students' work experience placement, so they're not only learning how to be horticulturalists, but also leaders in horticulture.  Beth did a great job!

Dealing with Daylilies
While Daisy and I were working under Beth, I overheard Shelley and India discussing the layout of an adjacent bed.  It was interesting to hear them work through the changes they would be making to improve a few spots.  There was one section that had a huge patch of Hemerocallis flava (1998-2335, MAFA).  India and I had recently spent some time removing the dead foliage and pulling the old flower stalks.

Kew staff decided to add some
splashes of color and texture at the
corners of this bed by removing
daylily  and planting Heuchera

Shelley and India decided the area would be more attractive if there were something a bit lower and more evergreen towards the front rather than just daylilies.  Shelley later explained that something perennial and evergreen, like Heuchera, would also help control some of the soil erosion in the bed.  She pointed out the plants that they had decided to remove, gave some guidance on the method, and let us get to it.

As someone who trained in horticulture in Knoxville, Tennessee, I didn't feel that I needed a great deal of oversight on this task.  If there's one thing this Tennessee girl knows how to do, it's digging and dividing Hemerocallis.  The H. 'Stella D'Oro' craze hit our area pretty hard, which made these plants wildly popular in residential and commercial landscapes.

But Shelley wouldn't be doing her job if she just let two interns loose in the garden without more specific direction, so she walked us through the following steps.  First we removed all the old, strappy foliage so that digging would be cleaner and easier.  However, these plants would be planted elsewhere at Kew, so the second flush of new growth needed to be kept intact as much as possible.  Then we had to use our forks to maneuver the plants loose of the soil.  Shelley suggested we work a circle around the plant before digging up so that we wouldn't break the shaft.  We set the plants in a secluded area near the tool shed, then leveled the soil in the beds and swept the paths.

If there's one thing this Tennessee
girl knows how to do, it's digging
and dividing daylilies.  These will
be planted elsewhere at Kew.

Thursday
Daisy and I spent the day continuing to tidy up around the order beds.  There were some plants that had "gone over", which means they were done for the year.  We cut back perennials and pulled up annuals.  There was a large Euphorbia that had completely flopped.  We cut it back to some new basal growth, and it may pluck up a bit before the end of the season. Euphorbia sap is a skin irritant, so Daisy and I wore gloves and handled the trimmed branches with care.

Friday
Tomorrow, the whole cohort of interns is heading to Wakehurst Place for the entire day.  Unfortunately I won't be able to attend.  The date of the trip had to be rescheduled, and I had already gotten nonrefundable or exchangeable train tickets to see the Royal Botanic Gardens in Edinburgh that day.  Kate and Shelley made arrangements for me to go last week, but I'm still a little bummed that I'm missing out on seeing Wakehurst with the rest of the group.


Thanks for reading, and check back to read what happens the LAST week of my internship with Kew.

If you have any questions, comments or suggestions, please feel welcome to leave a comment or send me an email.

To see more photos from this week, be sure to check out the album "Week Ten" on the Plante on Plants Facebook page.  "Likes", shares and comments are appreciated. 

This week's British treat a cup of English breakfast tea and a Hobnob biscuit. You just can't get more English than that...

Believe it or not, this is also the first cup of tea I've had in England.  Consumed reluctantly at the insistence of a coworker, this was actually quite good.  I still prefer coffee though.

All photos were taken by Amanda Plante at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew unless otherwise stated in the caption.

Sources:

• The Plant List website
• The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew website and staff

Week Nine

I was fortunate enough to spend last weekend touring some fantastic gardens in Cornwall and Paris.  I had a really super time, and I'm really looking forward to when I get a spare minute to fill you in on my Garden Guide blog.  Unfortunately, I'm sad to say that I've been having some awful problems with technology that continue to impede my ability to update my blogs.  I thought it would be best to go ahead and share everything from this week, then go back later on next week and give you the scoop on what happened last week.  Sorry for the inconvenience.

