Tag: RBGEPage 1 of 17

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…

Postcards from the Biomes: The Last Fern to Leave

A new Postcards from the Biomes following the move of the last fern to leave the Ferns and Fossils Glasshouse at The Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh.

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…

Postcards from the Biomes: Using air layering as a propagation method.

Read Marc Gilbert’s full article on air layer propagation here. Discover more from our other articles and journals here.

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.

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: 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.

Stories from the Biomes: moving the outdoor plants

From the beginning of the Biomes project the outdoor horticulture team have been hard at work preparing and moving plants to facilitate the work on the Glasshouses. New…

Stories from the Biomes: Space for Change

Since the start of the Edinburgh Biomes project there has been an almost constant movement of plants within and between the various glasshouses, and part of this involves changing the glasshouses themselves to create the best conditions for each collection.

Stories from the Biomes: Fern House decant begins

So far, the iconic Temperate Palm House and the Tropical Palm House have been emptied of plants and are ready for refurbishment work to begin. The plants that…

Stories from the Biomes: Data Capture

In an age where 40% of the world’s plants are faced with extinction, the recording of data is more important now than ever. Documenting, describing, and researching the properties of plants enhances their chances of survival; how can we protect what we don’t know we have?

Stories from the Biomes: Palm House Propagation

During summer 2021 the first phase of the Biomes Project began and the Glasshouse staff were tasked with the mammoth undertaking of removing all plants from the Palm…

An Update on the Flora of Myanmar Project

A collaborative effort has seen the complete digitisation of herbarium specimens of vascular plants from Myanmar, complemented by data standardisation and georeferencing.

Wangari Maathai 1940—2011

Wangari Maathai who did so much to restore, conserve and campaign for the forest environment for the benefit of local people and their way of life in Kenya and across Africa. Everywhere the natural world is being depleted and habitats lost, Wangari’s life and actions are an inspiration to us all. This article discusses a tree planted in her memory in the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh and how it came to be. The article was written by Garden Guides, Helen Mitchell and Irene Paterson.

The Botanic Cottage

I was studying History and Archaeology at the University of Edinburgh with a focus on architectural archaeology. I had no idea how important the stories held in the stones of this unassuming cottage would become to me.

Botanic Cottage

A Cottage Volunteer My Introduction to the Botanic Cottage The Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh has always had a special place in my heart, especially since my son proposed…

Green waste forms compost and becomes “green gold”

As a child one of the humorous stories I remember is of a lady rushing out to shovel up a pile of horse droppings as the dray horses…

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…

Top tips for a green sward

Frequent, regular mowing. This maintains an even length of sward, preventing the coarser, vigorous grasses from dominating. Sharp, clean blades on a dry surface. Ideally, mow only on…

The mown lawn adding to the living environment within the garden

The regularly mown lawn is a worthy garden feature with borders chock full of plants and hedges in a garden a wildlife retreat is formed. A landing strip…