Category: The Glasshouses ?Page 1 of 2
A tour of our glasshouses
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.
The sharing of plants between botanic gardens has long been an essential tool in the cultivation and display of the world’s rare and threatened flora. The plants generously…
I recently joined the research staff of the RBGE as a fern taxonomist focusing on the diversity of tropical southeast Asia. RBGE is perfect for me. Its herbarium…
You can read more about the journey of the tree ferns in the BBC article below. BBC News – Giant plants make epic journey from Edinburgh to Port…
In 2022, the Horticulture team fixed their attention on the Ferns and Fossils Glasshouse, home to an impressive species diversity from an ancient group of plants. Read about the successes and challenges of moving this collection, from one of the team who carried out the work.
It all started with one houseplant. That one plant, a Crassula ovata (money plant), led me to having one of the healthiest obsessions human beings can possibly have;…
A lot can happen in a year, especially where the Biomes Project is concerned. Looking back at 2022, it is impossible to include everything that has been achieved, but here is a selection of highlights of the work undertaken by the Horticulture team and colleagues.
While the Edinburgh Biomes Project involves the more noticeable decanting of both Victorian Palm Houses and the Front Range Glasshouses, there are several research collections going through an equally significant change behind the scenes.
Since the start of the Edinburgh Biomes project there has been an almost constant movement of plants within and between the various glasshouses, and part of this involves changing the glasshouses themselves to create the best conditions for each collection.
So far, the iconic Temperate Palm House and the Tropical Palm House have been emptied of plants and are ready for refurbishment work to begin. The plants that…
The radical design of the main range of glasshouses, opened in 1967, has been hailed as one of the most innovative in the 20th Century.
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.
Whilst the tropical plants in this house may be unfamiliar, the products produced from them are part of your daily life.
Get transported back through time to when dinosaurs ruled the earth. The ferns, horsetails, mosses, liverworts and conifers on display in this house are among the most ancient groups of plants having been around for over 350 million years.
Here you will find plants from the opposite ends of the evolutionary scale. At the one end we have the primitive cycads, whilst at the other are orchids, some of the most sophisticated groups of plants.
This is the oldest of the glasshouses, built in 1834, at the time it was largest of its kind in Britain.