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Alderflies (Megaloptera): another new insect group for the Garden’s wildlife list

On 13 May 2019, Alan Crawford, one of the wildlife photographers that regularly visit the Garden, photographed an unusual insect and identified it as being an alderfly. There…

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…

Join us on a virtual expedition to Myanmar!

Come and join us on our first, of a series of specimen-based virtual expeditions across Myanmar on the citizen science platform Digivol.

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…

Edinburgh’s potato: flowers at last

Having waited a full year to see the fruits of our labours in a potato breeding project we have finally been rewarded with success today. Our aim was…

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…

Scent of seduction

With the flowering of our titan arum for the third time this summer minds have been turning to how we can help our plant, fondly called New Reekie,…

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…

Alfred Wallace and the Tricolored Jewel

When Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace presented their joint paper ‘on the Tendency of Species to form Varieties; and on the Perpetuation of Varieties and Species by…

May 2019 Garden Wildlife Report

May 2019 was both wetter (72.8 mm, 143% of long-term average) and sunnier (188.9 hours, 167% of average) than usual. For the most part it was cool, and…

April 2019 Garden Wildlife Report

April 2019 was a mostly cool month with long spells of chilling winds from easterly or northerly points. However, the Easter weekend (20th-22nd) was hot and sunny, with…

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…

Orchid appears in Living Lawn

Next to the Front Range and within sight of the Library and Herbarium two small squares of lawn have been transformed into flower-rich ‘living lawns’ as part of…

A Blueprint for Wellbeing

One of the workshops at this years Connect with Nature Conference was titled “A Blueprint for Wellbeing”. It was a collaborative experiment between artist Natalie Taylor and medical…

Microsculpture on your door step

Guest blog by Ashleigh Whiffin, entomologist (NMS) The breath-taking Microsculpture exhibition of insect portraits opens at RBGE later this month and it’s no secret that I’m a little…

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…

a botanical glimpse

We were delighted to be approached by graduating MA Art, Space and Nature student from the Edinburgh College of Art (ECA), Audrey Yeo. Audrey presented a botanical glimpse…

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…

Herbarium-inspired poetry

This Sunday, 2 June 2019, there is a chance to hear poetry read in the Botanic Cottage, with afternoon tea and nature-inspired poems from award-winning and widely published…

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…