As Chelsea was fading in the latter part of the 18C, Princess Augusta's botanic gardens at Kew were growing in importance under the leadership of Sir Joseph Banks & head gardener William Aiton (1731–1793) who had trained under Philip Miller at Chelsea. Aiton produced the 1st printed catalog of the gardens at Kew, listing some 5600 species. Just over two decades later, the 2nd edition of the catalogue by his son William Townsend Aiton (1766–1849) listed over 11,000 species.
Kew Gardens rose to international prominence under the direction of Sir Joseph Banks who amassed here the nation's largest collections of both living & dried plants. In 1840, due to the efforts of the Royal Horticultural Society, ownership of Kew passed to the nation.
During the directorships of William Hooker & his son Joseph Hooker (from 1841 to 1885) at the height of the British Empire in the Victorian era, the Kew grounds & plant collections expanded, presenting the plant kingdom to the world through its gardens, herbarium, & economic museum.
The Palm House, a centerpiece displaying the plant spoils of empire, was a masterpiece of Victorian engineering. Created by architect Decimus Burton & iron-maker Richard Turner between 1844 & 1848 it was the first & still the nation's most ambitious large-scale structural use of wrought iron & glass.
- 1759: Princess Augusta, mother of King George III, founds a nine-acre botanic garden within the pleasure grounds at Kew.
- 1762: William Chambers builds the Great Pagoda.
- 1768: Joseph Banks sends seeds to Kew whilst on Captain Cook's voyage to South Seas, and becomes Kew's first unofficial director on his return.
- 1772: Francis Masson, Kew's first plant collector, goes to South Africa and returns with thousands of plants.
- 1773: Capability Brown creates the Hollow Walk, now the Rhododendron Dell.
- 1788: HMS Bounty goes to Tahiti with two Kew gardeners and collects 1,000 breadfruit plants. En route to Jamaica, the crew mutinies.
- 1802: King George III unites the Richmond and Kew estates.
- 1840: Kew transferred from the Crown to the government. Sir William Hooker is appointed director. The Gardens are opened to the public.
- 1841: Joseph Hooker brings plants from Falklands to Kew in glazed Wardian cases, a new way to keep plants alive on voyages.
- 1848: The Palm House is completed.
- 1853: The Herbarium is built. Today, after five extensions, it holds over seven million species.
- 1863: The Temperate House opens.
- 1865: On the death of his father, Joseph Dalton Hooker succeeds as director to Kew.
- 1876: Jodrell Laboratory is built. Work begins on plant pathology, and later on cells that produce latex.
1882: The Marianne North Gallery opens. - 1889:Titan arum (corpse flower) blooms at Kew, the first time outside its native Sumatra.
- 1896: Women are first employed as gardeners at Kew.
- 1899: Temperate House is completed.
- 1911: Japanese Gateway 'Chokushi-Mon' is presented to Kew.
- 1913: Suffragettes attack glasshouse and burn down Kew's team pavilion. Two are jailed.