Really basic labels in the "Every Child Outdoors"
berry patch at the Knoxville Botanical Gardens

Instead of starting right back to work on Monday, I used some of my free days to spend Monday and Tuesday visiting more gardens.  When I got back to work on Wednesday morning, Kate, Shelley and I were able to make some last minute arrangements for me to visit Wakehurst Place.  I hopped on the mail truck that runs between Kew and Wakehurst and spent the rest of the day in Sussex.  I will write all about that visit in my Garden Guide blog as an appendix to this week's post.

Thursday I was finally back to work.  While Shelley and Beth mowed in the grass garden, the rest of the crew did a "weed sweep" of the order beds.  Crissy and I started on one end of a row, India and Daisy started on the other end, we met in the middle, and then moved onto another row.  The order beds actually cover quite a large area, so this is actually no small chore.  We all worked on this until afternoon tea.  After that, I had the opportunity to help Crissy place some new plant labels.  Although we only did this for a brief time, I found the activity really interesting.  More information about the process is given below.

How Kew does labels

A brief history
Kew has been labeling their collections since as early as 1773.  Someone connected to Kew at the time wrote that, "It is said that orders have been given to the Head gardener at Kew that instead of placing numbers upon the different plants and flowers in the Garden, they shall be inscribed with their names at full length."  Before then, each plant had a number that corresponded to an entry in a printed plant catalog (Desmond, 340).

Standard plant labels in use at the
University of Tennessee gardens include the
genus, specific epithet, and common name

In the early 1800s, Kew suffered some decades of neglect.  However, it was during this time in the 1820s that the curator, John Smith, began the massive undertaking of relabeling all the plants in the gardens to include their specific names.  Before then, the plant labels only included the genus and catalog numbers, and some of these contained confusing inaccuracies (Desmond, 127-128).

As I've written before, the grass collection was the real apple of Smith's eye, and it seems to have received most of his attention in the great relabeling.  In the 1840s only the grass garden was fully and appropriately labelled (Desmond, 148).  It would be another 14 years before the tree and shrub collections received metal hanging name tags (Desmond, 346).

Finding creative ways to use plant labels to track collections and display information continues to be a consideration for Kew today.  According to the most recent edition of Ray Desmond's History of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, the gardens contain "the world's largest documented botanical collection consisting of about 30,000 plant taxa" (Desmond, 333). 

The way that plants are labelled is something that varies across different botanic gardens.  Some that are more concerned with culinary or medicinal properties of plants may include facts about use on the label.  Other institutions that are geared toward educating people on plants that may work for their home landscape will include the common name and symbols that correspond to the growing requirements.  Kew's primary responsibilities are scientific research and conservation, which influences the format of their plant labels.

What does it all mean?
First and foremost, each of these plantings must be labelled with the genus, specific epithet, and family so that horticulturalists, researchers, and visitors know what they are.  Not many of Kew's labels include the common name, but some do.  The label may also include the variety, cultivar, or hybrid name.

We'll use Eucalyptus dalrympleana as an example
of Kew's modern plant labeling system

The top right corner of each label includes the plant's accession number.  The first four digits correspond to the year they were brought to Kew.  Since Kew has only been tracking plant accessions since 1969, the accession numbers of many specimens that are quite old will begin with 1969.  If there was a record of exactly what year an older plant was brought to Kew, it may be reflected in the accession number.

The numerals that follow the hyphen identify when the plant was accessioned in a year.  We'll use one of Kew's Eucalyptus dalrympleana as an example.  The accession number is 1972-6025.  That means this plant was the 6025th plant that was brought to Kew in the year of 1972.

In addition to knowing exactly when a plant was introduced, Kew tracks who collected each plant.  That doesn't mean they track who was the first to collect the species as a whole (although I'd imagine that quite a few of Kew's specimens have that distinction).  Rather, they log who collected the specific plant that is now in the collection.  The initials of the donor are located just below the accession number on the label.  Going back to the Eucalyptus from our example, the donor initials are FRIC.  This stands for the Forest Research Institute of Canberra.

Many, but not all, of the labels will also include where the plant is native to.This information will be located in the bottom right hand corner.  This may be incredibly specific or quite general.  This depends on the native range of the plant.

