Category: HorticulturePage 41 of 59

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

April 2012: Rhododendron

Rhododendron adenosum grows in open woodland where the plants will receive protection from frost. Pink buds open white with internal mottling and prominent flower parts. Rhododendron vernicosum, is…

Leafing through Lupins

We are now observing good growth on the emerging herbaceous plants. Taking a closer look at the emerging foliage on some reveals colonies of bugs and beasties. This…

Invasive alien

Libertia sessiliflora, collected in Chile and obviously enjoying our climate. The soil surface beneath the colony of mature plants is awash with germinated seedlings from the parent plants….

March 2012: Bowiea volubilis

The bizarre scrambling climber, Bowiea volubilis or climbing onion plant is actually in the same family as the hyacinth (Asparagaceae). The green bulb is native to the Eastern…

Floral scents

Abeliophyllum distichum exuding floral scent from the mass of pink tinged blossom covering the deciduous wood. Worth a walk to the south facing border at the foot of…

Peas, beans and beetroot

As they say you learn on your mistakes… I had a look today (Fri 2 March 2012) on my bean and pea seeds sowed in paper pots. They…

Line of defence

When you take an owenership of a piece of land and start cultivating it you become very protective of it. You start realising all dangers which can creep…

Spring time, busy time

A lot of activity on my plot today. First, I placed down some stepping bricks through the middle of my plot to make every inch of it easy…

A spring favourite leaping continents

Used as we are to the yellow flowers of the Primrose, there are colour variations of this species which we are lessPrimula vulgaris familiar with. A native to…

A frosty reception

Observe the frost on Pachystegia insignis (sometimes called Olearia insignis) and see value added to a plant that you may pass by without a second glance at this…

Reminders of romance

Seed pods; bright yellow, tucked into the evergreen canopy of Euonymus wilsonii. Splitting apart into even segments revealing the red coated aril. A spectacular find at this time…

Spring seed sowing

Milder weather at the end of this week enabled me to do some outdoors sowing. Today (10 Feb 2012) I sowed two rows of green peas Pisum sativum…

Girls construction session – episode 3

The anti-mice cage is finally completed! After fixing the lid on Tuesday (7 Feb 2012) Jessie and I placed our seed trays in it. I checked on it…

Shoots leaves and flowers

With the days lengthening and the soil warming; growth, especially in herbaceous plants, is shooting away. Helleborus vesicarius is looking promising with flowers colouring optimistically. Opening green these…

Girls construction session – episode 2

On Friday (3 Feb 2012) Jessie, Sara and I embarked on constructing timber floor for our anti-mice cage. Although we ran into some technical difficulties – surprisingly the…

Girls construction session

Carpentry is not as easy as it looks. Especially for 5 untrained horticulture students with little previous construction experience. It is a lot of fun, though. Especially when…

Grey skies, moisture laden leaves

Euphorbia characias ssp. wulfenii ‘John Tomlinson’ is brought to life after rain. The droplets collect on the grey blue waxy cuticle of the leaf and reflect light. Arranged…

Will not let this happen again

It looks like my beans were attacked by mice. The Edible Garden Project team noticed that thriving community of mice is living near the polytunnel. Together with my…

End of an era

Our native Scots Pine (Pinus sylvestris) with one of out Arboricultural Team at the top, as it is dismantles to make itsafe in the Upper Woodland Garden after…

Unwelcome visitors

I had a look at my broad beans today (24th Jan) and noticed to my astonishment that some unwelcome guests made a feast of them! The intruders must…