Category: Other NewsPage 42 of 51

Stories not categories under anything else

Goosanders on the Pond

A pair of Goosanders (Mergus merganser) were on the main Pond today; the drake was also present in the early morning of 10 February. Today they spent a…

Science Festival at the Botanics

Edinburgh International Science Festival 2014 programme was launched today, and it looks like another smasher! Tickets are now on sale, and we have got lots to offer families…

Yew hedge

Work is soon to start with the removal of the existing perimeter hedge at RBG Edinburth Inverleith site and replacing it with  plants  of  the Common Yew (Taxus…

Eranthis cilicica

Not needing the protection of the Alpine House but cultivated to perfection therein is a pot of Eranthis cilicia. This species has much smaller, narrower and linear foliage…

2013 RBGE Edinburgh Invertebrates Report

Just over 350 species of invertebrate were recorded at the Edinburgh Botanics in 2013. Of these, just under 200, or 55%, had not been recorded in the Garden…

Sparrowhawk takes a bath

On Thursday 6 February three horticultural staff and I had the very special privilege of watching an adult female Sparrowhawk Accipiter nisus having a long bath in the…

January Wildlife Report

BIRDS Thirty-nine bird species were recorded in the Edinburgh ‘Botanics’ in January 2014. They included a possibly wintering Chiffchaff, heard calling (and trying to sing briefly) once (20th),…

Walking With Poets Celebration

On 28 November 2013, the RBGE hosted a public closing event for the Walking With Poets project – a special collaboration with the Scottish Poetry Library. The project,…

Who was John Williamson?

At 4 o’clock in the morning on the 23rd of September 1780, a brutal assault took place on Princes Street. A group of armed smugglers ‘beat and wounded’…

Hibernating Orange Ladybird

I thought I’d recorded no insects in the Botanics this week, but when downloading the week’s images from my camera this evening I found this shot of an…

What is your favourite tree book of all time?

In advance of the Sylva exhibition, opening in the John Hope Gateway, RBGE and the National Botanic Garden of Wales in April 2014 we want to find the…

Chiffchaff’s winter visit

Yesterday morning almost the first thing I heard when coming through the North Gate was the call of a Chiffchaff (Phylloscopus collybita)! It then gave a very brief,…

Stories of the stones…

Today I went over to the nursery to see the stones from the deconstructed Botanic Cottage for the first time – palette after palette of stones of all…

Discover Botanic Cottage…

‘Edin. 29th March 1765. Received from Dr John Hope Professor of Botany in the College of Edinburgh, the sum of fifteen pounds ster for making Plans and Estimates…

Botanics Bird Report for 2013

The figures are at last all in and 62 bird species were recorded in the Botanics in Edinburgh during 2013. This is one fewer than 2012 when 63…

Stonefly is first RBGE insect of 2014

Today I saw my first insect of 2014 in the Botanics. No ordinary fly or early bee; it was a STONEFLY of the genus Leuctra (needle flies), almost…

Sylva

  2014 marks the 350th anniversary of the publication in 1664 of John Evelyn’s classic book Sylva: a discourse of forest trees and the propagation of timber in…

Tree Hug record still hanging in the balance

A Record Attempt to stage the world’s largest tree hug, held on Sunday 1st December, has stormed past Forestry Commission England’s 702 tree huggers which is the official…

Garden portals for Exotic Matter controlled by the Enlightened

An alien force, the Shapers, is trying to manipulate our minds by filling the world with Exotic Matter (XM) via portals associated with works of art and other…