Here Alan Bennell introduces you to Glen Massan, between the foot of the Bhutanese Glade and Chilean Rainforest Glade you will find some of the largest trees in the garden.
Staff at RBGE have had a long established relationship with China, and this area of the garden highlights this, and displays the outstanding collection of Chinese plants held at Inverleith.
At 15:20 on 5 September 1941, two Mark 1 spitfires collided over Edinburgh. Both aircraft crashed and one of them (X4560), piloted by Arthur Wescome Searle, from Rhodesia, dived into the garden of RBGE’s then curator, Roland Edgar Cooper.
Let the glasshouses take you on a journey of discovery through the world of plants. In our ten landscaped environments you will find plants that have adapted to a variety of different growing conditions, from rainforests to deserts.
Along the walkway and in the glasshouse below it, are plants from Mediterranean climates all over the world. In this area you will find plants from the Southern Europe, Western Australia, California, South Africa and some parts of South America.
The plants on display in this house are from the same geographical region as the Montane Tropics House (South-East Asia). This wet-warm habitat has driven the huge diversity of plants which can be found in this region.
Holding collections from the mountain regions of South-East Asia (Borneo to Indonesia and the island of New Guinea) this house showcases one of the long term research groups – the Vireya Rhododendrons.
This house displays some of the adaptations plants have made to the prolonged droughts and extreme temperatures of the desert regions across the world.
As you walk in to this house you are greeted by the heat and humidity of a South American rainforest, one of the most diverse ecosystems on the planet.