The herb labels at the ECO Gardens
include the Latin name, common name,
and symbols for the garden uses

Living collections database
Any of the information on the label can be used be used by Kew staff to look up more information about the plant in Kew's living collections database.  The best way to find information about the specific plant is to search using the plant's accession number, although it is possible to look up information using the scientific name, donor initials, or physical location.

The database entry will include more details about how the plant has been managed ("curation"), exactly where it was collected, notes for cultivation, taxonomic notes, and possibly information of scientific interest such as the anatomy, physiology, or ploidy level.  Staff are able to update a database entry so that it reflects the most current information for each plant.  When a plant dies its status is changed from "live specimens" to "dead specimens", but all the information remains on the database.

Adding new labels
Earlier this summer, Crissy submitted a list of all the new plants that had been added to the order beds and the long border.  She received new labels in the section's office mail this week.  She pulled labels for a selection of plants, the we fitted each label with a stand.

Daisy and I had spent a rainy Friday morning the week before pulling these stands out of the cereal beds in the grass garden, removing their labels, and brushing the soil from the stands.  It was nice to see them put to use!

When we finished putting together the labels and stands, Crissy and I placed them out in the gardens.  Some plantings had a temporary label from before they were accessioned.  The genus and species was printed on black paper and taped to a blank plastic label.  Other plantings had white plastic nursery labels that were partially buried under the mulch.

An intern's perspective
Kew has a really broad mission.  Historically, their emphasis has been on the scientific side of horticulture, from collection to economic botany.  Until relatively recently, Kew did not see any need to provide more information to the public.  Sure, visitors were allowed in the garden, but they were rewarded with the experience of being able to see the displays, landscape, conservatories, and specimens rather than with information.

The Eden Project tended to use multiple signs -
including individual plant labels - to communicate
loads of information to visitors

Over the last few decades, Kew's mission has evolved to include public education.  Perhaps it's time for the labeling system to take this into account.  In the future, it would be worthwhile to include at least a common name.  Longwood and Missouri Botanic both do.  But why just play catch-up with other botanic gardens?  Kew is famous for blazing new frontiers.  Perhaps Kew could have a focus group with visitors to ask what further information they'd like to see on the labels in order to better meet their needs.

Don't get me wrong.  I don't think Kew should remove the accession numbers, donor initials, or any of the information that's currently on the labels.  I just think it would be a good idea to add a bit of information that is educates the visitors, since they don't have access to the living collections database.  But that's just my opinion.

Thanks for reading, and check back to read what happens next week in my internship with Kew.

If you have any questions, comments or suggestions, please feel welcome to leave a comment or send me an email.

To see more photos from this week, be sure to check out the album "Week Nine" on the Plante on Plants Facebook page.  "Likes", shares and comments are appreciated. 

This week's British treat was a bona fide Cornish scone from the Eden Project Core cafe.  The scone was bigger than a man's fist and it had fresh, local sticky clotted cream and jam that had whole chunks of strawberry.  This was the mother of all scones!

The Eden Project even uses heiroglyphics for their visitors who may not be English savvy

All photos were taken by Amanda Plante at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew unless otherwise stated in the caption.

Sources:

• Desmond, Ray.  (2007).  The History of the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew (2nd Edition).  London: Kew Publishing, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. 
• The Plant List website
• The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew website and staff

Week Seven

Although we did a wealth of different activities this week, I'm going to hone in on our work this Friday in Kew's aquatics garden.  Now that the internship is more than halfway over (where has the time gone?), I wanted to make sure that I wrote about this interesting spot just in case we don't have the chance to work in there again this summer.  Although I mentioned a bit about this in my second week's post, I think it would be worthwhile to go into a bit more detail about this section of the gardens.

All about the aquatics garden

A quick history

Water lily surrounded by duckweed (Lemna)

Although Kew has had aquatic displays in and surrounding man-made, in-ground lakes and ponds since the beginning, it wasn't until the directorship of Sir William Hooker that tanks were constructed to display hardy aquatic plants (Desmond, 148).  A somewhat small tank was installed near the northern side of the herbaceous beds in 1841, and was used for that purpose until at least 1873.  In 1879, Sir William's son and successor Sir Joseph Hooker replaced the tank with a larger brick tank that spanned 80 feet (Desmond, 211).

