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Tucked away in the upper woodland garden and easily missed is Magnolia sargentiana. Not as prolific a flowerer as Magnolia ‘Charles Raffill’, the flowers it does produce are…
“Hey Zoë, we’ve found a Pinguicula!” “I doubt it, they don’t grow in Belize.” “Well, this is definitely a Pinguicula.” With that conversation shouted across a hillside, we…
February 2020 will be remembered both locally and nationally for its exceptionally high rainfall, for the frequency of stormy weather, and for its lack of sunshine. There were…
Mid-March and the worst of the winter weather should be behind us. Now is an ideal time to plant an evergreen as the desiccating cold winds that are…
Have you been impressed with the carpets of Snowdrops seen in gardens open for the Scottish Snowdrop Festival? As the flowers fade, now is the time to lift…
As a Gallery Volunteer it has been my privilege to spend a good number of hours looking at the diverse range of objects in the artist Siân Bowen’s…
Working in the dry forests of the Marañón valley in Peru can be pretty intense. Firstly, as you might expect, it can get exceptionally hot. While clouds might…
RBGE scientists contribute to a landmark study suggesting that increasing global temperatures may cause both Amazon and African rainforests to become net sources, rather than sinks, of carbon…
Symphytum grandiflorum is to be found as an extensive patch of vegetation covering soil in the upper woodland garden. Neat and compact with an inflorescence of creamy white…
Plants sustain nearly all life on Earth: protecting plants is thus protecting life itself. 2020 has been designated the International Year of Plant Health, and as part of…
January 2020 was a dull and rather wet month at RBGE. There were only 46.5 hours of sunshine, about twelve hours less than in December 2019, with the…
After Hortus Malabaricus: Sensing and Presencing Rare Plants marks the culmination of my four-year collaboration with the Herbarium at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh (RBGE). Having held my first solo exhibition in Scotland at Inverleith House at RBGE in 1995, it is wonderful to be able to exhibit here once again. In 2017, I was awarded a Leverhulme Research Fellowship to carry out the project. The Leverhulme Trust is known for supporting experimental proposals with an emphasis on outward facing journeys. The journey that the award facilitated has certainly been extraordinary – opening up possibilities to work with botanists, ecologists, historical researchers, cultural geographers, taxonomists and curators. It has allowed encounters with rare plants in darkened herbaria and light-filled South Indian forests and swamps; epistemologies used to ‘reveal’ specimens and sensory differences between plants’ live and preserved states.
The majority of Primulas are rosette or clump growing herbaceous plants. Primula marginata differs. Take a look at the plant growing in the trough within the alpine area….
Inspired by the Think Plastic: Materials and Making exhibition, Fields of Plastic is a display of items from the RBGE Collection in the Herbarium, Library & Archive Cabinet…
Do you fancy learning more about horticulture and food growing? Why not volunteer with us at the Edible Gardening project?
Travelling around Edinburgh the grass has a lushness usually associated with the month of March. Plant growth is advanced for this time of the year. This January has…
The Scottish native wild apple (Malus sylvestris), like the Scottish wild cat, could be regarded as being under threat from interbreeding with its domesticated counterpart. In the cat’s…
The garden becomes a feeding ground for the Grey Squirrel population as they discover the young shoots of emerging Crocus. The appetite is however for the brown corm…
The Think Plastic- materials and making exhibition which has just opened is a collaboration between artists Lorna Fraser, Carol Sinclair, Fiona Hutchison, Fiona Pilgrim and Carla Edwards and…
It’s a new year and time to announce our ‘Meet the Gardener’ sessions as part of the Edible Gardening project