Tag: plant of the weekPage 1 of 4

Growing Connections: Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh and The National Botanic Gardens of Ireland.

The sharing of plants between botanic gardens has long been an essential tool in the cultivation and display of the world’s rare and threatened flora. The plants generously…

Have you ever wondered why lawn weeds are successful?

The lawn is a wonderful thing; a living surface that acts as a foil to the plant collection. It serves as a meeting place for family gatherings and…

White stemmed Rubus

These images are of one of the white stemmed brambles that since leaf fall are now more obvious in the border. The white indumentum over ruddy brown stems…

Compost and the need to nourish the soil

Much of the work to be done in the garden at this time of year produces quantities of pruning’s and other green resource material. Note the use of…

Bright and cheerful

Jasminum nudiflorum; the ideal plant to appreciate from the warmth of your home and a pleasure to encounter when garden visiting at this dreich time of year. The…

….and hedge bases

Winter months are a good time to catch up with hedge cutting. Always start at the base, a clean line with the first pass of the hedge trimmer…

Hedge tops

December arrives and leaf fall should be complete. Now is the time to clear the decaying remains from the lawns and corners of the garden. An area often…

Silver sensation

A plant of 1960’s suburbia. With the housing boom in the 1960’s the Pampas grass became a popular feature of British gardens. The images are of a cultivar…

Ageing radiance

Hosta is a genus of herbaceous plants that once frost occurs in the autumn rapidly lose their colour and structure. The first image, taken mid-October shows leaves past…

Fruit and foliage

The start of the leaf colour season. Stresses show up as early autumn colour. Where plants grow is soils of poor nutrient status or moisture deficit these are…

The scent of Onions

The disadvantage of Tulbaghia violacea is the ever present smell of onions lingering around the planting. This gets worse in wet weather, the force of raindrops bruising the…

A frosty reception

The real detail of Inula hookeri is the unfurling flower bud. A late flowering gem of Himalayan vegetation it resembles a swirl of frosted ice with the yellow…

The first fallers – signs of autumn

The Gentians are flowering, the first apples have fallen and beneath the mass of foliage Nasturtium seed pods are to be found. All coinciding with the end of…

Aromatic foliage

Drimys andina is a compact evergreen shrub native to Chile and Argentina. It is currently producing clusters of white petalled flowers at the end of the current season’s…

No sting nettle

A childhood dream; a nettle patch you can fall into and emerge unscathed from. Growing in the south facing glasshouse border is a planting of Boehmeria ticuspis var….

An accidental plant association

Tropaeolum speciosum is often observed growing through woody plants and hedges at RBGE. Rarely though does it associate with its supportive partner as well as when seen growing…

To weed or not?

Growing through the planting of Ophiopogon planiscapus ‘Nigrescens’ at the edge of the Copse is Oxalis corniculata a low growing creeping weed. Both plants adapted to dry, shaded…

Scramblers

Near the viewpoint, there is a patch of “White Bryony” Bryonia cretica, which is effectively colonising the area at great speed. A deciduous native, the growth is rapid…

A road block

Well established and generally slug resistant this brute of a Hosta is the ideal plant to act as a division or barrier within the garden. Hosta sieboldiana grows…

Yellow pea flowers

Vigorous, young plants of Piptanthus nepalensis are flowering in the border near the wash house in the Garden. The bright, fresh yellow of the flowers are welcome as…