Category: LearningPage 4 of 19

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

Origin of the Edinburgh potato

The Edinburgh potato is a small piece of the Garden’s historical association with food crops and food security dating back to the time of our Regius Keeper Sir…

Edinburgh’s potato: flowers at last

Having waited a full year to see the fruits of our labours in a potato breeding project we have finally been rewarded with success today. Our aim was…

Orchid appears in Living Lawn

Next to the Front Range and within sight of the Library and Herbarium two small squares of lawn have been transformed into flower-rich ‘living lawns’ as part of…

A Blueprint for Wellbeing

One of the workshops at this years Connect with Nature Conference was titled “A Blueprint for Wellbeing”. It was a collaborative experiment between artist Natalie Taylor and medical…

Herbarium-inspired poetry

This Sunday, 2 June 2019, there is a chance to hear poetry read in the Botanic Cottage, with afternoon tea and nature-inspired poems from award-winning and widely published…

Getting started with….Botany

‘Getting started with… Botany’ is an online course that introduces the amazing world of plants. Strictly speaking, it could be described as a beginners’ course, but it’s also…

Market Garden Course

On 23rd March 2019 we invited 12 community Gardeners to spend the day with Ben Dell at the Botanics Market Garden. This was an opportunity to learn the…

In memory of Captain Robert Chapman Davie (1886-1919)

“Indirectly the war has robbed the Botanical Society of a member of its Council and a frequent contributor to its meetings in the person of Dr. R.C. Davie,…

Food Security? Try Raspberry Pi!

Often problems are small and solutions simple, but a little bit of tech can make things a lot easier. If we get it right then no one will…

Anticipating the new potato season

On a cold and frosty January day one can’t help thinking about the new vegetable growing season that is yet to unfold. In fact, preparations for the new…

BigPicnic at Parliament

The BigPicnic project, funded by an EU Horizon 2020 grant, has involved 16 botanic gardens working with people to explore the issue of food insecurity with the aim…

The Poppy Patch

With the dry, warm weather this autumn the Annual Poppy, Papaver rhoeas, has produced a timely show of flowers to add colour in the lead up to Armistice…

Bergamo: House in the Mountains

The plethora of international connections within RBGE has its botanical and personal perks. In the summer, before starting my second year of the Plantsmanship HND, I spent 5…

Apple Day 10th anniversary

The Apple Day event held in the Botanic Cottage on 6 October was the tenth Apple Day run jointly by the Botanics and the Royal Caledonian Horticultural Society….

In memory of Corporal Henry McBeath (1878-1918)

Henry McBeath was from Rogart in Sutherland, born in November 1878 to James McBeath, a farm grieve (foreman) and his wife Johan from Rovie, a farm in Rogart…

Natural Selection Exhibition at Inverleith House

Inverleith house has produced many wonderful exhibitions. The Lost Words exhibition being a great success with the many visitors that attended. The newest addition to Inverleith house is…

Digging for Potato Treasure

The RBGE Harvest Festival is always an incredible display of produce from gardens all over the City, but in 2018 the Botanics had an unusual contribution to the…

In memory of Gunner Andrew Ewing Calder (1884-1918)

Andrew Ewing Calder was born in Stockbridge, Edinburgh, on the 12th January 1884 to Robert Calder, a blacksmith, and his wife Sarah Jane, who was a tailoress. Calder…

Progress with the Edinburgh potato

Jan and Liz, Edible Gardening Project volunteers, have been continuing the quest to recreate the Edinburgh potato (Solanum xedinense). A challenge that they face is that potato flowers…

Bosco Verticale

The Bosco Verticale (or ‘vertical forest’) is one of the most innovative designs I have seen. It is an example of modern cutting edge construction with an awareness…