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Growing flowers amongst your vegetables has several benefits. Not only do they look great but they help to attract pollinating insects and confuse pests. Many flowers are edible,…
A vigorous mass planting of white stemmed Rubus sp. had spread to the detriment of neighbouring, weaker growing plants. The ideal time to dig out the extensive mass…
Description Cocoa is an evergreen tropical tree, usually 5 to 8m tall. The flowers are small, yellowish white to pale pink and grow directly from the trunk. In…
The Scots Pine is an iconic tree within the Scottish landscape. Easily recognisable with its reddish trunk, best appreciated during a west coast sunset when the rays from…
The first snowdrops are starting to unfurl in the Rock garden. Two of the earliest species that we have are Galanthus ‘Anglesey Abbey’ and Galanthus ‘Opehlia’. To enjoy…
If you have recently acquired an allotment or garden choosing which vegetables to grow can seem daunting. Here is a list of 10 tried and tested vegetables to…
Out with the mower on the 22nd; last Wednesday, topping off the Palm House lawns which with the mildness of the winter had that straggly appearance of uneven…
At 4 o’clock in the morning on the 23rd of September 1780, a brutal assault took place on Princes Street. A group of armed smugglers ‘beat and wounded’…
I thought I’d recorded no insects in the Botanics this week, but when downloading the week’s images from my camera this evening I found this shot of an…
In advance of the Sylva exhibition, opening in the John Hope Gateway, RBGE and the National Botanic Garden of Wales in April 2014 we want to find the…
Yesterday morning almost the first thing I heard when coming through the North Gate was the call of a Chiffchaff (Phylloscopus collybita)! It then gave a very brief,…
Beneath the extensive branch framework of Kalopanax septemlobus lays a carpet of fallen fruit. Further from the canopy edge are seedlings that have germinated from viable seed that…
Today I went over to the nursery to see the stones from the deconstructed Botanic Cottage for the first time – palette after palette of stones of all…
‘Edin. 29th March 1765. Received from Dr John Hope Professor of Botany in the College of Edinburgh, the sum of fifteen pounds ster for making Plans and Estimates…
The figures are at last all in and 62 bird species were recorded in the Botanics in Edinburgh during 2013. This is one fewer than 2012 when 63…
Today I saw my first insect of 2014 in the Botanics. No ordinary fly or early bee; it was a STONEFLY of the genus Leuctra (needle flies), almost…
Backed by a west facing wall, Tomato plants set in grow bags in the lean to glasshouse of the Fletcher Building are continuing to yield edible fruit. For…
The celebration of 200 years of Nepal-UK relations was launched on 6th January 2014 with an exhibition of natural history drawings made by Dr Francis Buchanan-Hamilton in 1802-3….
Hanging by a fragile stalk from the terminal bud, the colourful bean pod like fruits of Decaisnea fargesii are an exotic shade of blue. The upright growth of…
2014 marks the 350th anniversary of the publication in 1664 of John Evelyn’s classic book Sylva: a discourse of forest trees and the propagation of timber in…