Tag: Royal Botanic Garden EdinburghPage 4 of 20

Kaleidoscope corner

Once seen this planting of Hydrangea will either make you want to fill your front garden with a similar planting or you will think – too blousy and…

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…

Invasive scramblers

This is a truly invasive species, Tropaeolum ciliatum has romped over and swamped surrounding herbaceous plantings in the border to the north of the Terrace café with its…

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…

Three white flowers to cheer us into midsummer week

A member of the Iris family, Iridaceae, Diplarrena latifolia has individual flowers of interesting shape composed of six tepals. The three largest pure white, the smaller tepals have…

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…

Statuesque finale to the bowl of stewed Rhubarb

When the clump of Rhubarb in your garden sends up a flower spike this is the time to stop pulling the stalks for stewing down. The elongated leaf…

A sight of Silver

A wet day brings out the best in the Alchemillas. Alchemilla alpina is one of the smaller growing species, native to Europe and Greenland. This clump forming herb…

Bells by the dozen

On the western edge of the copse are specimens of Enkianthus chinensis flowering in profusion. The bell shaped flowers are produced by the dozen in pendulous racemes, held…

Subtle sight

Planted in the early 1990’s from seed collected in Canada, (though native to eastern north America) the large crowned Juglans cinerea is flowering for the first time. Take…

A benefit of the mild winter and fine spring

Cistus albidus, collected by one of our former curators, Ron McBeath is flowering in the border at the alpine area. Seed was collected in Spain from the parent…

Lilac season

Now that the Cherry blossom fades the Lilacs are providing continuity of colour Syringa x persica (a hybrid between S. afghanica x laciniatata.) The “Persian Lilac” is an…

Motile stamens

If there was ever a plant to deter all comers this is it. The leaves of Berberis darwinii are clothed in lethal spines. Anyone who has cultivated around…

A choice species to welcome the Scottish Rhododendron Festival

The Scottish Rhododendron Festival runs from the start of April until the end of May and aims to promote the varied collection of Rhododendrons collected and grown throughout…

Clear out the Cleavers

Observe the thinnest, weak looking stem of this Cleavers seedling Galium aparine. Yet it will have the power to draw water and nutrients from the roots pushing these essential…

Fresh growth

With the Garden full of spring colour it is good to remember the lesser things that draw the plantings together within the garden. Running through the soil atop…

A perennial rhizome

Bergenia x schmidtii a hybrid between B. ciliata (Kashmir, Nepal) and its more northerly cousin B. crassifolia from Siberia and Mongolia. A good plant as ground cover on…

Pearls on the mulch

The closed, rounded petals of Pieris japonica ‘Snowdrift’ are strewn beneath the plant growing in the F beds. Freshly mulched the contrast between the organic layer and these…