Category: HorticulturePage 2 of 59

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

Anna’s placement in Gothenburg

Anna is a year 3 Horticulture with Plantsmanship student here at RBGE and at Scotland’s Rural College. She spent the summer doing various work placements. Read on to…

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.

After the flood; an update from the RBGE Archives one year on.

On the 4th of July 2021, water ingress from a burst drainpipe above the reception of our Science building on Inverleith Row made its way into the RBGE…

Stories from the Biomes: Fern House decant begins

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…

Stories from the Biomes: Data Capture

In an age where 40% of the world’s plants are faced with extinction, the recording of data is more important now than ever. Documenting, describing, and researching the properties of plants enhances their chances of survival; how can we protect what we don’t know we have?

Tulipomania

At the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh we were kindly donated 15,000 tulips by Taylor’s Bulbs to create a stunning colourful display leading up to the famous Botanic Cottage…

Stories from the Biomes: Palm House Propagation

During summer 2021 the first phase of the Biomes Project began and the Glasshouse staff were tasked with the mammoth undertaking of removing all plants from the Palm…

Harry’s Gates

Every day, hundreds of visitors pour into the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, many of them through our East Gate. To do this, one must pass through two sets…

The David Douglas Telescope – what can one object tell us?

The RBGE Archives do not just hold papers – correspondence, administration and photographs – we also have a number of objects; plant models, gardening tools and camera equipment…

Purple Saxifrage: The first tribune of Spring in the Arctic and the Alps

As the snow melts Saxifraga oppositifolia (Purple saxifrage) is normally one of the first tribunes of spring, heralding winter’s end as its bright petals unfold. Throughout March, its…

2021 Garden Highlights

It has certainly been another challenging year for everyone working at The Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh. However, one positive out of the pandemic is the growing appreciation for…

RBGE/Nature Scot Ikebana installations at COP26

During the United Nations COP26 in Glasgow during November 2021 we created thought-provoking displays of global plant life across 10 negotiating rooms with 55 individual displays. They each…

A Green Wall at Edinburgh Waverley Station for COP26

Bringing nature into our cities is an essential component for a sustainable future. Our disconnection from the natural world is constantly overlooked in the urban world. Greening our…

Autumn from the Air

As I walked around the garden today here at RBGE, there was a real sense of autumn in the air. Golden leaves lay scattered on the ground, the…

COP26 – What Now?

It was a heady fortnight of frantic networking and tough negotiating in the Glasgow rain. But did the twenty-sixth Conference of the Parties (COP26) to the United Nations…

Cleaner greener tools for the Garden

RBGE horticulturists are working to reduce the environmental impact of maintaining the Garden, with benefits for all.

Wangari Maathai 1940—2011

Wangari Maathai who did so much to restore, conserve and campaign for the forest environment for the benefit of local people and their way of life in Kenya and across Africa. Everywhere the natural world is being depleted and habitats lost, Wangari’s life and actions are an inspiration to us all. This article discusses a tree planted in her memory in the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh and how it came to be. The article was written by Garden Guides, Helen Mitchell and Irene Paterson.