The improved tank was replaced in 1909 by a large central tank flanked by two rectangular tanks to the sides and four smaller ones on the corners (Desmond, 351).  According to some material that Shelley gave us earlier in the internship, the "new" aquatic garden was originally known as "White City" because it was made of bright, new concrete.  Needless to say, the appearance is quite different today.

Aquatics garden prior to weeding

White City had only cost £600 to build.  When the surrounding pavement was relaid in 2002, the improvements cost £5,000.  That's more than eight times the cost of the original construction!  This design is still in use today, although the central tank was raised up to give more depth for larger lilies in 1935 (Desmond, 353).

Much of the original plumbing is still in use, which means that its prone to leaks and breaks.  Five weeks ago, Shelley discovered that a pipe no longer filled one of the long tanks with water.  She immediately shut the tap off (because the water had to be going somewhere) and called maintenance.  The problem with fixing this system, as is true with all of Kew's irrigation, is that it is difficult finding the parts for such old plumbing.

Keeping it clean
Weeding is an important part of any garden maintenance plan.  For some reason, before I started at Kew I figured that water gardens would require less weeding than traditional beds.  Boy, was I wrong.  Duckweed (Lemna) and blanket weed need to be removed regularly to keep the desirable plants from being overcrowded and to ensure the surface of the water remains a dark, reflective surface.

Daisy demonstrates how to remove
blanketweed algae with a rake

Kew tries to prevent blanket weed algae from forming by dyeing the water blue.  The idea is that this type of algae forms below the water surface.  If the water is darkened, this reduces the amount of sunlight the plants receive, which should reduce growth.  The practice is effective in combination with regular weeding.  Algae can be removed by scooping it out of the tank with a rake or by simply harvesting it by hand.  Usually blanket weed will come up in a huge, continuous mass.  It actually resembles a blanket, which is why it's called blanket weed.

Duckweed is a whole different problem altogether.  It's brought into the tanks on the feet of aquatic birds (thus the common name "duckweed"), plant containers, and even tools.  The water dyeing trick doesn't work on Lemna because it naturally grows along the surface of the water.  That's why making the water dark doesn't slow growth.  Unlike blanket weed, duckweed doesn't stay in one big mass when you try to remove it.  Although it may look like a big, unbroken sheet from above, it's actually a collection of thousands upon thousands of itty bitty plants.  Try to scoop it out with a rake and you'll see all the pieces scatter away.  That's why we use nets to remove Lemna, but even then it's just impossible to get it all.

Bugging out
In addition to weeding, we also do pest control.  Although the water lilies were relatively healthy last time we worked in this area, they've developed a pest problem since then.  The water lily leaf beetle lays its eggs on the foliage.  When the eggs hatch, small black larvae emerge and begin chomping voraciously on the leaves.  They cut tunnels through the pads, which stress the plants out and look very unattractive.  It also doesn't help that the adults feed on the plants too.

Damage caused by water lily beetle larvae

There's not much that we can do to control the pests beyond simply spraying the eggs, larvae, and adults off of the plants with a water hose.  However, removing aquatic pests on aquatic plants with a spray of water into a tank of water isn't super effective.  Most of what we do is remove the damaged foliage so that the plants look cleaner and some of the pests are removed with the green waste.

This is nothing new
The information packet Shelley gave us for the aquatic garden contained a page from the Kew Guild Journal from 1909 to 1910.  The author was describing the new plans for the aquatic garden, and wrote about Sir Joseph Hooker's older garden.  "The old tank in the herbaceous ground, of which some of our readers will remain very muddy memories appertaining to its annual clean out, has been cleared away."  Although Daisy and I are only at Kew for a short time, it feels really special to share this murky experience with gardeners across Kew's past and into the future.

An intern's perspective
I think everyone enjoys working in the aquatic garden at this time of year.  When it's hot, humid, and sunny outside, this is a very cool activity.  Chasing after the Lemna is always a bit disappointing for me, because I really do want to get all of it out.  But that's impossible for reasons already stated.  The important thing is that the gardens look much better at the end of the day than they did at the beginning.

