Tag: Weekly HighlightsPage 1 of 3

Overnight Freeze

The overnight freeze left a myriad of ice crystals covering the garden this morning. The coldest day yet this year at -3.1 °C. These during and after images of…

Ten years of seasonal plants of interest – 12 that flower or colour reliably year on year.

A lot of plants have caught my eye during the past decade while compiling a weekly profile on a seasonal plant of interest. Below are the consistently reliable…

Rampant Ivy

Two images, Ivy, Hedera helix covering both plants. The pine trunks are sturdy and it will take several seasons to smother these. The Viburnum is different, colonised at…

Save a seed pod

The long arching seed pods of Glaucium flavum are splitting lengthways into longitudinal sections. The seeds long gone, now just sections of the pithy packaging remain within. Found…

Fresh and golden start to the year

During the short days it is good to have flowering plants in the garden; Lonicera myrtillus is a low growing deciduous shrub. The fresh yellow tubular flowers hang…

Scented pathway

The Hamamelis have been in flower since mid-December but it is only now that the scent from the flowers is becoming distinctly evident when walking past the palm…

Hemispheres collide

The evergreen Prostanthera cuneatea is not enjoying the heavy rain and lately the frosts we are experiencing this winter. A native of the Southern Hemisphere it is dropping…

Seeds in profusion

Now is the time to look beneath established Berberis bushes and observe germinating seedlings. As can be seen from the attached image of Berberis aristata the viability of…

A winter warmer

Better to be prepared than to lose the living plant. A timely cover of straw, laid loosely on top of the crowns of Hedychium spicatum and Brugmansia aurea…

A delight from the Orient

Helleborus orientalis found growing through southern Europe and into SW Asia. Seed to grow this plant was collected in Georgia from a plant growing with Primula sp. on…

Crossing continents

Carpeting the ground beneath Picea orientalis are the remains of cones that have been stripped of seed by the Gardens grey squirrel population. They have systematically worked their…

Strawberry fields

Duchesnea indica carries an interesting berry resembling a miniature strawberry. This invasive stoloniferous ground covering plant was introduced from Taiwan where it was growing in sub-tropical rainforest. Quite…

Berries for the start of Scotland’s year of food and drink.

On the peat walls is a specimen of Gaultheria semi-infera native to western China and the Eastern Himalaya; where it was found growing at 2900metres in the Arun…

Latua pubiflora

Latua pubiflora has been in flower intermitently since January this year and is still going strong! Click here for more information

The national tree

The Scots Pine is an iconic tree within the Scottish landscape. Easily recognisable with its reddish trunk, best appreciated during a west coast sunset when the rays from…

Seasonal plant of interest : Photinia serratifolia

Out with the mower on the 22nd; last Wednesday, topping off the Palm House lawns which with the mildness of the winter had that straggly appearance of uneven…

Seasonal Plant of Interest : Kalopanax septemlobus

Beneath the extensive branch framework of Kalopanax septemlobus lays a carpet of fallen fruit. Further from the canopy edge are seedlings that have germinated from viable seed that…

Unseasonal fruit and flowers

Backed by a west facing wall, Tomato plants set in grow bags in the lean to glasshouse of the Fletcher Building are continuing to yield edible fruit. For…

The sun’s excrement

Take a look around when the sun is low in the sky and lighting up the lichens on deciduous tree bark. Xanthoria parietina can be found on the…

A frosty start to the Rhododendron season.

Rhododendron dauricum is one of the hardiest of the genus, flowering as January starts and often lasting well into February. Found growing through forest margins where it grows…