Tag: Royal Botanic Garden EdinburghPage 13 of 20

Hemispheres collide

The evergreen Prostanthera cuneatea is not enjoying the heavy rain and lately the frosts we are experiencing this winter. A native of the Southern Hemisphere it is dropping…

Seeds in profusion

Now is the time to look beneath established Berberis bushes and observe germinating seedlings. As can be seen from the attached image of Berberis aristata the viability of…

A winter warmer

Better to be prepared than to lose the living plant. A timely cover of straw, laid loosely on top of the crowns of Hedychium spicatum and Brugmansia aurea…

Review of the year 2015

January 1st dawned wet and mild, the north block metrological station easily touching 14°C. Walking around the Garden on New Year’s morning; Snowdrops – in flower. A first…

Juxtaposition

We practiced contrasting traditional horticultural practices in the second half of December, one seasonal and the other not so. Following a mild wet autumn we recorded an overnight…

Sunrise on the shortest day 21 12 2015

Cistus albidus

A midsummer flowering favourite that is, as we head for the shortest day, awash with flower buds and carrying a selection of open flowers. The weekend frost had…

Tall sentinels of seed

The season of herbaceous seed heads is with us. This tall Ligularia fischeri has elegance in the way it displays the seed and empty seed capsules down the…

The three R’s

A warm autumn and benign lead into winter has produced many out of season horticultural surprises. The Raspberry ‘Autumn Bliss’ was prolific in fruiting  and even now has…

Out of season beauty

In the corner of the QMM garden is a columnar tree full of lightly scented musty white flowers. Awash with flowers this Hoheria populnea is a deciduous member…

Sky blue under a leaden sky

Despite the past week of storms, rain and battering inclement weather this scandent Delphinium sp. has proved resilient. It has sparse growth but from this is thrown a…

A memory

The specimen of Sorbus microphylla agg fruiting profusely in the copse was collected in the Langtang National Park area of Nepal. This is the area devastated by the…

A time to plant

With deciduous leaves colouring and dormancy on its way, now is the time to consider tree planting. Take due account of the weather. Depending on the size of…

Hipster

Planted at the entrance to the John Hope Gateway is Rosa hirtula. A native to Japan where it is found growing in association with, amongst others, Larix kaempferi,…

A glorious autumn

Colour this autumn has been unrivalled. The warmth from the sun and the dry season have combined to extend the floral season. Take a last walk through the…

Boundary best

With the sun shining on the canopy of Acer saccharum we are reminded that the autumn equinox passed and the day length is now shorter than the hours…

Chard

A nutritious and versatile vegetable, also well suited to the decorative border. From a packet of seed and an April sowing the seedlings of Chard ‘Bright Lights’ have…

A bigeneric hybrid

X Amarygia parkeri is a bigeneric hybrid of garden origin. The result of a cross between two South African genera; Amaryllis belladonna x Brunsvigia josephinae. The flower stem…

Autumnal Gentians

Sitting atop the limestone wall at the alpine area where the roots are guaranteed a growing medium with good drainage is Gentiana paradoxa. Enjoying exposure to full sun…

High chaparral

In flower just now is a plant of the Californian chaparral; a shrub land plant community evolving through mild wet winters and hot dry summers. These areas are…