What else did we do this week?

We skipped edging the order beds on Monday, because the grass simply hadn't grown.  London's been in the grip of a drought since I arrived in June, and I guess the grass just couldn't handle it anymore.  This week much of the grass when from a dry green to a crunchy brown.  So there was no point in edging because nothing had grown.

Aquatics garden after weeding

Our crew spent a day and a half cutting and cleaning up the long grass along the boundary wall between the order beds and Kew Road.  This was intensely interesting, but I think I'm going to save what I was going to write about it for next week's post.  I don't want to overwhelm folks with too much information, and I'd also like a bit more time to observe how this difference affects the wildlife in our area.

Hitching my wagon to her star
Friday afternoon, Daisy was struck with a brilliant idea.  We've both been a bit distressed that we haven't been able to see much of the gardens, even though we've been working here for seven whole weeks.  It's hard to work up enough stamina for a romp through the 300+ acre property after a hard day of manual labor.

But Friday, Daisy proposed a fine solution.  Instead of walking through the gardens, she suggested that we hop on the Kew Explorer tram.  The tour guide was clear and informative, we saw loads of new things, and had a fun time!  I'd recommend the journey as a good way to start a visit to Kew.  It's only 40 minutes long, you get an idea of where everything is and of what you want to see.

Thanks for reading, and check back to read what happens next week in my internship with Kew.

If you have any questions, comments or suggestions, please feel welcome to leave a comment or send me an email.

To see more photos from this week, be sure to check out the album "Week Seven" on the Plante on Plants Facebook page.  "Likes", shares and comments are appreciated. 

This week's British treat is India's homemade white chocolate and pistachio cake.  Moist, smooth, and flavorful.  That girl knows how to bake!

 

India's tasty and delicious white chocolate pistachio cake.  Oh so good!

A nice, cool way to spend a Friday!  Photo by Daisy.

Sources:

• Desmond, Ray.  (2007).  The History of the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew (2nd Edition).  London: Kew Publishing, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.  177-179, 345-346.
• The Plant List website
• The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew website and staff

 

Week Six

As of Thursday, I have officially been an intern at Kew for one full month.  July completely flew by!  I can't believe that Daisy and I are at the halfway point of our internship.

I can't believe I've been in England
for a full month already!  Time flies.

If you've been following this blog, then you've read that we've been doing a great deal of deadheading all over our section, including in the order beds, birch border, DNA spiral, and secluded garden.  Weeks of deadheading has promoted new flushes of flowers in some specimens.  Others are still preparing for another show later in the fall.

All this deadheading and cutting back has changed the appearance of these spots pretty dramatically.  I walked through the order beds and tried to capture images in the same spot as some from my first week.  The colors and feel have changed quite a bit!  Scroll to the bottom of this post to see what I mean.

What did I do this week?

Monday was edging day, followed by weeding and deadheading. 

I spent the entire day Tuesday deadheading Sisyrinchium striatum around the DNA spiral next to the Jodrell Laboratory.  That's an activity where I really wish I'd taken "before" and "after" photos, because the difference is pretty dramatic.  I had mixed feelings about the task because the Sisyrinchium had really interesting seed heads, but they really did look quite messy.

A week or two ago I spent a whole day deadheading the Sisyrinchium in the secluded garden too.  I've decided that this is a fiddly plant, and those who want to grow it in their home landscapes should either have enough time to tidy it, or they should be happy to let it behave as it would naturally.

To read more about how Kew handles
pruner maintenance, check
out the Thrifty Gardener

Thursday was spent maintaining the rose pillars.  I would write more about that, but I went into a great deal of detail about this activity in the first week's post.  However, India did show Daisy and I how to disassemble, clean, lubricate, sharpen, and assemble our secateurs (bypass hand pruners).  I've been in horticulture since 2006, and somehow never learned how to do this.  What a handy thing to know!  I've dedicated a whole post titled "Hand Pruner Maintenance 101" in the Thrifty Gardener to this activity.  If you want to learn how to do it, I'd recommend having a read.

