Category: Other NewsPage 2 of 49

Stories not categories under anything else

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…

Students’ Stories: “George Herbert Cave” by Dean Blake, 3rd Year Horticulture with Plantsmanship student at RBGE

George Herbert Cave of Windsor, southeast England (1872-1965), was a botanist and plant collector who rapidly rose to prominence in the Victorian era. He collected plants in Sikkim…

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.

Towards 3 million specimens: Caroline Henry

Written by Rebecca Camfield, one of the members of our digitisation team. During digitisation you come across many interesting treasures and stories. This is just one of them….

New Archives Acquisition: the MacWatt Primula Papers, with thanks to Elizabeth Farquharson (1915-2023), the remarkable daughter of a distinguished horticulturalist

A post by RBGE Research Associate Dr. Helen Bennett In April 2023 we were visited at RBGE by Elizabeth Farquharson with her daughter Katharine Trotter, to gift her…

Digging into the details through digitisation: the poppy family

Our current programme of digitisation, funded by the RBGE Foundation, seeks to digitise 420,000 specimens from our collections leading to 1 million records (approximately one third of the…

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;…

Alchemists and gardeners

Professor Sandra Díaz is one of the world’s most influential scientists: professor of ecology at the National University of Córdoba, senior researcher at Argentina’s National Scientific and Technical…

The Goodsir letters in RBGE archives’ John Hutton Balfour correspondence collection

by Michael T. Tracy Housed in the archives of the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh (RBGE) is the collection of John Hutton Balfour papers which include numerous correspondences of…

When is a Nepalese pine not a Nepalese pine?

At the Natural History Museum I’ve recently catalogued a collection of 314 botanical watercolours made at the Saharunpur Botanic Garden in northern India between 1843 and 1866 for…

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.

A Snowdrop Tour with a Difference – Galanthus nivalis poculiformis

One of the highlights for the Garden Guides early in the flowering year is to take a group of visitors on a Snowdrop Tour.   Early signs of Spring…

COP15: a ‘Paris moment’ for nature

This week saw the conclusion of arguably the most significant meeting for biodiversity since the Rio Earth Summit in 1992. Read our take on COP15 in Montreal, what…

Tony Schilling, horticulturist, receives recognition from the Government of Nepal – Updated

The following post was first published in July 2019. It has been updated on receipt of the sad news of Tony Schilling’s death on 23 November 2022. Dr…

Professor Rod Page, University of Glasgow

Making biodiversity data accessible and discoverable. With a background in taxonomy, phylogenetics, and biodiversity informatics, Professor Rod Page’s current work focuses on making biodiversity information accessible and discoverable….

Dr Deborah Long, Scottish Environment LINK

Bringing history to bear on contemporary problems. Dr Deborah Long makes connections between specialists and policy makers, prehistoric landscapes and today’s policy. “I bring the long eye of…

Stories from the Biomes: Threatened Chilean plants on the move.

Tucked away behind the glasshouses of the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh is a terrace that contains an exceptional collection of Chilean plants collected by RBGE staff and Chilean…

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.

Stumperies and Rooteries

Rebecca Cross | BSc Horticulture with Plantsmanship | October 2022 History of stumperies The stumpery became known as a garden feature in the Victorian era. Though its origins…

International Open Access Week

This week is international open access week #OAweek and celebrates research outputs that are distributed online, free of access charges or other barriers. The theme this year is…