Tag: Royal Botanic Garden EdinburghPage 5 of 19

Frosty reception

A white frost settling enhances some plants, frozen ice crystals covering Cotula cf. lineariloba set off the silvery rosettes and are further intensified with low sun catching the…

Bird food

There is an untidy mass of evergreen growth on the northern raised border within the Queen Mother Memorial Garden. Jasminum humile produces copious amounts of black fruit. Pigeons…

Foetid

A self-sown clump of Iris foetidissima is bursting with clusters of orange berries in the lower area of the Chinese hillside. These capsules are retained through the winter….

Blue sausage

The deciduous stalks of Decaisnea insignis are prominent in the upper woodland garden. Hanging from these bare stalks are the fruit; blue sausage shaped receptacles that contain a…

Hanging by a thread

Jasminum nudiflorum; bright yellow flowers on chlorophyll green stems. This one, a stem layer that caught itself under the fence post and rooted into the mortar joint. The…

Review of the Year – 2018

Following on from a Met Office decreed White Christmas in 2017, Edinburgh had a day of snow and then Storm Dylan blew through on the 31st. Fortuitously, the…

Two hopeful Hellebores

Agenus of herbs, these two differ in that Helleborusorientalis has no winter foliage and H.foetidus has. H. foetidus isnative to W and S Europe with H.orientalis having a…

Reasons to be cheerful

Seeing these two images of Ophiopogon planiscapus ‘Nigrescens’ side by side illustrates the change weather can play on plants. Walking around the garden on a wet morning the…

Cornus fruit

Cornus capitata has produced a satisfactory crop of fruit this year. A deciduous wide canopied tree from China. Growing here at RBGE in the shelter of the east…

An intense blue

Seed collected in Sichuan Province, China during 1992 of Ceratostigma minus is providing colour in this warm, open November month. There is what may be signs of slight…

A fine leaf with shape, texture and colour

The group of Hydrangea quercifolia growing in the biodiversity garden are still showing good autumn colour. Large distinctively shaped leaves make this a worthwhile plant to grow. The…

In senescence there is beauty

Walking along the south of the Front Range glasshouses the sun lit up the decaying clump of Agapanthus praecox ssp. minimus. The long linear foliage has turned a…

The Poppy Patch

With the dry, warm weather this autumn the Annual Poppy, Papaver rhoeas, has produced a timely show of flowers to add colour in the lead up to Armistice…

The scent of Hamamelis

Opposite the Alpine area is a full flowering specimen of Hamamelis virginiana, an autumn blooming species from Eastern North America. Not to be confused with the Chinese species…

The best transient yellow of the season

Magnificent in full autumn colour Lindera obtusiloba has turned evenly butter rich yellow. The exception being the red leaf petioles which are seen when looking closer at this…

A shaft of sunlight

On the lawn west of the pond is a young specimen of Fraxinus apertisquamifera, a native to Japan. A deciduous tree to 5 metres height and a wide…

Cast to mud

This is the season where worm casts appear on the surface of the lawn. If left and walked or worse, mown over, the squashing, flattening action will result…

Seed heads

The seed pods of Clematis terniflora have split open and are releasing their seed. The plumose styles appear as a mass of white feathers covering the tangled growth….

A perennial daisy

The space around one of the alpine troughs is awash with a multitude of small daisy like flowers. From minute green button buds white ray florets quickly turn…

But will there be Chestnuts to roast?

The iconic Sweet Chestnut on the NW corner of the Rock Garden has sustained damage to the canopy over the years. The westerly storm force winds have ripped…