Friday morning Daisy and I took turns mowing around the rose pillars with the cylinder push mower.  I also detailed this activity the first week.

On irrigation

Drought tolerant?

Quite a few "drought tolerant" plants, like Salvia, Rudbeckia, and some grasses, have been struggling over the past few weeks.  Although these species are very water wise choices in dry areas, these particular specimens have been acting a bit wimpy in London's droughty weather.  The reason for this is that these plants have been spoiled by the rainy English climate.  The normally frequent rain has caused them to develop shallow root systems.  Now that the top of the soil is dry, these plants are flagging.

Normally many Salvia are pretty drought
tolerant.  The ones at Kew have been spoiled
by the normally rainy climate.

We have been trying to water deeply so the roots will grow down, but the whole area has needed a lot of TLC.  Martin, one of the diploma students, has been spearheading the watering brigade.  If you walked through the order beds at any point last week, you probably saw Martin lugging hoses, setting up sprinklers, and making adjustments.

Shelley and the water box

Although our activities this week were somewhat routine, Shelley was working on something really interesting.  There's a water box at the corner by the lavender beds that was prone to flooding and had filled up with silt and gravel.  While I was deadheading at the birch border, she kept me updated on what she was doing to make repairs.

Photo of a different water box than the one that
Shelley was working on, but you get the idea

First, she scooped out all of the soil and gravel from inside the box, until she hit the cement bottom.  Next, she replaced all of the rubber gasket fittings in each of the connectors and caps.  When she attached a hose to water the DNA spiral, the hose was very loose on the attachment.  She determined that larger gauge hoses won't fit correctly on that heading for some reason.  She switched to a smaller gauge hose, and it seemed to fit okay.  She let the drip irrigation run overnight, and the next morning there was only four or five inches of standing water in the water box.

It was really interesting to watch this trouble shooting process!  Like I've mentioned before, the irrigation system at Kew is really quite old.  As one of the premier gardens in the world, Kew has been on the forefront of cutting edge technology in horticulture.  As a result, it seems like they get these elaborate systems before the industry has had the time to work all the bugs out.  Once something like an irrigation system is in place, they can do small scale improvements, but a total overhaul isn't really feasible.

Thanks for reading, and check back to read what happens next week in my internship with Kew.

If you have any questions, comments or suggestions, please feel welcome to leave a comment or send me an email.

To see more photos from this week, be sure to check out the album "Week Six" on the Plante on Plants Facebook page.  "Likes", shares and comments are appreciated. 

This week's British treat is the warm and tasty bakewell tart, served with berries and vanilla ice cream.  Mmm...

 

Last week of June

First week of August

Last week of June

First week of August

The Great Baked Good Debate, UK vs US

The very first week of my internship with the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, one of the horticulture students asked me to name one iconic dish from the Southeast United States.  Without missing a step I said, "Biscuits n' gravy."  Blank faces.  Then I was asked twice to confirm that yes, those two words are "biscuit" and "gravy".  The interest in the conversation increased.  I was quizzed about the gravy and whether it means the same thing in Tennessee as it does in London.  When I described the gravy as made from sausage grease, flour, milk and pepper, curiosity turned into open disgust.  I didn't understand. 

Just look at this and tell me that it's not a cookie.
That looks nothing like a proper biscuit!

That week I picked up some McVitie's Digestive Biscuits for my first "British treat of the week".  I basically inhaled the package without pausing to wonder why the word "biscuit" was on a package of cookies.  

It was another week or so before someone explained that biscuits in the UK are completely different from the ones I grew up with.  That opened a whole Pandora's box, and made everyone involved question, not only what culinary qualities constitute a biscuit versus a cookie, but also in defining scones, crackers and cakes.  I expected some cultural differences, but this was a bit more than I had anticipated.  I mean, these folks actually thought that I ate cookies with sausage gravy.

American Biscuits n' Gravy

Last week, I brought in some fresh, homemade sausage biscuits and gravy before a hardy display section meeting.  The biscuits were so-so because people use different metrics for baking here (weight vs. volume), and I didn't think to pack any measuring cups.  They were warm, buttery, and okay overall.  There was only one biscuit left over, and when I threw the sad thing away at afternoon tea it was as hard as a hockey puck.  

