Category: HorticulturePage 17 of 59

Latest blog stories connected with horticulture at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh

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…

Prune and support

The season of gales and heavy rain can conspire to unseat climbing plants from their supports. Take a pair of secateurs and reduce the overhang growth which can…

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…

Review of the year 2016

January 2016 dawned with a frost, only – 0.4°c, but still a frost. This, following the wettest month for more than a century. December 2015 was also the…

The browns have it

As a base layer, the colour brown dominates at this time of year. Ideal as a foundation layer to the glitz of Christmas. Stephanandra tanakae has fine warmth…

Disintegrating seed pods

Sitting in an exposed site within the rock garden are plants of Alyssoides utriculata. This short lived woody perennial has seed capsules that resemble bladders. It is found…

Distinctly different

Two Euonymus sieboldianus are planted side by side in the Garden arising from two different collecting expeditions. They are deciduous branched shrubs covered in fruit; each plant having…

Snake bark maple

Now that the foliage is clearing from the deciduous canopies the full beauty of the trunk of Acer pensylvanicum is revealed. This seedling is now eight years old;…

Update: North Sulawesi Fieldwork, continued…

Following the recent fieldwork update from Bogani Nani Wartabone National Park, this report comes from the Gunung Ambang Nature Reserve, part of complex of volcanoes in the Bolaang…

Elephants foot yam ( Arid house)

  Elephant’s foot yam Family: Dioscoreaceae Description Elephant’s foot yam is a spectacular shrubby climber, which grows up to 1.5m high. It has a huge tuber reaching a…

Fermenting apples

Sorbus harrowiana is not the best specimen for displaying ornamental fruit but it does have a related back story. It is native to SW China where, as can…

Aloe elgonica ( Arid lands of glasshouses)

Aloe Aloe Elgonica Family:Aloaceae Description A succulent clump-forming perennial that has robust rosettes of brownish green leaves. These leaves are armed with teeth and often have a rose-purple…

Last vestige of autumn colour

Wrap up warmly and take the opportunity to appreciate the remainder of the autumn colour on the deciduous trees. The colder nights see the leaves dropping as the…

Update: North Sulawesi Fieldwork

One week into the North Sulawesi (Indonesia) expedition, the team has successfully completed collecting at the first locality, Bogani Nani Wartabone National Park. The park is accessed by…

Solandra grandiflora ( Chalice flower) temperate walkway in glasshouses

Chalice Flower Solandra grandiflora  Family:Solanaceae  Description: This perennial liana (climbing vine) grows rapidly, reaching up to 30 metres in its natural setting. It climbs up into forest trees…

Out of season Daphne

Daphne gemmata, is compact, with an inflorescence of clear yellow flowers. This species, a native to SW China where it is found growing in sun, well drained, stony…

Plant Hunting in the Tropics – preparations for fieldwork in Indonesia

This year, RBGE embarked on a 2 year collaborative project with Indonesia’s Institute of Sciences (LIPI) to work towards ‘Flora Malesiana’ taxonomic accounts for Begoniaceae, Gesneriaceae, Sapotaceae and…

Clematis

The Clematis akebioides growing at the east gate lodge is covered in flower. The buds are held on long stalks setting the flower out from the straggly stems….

Final Weeks of I still believe in miracles.

“Imagine the Venice Biennale co-curated by Henri Matisse and Robert Rauschenberg in a neo-Palladian villa and you have an idea of the improbable loveliness of I Still Believe…