Tag: Weekly HighlightsPage 1 of 3
A lot of plants have caught my eye during the past decade while compiling a weekly profile on a seasonal plant of interest. Below are the consistently reliable…
January 2016 dawned with a frost, only – 0.4°c, but still a frost. This, following the wettest month for more than a century. December 2015 was also the…
As a base layer, the colour brown dominates at this time of year. Ideal as a foundation layer to the glitz of Christmas. Stephanandra tanakae has fine warmth…
Sitting in an exposed site within the rock garden are plants of Alyssoides utriculata. This short lived woody perennial has seed capsules that resemble bladders. It is found…
Two Euonymus sieboldianus are planted side by side in the Garden arising from two different collecting expeditions. They are deciduous branched shrubs covered in fruit; each plant having…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
The forecast New Year’s Day storm did not materialise, allowing the Castle fireworks to herald in the start of 2014 with a great colourful spectacle. Storms blew in…
Euonymus spraguei is a recent introduction from Taiwan, found growing in cool temperate coniferous forest from 1100 – 2800m in association with Chamaecyparis formosensis, Pinus armandii, P.taiwanensis, Tsuga…
The glossy red berries of the Eurasian Viburnum opulus are a treat for bird life at this time of year. This plant is also trying to send out…
Camellia sasanqua, an evergreen bush itself is tucked away beneath an even greater evergreen behemoth. Yet even in this shady situation opposite the arid land house managing to…
Just as the dampness of the short days creeps into our bodies so does the fabric of the plant world slowly decay. These images of seed pods illustrate…
A touch of breeze and the brown wafer thin seed pods of this Dipelta yunnanensis are set quivering on the leafless shoots. The twin wing like bracts give…
Xanthorhiza simplicissima; a deciduous shrub with pinnate foliage that slowly colours into early winter. Surprisingly, a member of the Buttercup family, Ranunculaceae. Native to Eastern North America where…
A very mild end to 2011, we recorded 12.5oC on the 31st December. On the 3rd January 2012 Edinburgh recorded wind speeds of over 100mph. The highest wind…
Sweet Pea ‘Old Fashioned Mix’ is continuing to throw out flowers, short of stalk and with an absence of fragrance, at this, the tail end of the year….
Walking through the Rhododendron collection in the Garden as dusk is falling, a rapid temperature drop and the stillness of the evening. Then a sound that resembles water…