Category: Edinburgh BotanicsPage 1 of 50

Nepalese Ambassador visits the Botanics

His Excellency Dr Durga Bahadur Subedi, Nepalese Ambassador to the United Kingdom, led a delegation from the Embassy in London to Scotland this weekend, visiting Edinburgh, Aberdeen and…

Stories from the Biomes: Return of the Giants

Over the summer of 2024, the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh welcomed the return of one of the plant world’s most spectacular plants: the giant Victoria water lilies, specifically…

Postcard from the Biomes: A Blank Slate

Explore more Botanic Stories covering the Ferns and Fossils Glasshouse decant below. Stories from the Biomes: Fern House decant begins – Botanics Stories Stories from the Biomes: The…

Meet the Botanics Sniffer in Residence

What is the ‘mushroomy’ scent of heritage? And what do the institutions that care for it — such as the RBGE — smell like? By Siôn Parkinson Dr…

Are we ready to weather the water?

On Friday 14 June 2024, RBGE experienced 11mm of rain in the span of 8 minutes. To put into context, a typical rainy day (≥ 1mm precipitation, of…

My RBGE Apprenticeship: Glasshouse Rotation – Patricia Berakova

As part of my apprenticeship at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, I have been working for a 13-week period with each of the different horticultural teams, learning as…

Growing Connections: Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh and The National Botanic Gardens of Ireland.

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…

Postcards from the Biomes: The Last Fern to Leave

A new Postcards from the Biomes following the move of the last fern to leave the Ferns and Fossils Glasshouse at The Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh.

The Queen Mother’s Memorial Garden

The Queen Mother’s Memorial Garden celebrates the garden’s historical connections with the Royal Family, which date back to RBGE’s origins in 1670 as a Physic Garden at the…

Towards 3 million specimens: Prunus spinosa – The Blackthorn Tree of British and Irish Folklore 

The following blog post was written by Courtney Kemnitz, a Digitiser in the RBGE Herbarium. Courtney is digitising the British Isles collection. This series of blog posts will…

Postcards from the Biomes: A Show of Fronds

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…

Postcards from the Biomes: Using air layering as a propagation method.

Read Marc Gilbert’s full article on air layer propagation here. Discover more from our other articles and journals here.

Stories from the Biomes: The Fern House Decant

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.

Stories from the Biomes: My Experience with the Biomes Decant, by Horticulturist Szymon Drozdek

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;…

Stories from the Biomes: A Year in Photos

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.

2022 Garden Highlights

It has certainly been another busy and productive year in the garden for everyone working at The Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh (RBGE). After two years of a pandemic…

Stories from the Biomes: Moving the Ericaceous Collection

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.

Stories from the Biomes: A Change in the Weather

Every day for the last thirty years, rain or shine, Senior Horticulturist Bruce Robertson has climbed up on to the roof of the Temperate Palm House to change the Campbell-Stokes recorder’s sunshine card. As the restoration on the Victorian Palm Houses begins, the recorder’s solid crystal ball is stored away for safe keeping.

Stories from the Biomes: moving the outdoor plants

From the beginning of the Biomes project the outdoor horticulture team have been hard at work preparing and moving plants to facilitate the work on the Glasshouses. New…

Ian Hedge

18 August 1928 – 7 August 2022 Ian Charleson Hedge, who passed away peacefully last month at the age of 93, was an exceptional botanist and long-time lynchpin…

Stories from the Biomes: Space for Change

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.