The gravy was definitely the finest sausage gravy I've ever made.  Good flavor, color, consistency.  I had worried at first that nobody would eat it if it went gray and unappetizing.  Thankfully it was a nice white with bits of sausage and pepper floating around.

People kept calling these biscuits "scones".  No.
It's biscuits n' gravy, not scones n' gravy.

But probably the most popular part of the dish was the sausage patties.  Most of the sausages you see over here are in casings, so several people stopped to ask me what they were eating.  The idea of ground sausage formed into a patty is a bit too foreign for some folks to wrap their heads around.  The sausage was gone first though.

I had also prepared some sausage biscuits.  You know, like the ones you pick up from the McDonald's drive-thru for $1 when you overslept and didn't have time to make breakfast.  One person remarked that it looked like a hamburger, and because it resembles a burger it shouldn't be eaten without "salad" (toppings) and "tomato sauce" (ketchup).

As I was washing the dishes, I overheard a somewhat heated conversation from the dining area.  There were two folks, each with a biscuit, arguing over the pronunciation of scone.  One pronounced it skh-ON (rhymes with John) and the other skh-OWN (rhymes with Joan).  When I took the dish away to wash, one stopped me and verified that I had brought in the food.  When I affirmed, they asked me to clear it up.  "How do you pronounce the name of this? Skh-ON or skh-OWN?"  I paused, then replied, "Neither.  These are biscuits."  One kind of rolled their eyes, the other scoffed and threw up their hands, and as they walked away I think I heard someone mutter something about Americans.

But is a scone a biscuit?

UT students argue that scones are not equivalent
to biscuits.  Rather, scones are a type of biscuit.

When the University of Tennessee's Glorious Gardens of England mini-term group came to visit, I picked up some scones for the students to enjoy on the bus ride from Kew to Hampton Court Palace.  I also packed some clotted cream and jam, and told a few students about the controversy about which should be applied first (see end of "Week Three").  Apparently they were tasty, and I hope that they weren't awfully stale. 

A couple days later, we were on the bus to Sissinghurst, when one of the students thanked me for the treat.  "Those were good!" she said, "What kind of biscuits were they?"  Here we go again... I thought.  So the Tennesseans decided that scones are a type of sweet biscuit, but not all biscuits are scones.  Okay, I can go with that.  Except my fellow intern Daisy explained to me that there can be quite bland or savory.  That confused the issue again. 

And a biscuit... is... a cookie?

As soon as the UT students walked through the entrance to Kew and gathered by Victoria Gate entrance, I informed them that they had arrived just after morning tea.  In celebration of that, they each got to try a chocolate covered Hobnob biscuit.  After all, I'd had cake and cookies at every other morning tea that week.  Why should that day be any different?  

In the UK, "biscuits" may be
dunked in tea or coffee.  This is
coffee -- not tea.  There are just
some things I will not do.

I informed the group that Hobnobs and Digestive biscuits are pretty good on their own, but they're transcendent when dunked in coffee.  Some people I work with dunk them in tea, but as a red-blooded American there are some things I just won't do.  

There were murmurs of enjoyment, then I heard something to the effect of, "These cookies are good!"  No.  Here in the UK, these cookies are biscuits.  Yet they still have "cookies".  So what is a cookie?  There are varying definitions.  One Kew student believes that cookies are soft and biscuits are hard.  Okay, I can accept that.  Another friend of mine said that if they're hard, but still have chocolate chips in them, then they're cookies.  

...

This is all a bit too much for me to wrap my head around, which is why the matter deserved a post unto itself.  I'm opening the discussion up to let the people decide.  What do you think?  What constitutes a scone, biscuit, or cookie?  

If you have any questions, comments or suggestions, please feel welcome to leave a comment or send me an email.

To see more photos from this week, be sure to check out the album "The Great Baked Good Debate" on the Plante on Plants Facebook page.  "Likes", shares and comments are appreciated.

All photos were taken by Amanda Plante at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew unless otherwise stated in the caption.

Don't even get me started on crumpets...