Category: Garden WildlifePage 10 of 68
With the Garden full of spring colour it is good to remember the lesser things that draw the plantings together within the garden. Running through the soil atop…
Bergenia x schmidtii a hybrid between B. ciliata (Kashmir, Nepal) and its more northerly cousin B. crassifolia from Siberia and Mongolia. A good plant as ground cover on…
February 2019 was the second successive dry, sunny month at RBGE. Rainfall was only 18.4 mm, slightly more than January’s record low of 12.2 mm but only 39%…
The closed, rounded petals of Pieris japonica ‘Snowdrift’ are strewn beneath the plant growing in the F beds. Freshly mulched the contrast between the organic layer and these…
The plants of Rhododendron lanigerum originally collected by Kingdon Ward during his travels in south western China are starting to flower. Just as attractive when in tight bud…
The way that one plant or a group of plants can completely consume a person into a collecting compulsion has always intrigued me but also bewilders me. Few…
Distinctive shapes characterise Narcissus cyclamineus,and N. bulbocodium; one elongated trumpet with the perianth reflexed back, elongating the flower and the other a bulbous petticoat. Both ideally suited to…
An evergreen shrub with glossy berries native to Chile and Argentina where it was found colonising dry, rocky areas. The plant growing in the peat walls has reached…
A white frost settling enhances some plants, frozen ice crystals covering Cotula cf. lineariloba set off the silvery rosettes and are further intensified with low sun catching the…
There is an untidy mass of evergreen growth on the northern raised border within the Queen Mother Memorial Garden. Jasminum humile produces copious amounts of black fruit. Pigeons…
January 2019 was the driest January at RBGE since 1976. Only 12.2 mm of rain fell, 18% of the long-term average. It was also much sunnier than average,…
A covering of seed has appeared on the freshly spread mulch covering the herbaceous border. Cortaderia selloana ‘Pumila’ is shedding seed from the silver plumes it holds through…
A self-sown clump of Iris foetidissima is bursting with clusters of orange berries in the lower area of the Chinese hillside. These capsules are retained through the winter….
During winter many of our herbaceous plants take refuge underground and deciduous trees shed their leaves. This allows the spotlight for rich evergreens and other plants in the…
December 2018 at RBGE was much drier than usual, slightly sunnier, and milder than average although there were some short cold snaps with frost but no snow. Total…
The deciduous stalks of Decaisnea insignis are prominent in the upper woodland garden. Hanging from these bare stalks are the fruit; blue sausage shaped receptacles that contain a…
Jasminum nudiflorum; bright yellow flowers on chlorophyll green stems. This one, a stem layer that caught itself under the fence post and rooted into the mortar joint. The…
Following on from a Met Office decreed White Christmas in 2017, Edinburgh had a day of snow and then Storm Dylan blew through on the 31st. Fortuitously, the…
When I was contacted by Dr Bill Lynch in August 2018 with a query about a former RBGE gardener called David R. Tait and his work for Sir…
November 2018 was a rather ‘grey’ month, living up to that month’s reputation. There were only around half a dozen really sunny days, mainly in the first half,…