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Royal Botanical Gardens - Palm House (above) and Water Lily House (below left)

Nick Rackers reports from the Olympics - August 8, 2012, 10:24 AM

When one thinks of a pilgrimage, it conjures up thoughts of a religious journey to a shrine or a church. It is usually a long journey with a magnificent fulfilling destination. I thinks that's what the Olympics are like. It's not quite once-in-a-lifetime, but it is only every four years (two years if you include the winter games). It's always a destination.

Before I left, people would react with " it's a once in a lifetime trip to go to the Olympics!" The thing is, I have already been to the Salt Lake Winter Olympics in 2002. So does that mean these London games aren't once in a lifetime for me?

The basketball arena will be dismantled, likely reconstructed in another community. The Olympic stadium itself will downsize from an 80,000 seat arena to one closer to 20,000. The equestrian venue at Greenwich will return to its normal role as a royal park. The cauldron itself will be dismantled and each country will be given their respective "petal" that was carried in during the Opening ceremony.

So in a way, this was once in a lifetime. I think London has done such a great job they should be placed on a permanent rotation to host. A US host should be in that mix as well, but that's another discussion.

As a horticulture instructor, I always like visiting botanical gardens when I travel. Today we traveled to the Royal Botanical Gardens - Kew. Kew is world-renowned. There are quite a few top gardens in the world, and RBG Kew, along with Longwood Gardens in PA, and the Missouri Botanical Garden always top the lists of garden writers as "must visit" gardens. Having now been to all three, I have a distinct admiration for each.

But one thing that Kew has that MoBot and Longwood do not have is an Olympic connection. For the games, Kew installed a 50m-long set of Olympic rings planted with colored annuals for color. Red geraniums, yellow marigolds, blue lobelia, black mondo grass, and green mint made up the five colors. The Olympics and horticulture - united in one place. I was in heaven!

It was a fitting end to my Olympic pilgrimage - one of the top gardens united with my favorite sporting event.

Once in a lifetime!