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The People Behind the Plants

Some might argue that the greatest asset of the four gardens of the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh are our plants, but as the over-used saying goes: ‘An organisation…

Tread carefully among the alpines ……

…. or you may tread on a solitary bee emerging from its nest hole! If you look down at the cracks between the paving stones in the Alpines…

A scarce hoverfly

This hoverfly is Epistrophe eligans. I photographed it on a leaf in the Rock Garden at lunch-time today. It is apparently a scarce species in Scotland, but I…

St Mark’s Fly invasion begins

This year’s annual emergence of St Mark’s Flies (Bibio marci) has begun today. A lot were seen flying above the path between the Rock Garden and Woodland Garden…

The BioBlitz Banners are up!

The Edinburgh Garden’s BioBlitz is now less than a month away, and large banners advertising the event are now up at the East and West Gates. The BioBlitz…

Watch Out! Gooseberry Sawfly is About!

At this time of year gooseberry sawfly larvae can rapidly strip the leaves off your gooseberry bush. The best form of defence is vigilance. Regularly inspect your plants…

Age class representation

Continuing the centuries old tradition of plant collecting, staff from RBGE travelled to Japan in 2005 and collected seed. Returning to the Garden this was sown, nurtured and…

Animation: bringing subjects and stories to life

Animation. Etymology: From the Latin animātiō, “the act of bringing to life” Animation offers us vivid opportunities to see situations and information in new and exciting ways. It can be…

Don’t Miss the Apple Blossom

The apple, pear and cherry trees in the new fruit garden are in full bloom at the moment and look delightful. This year we have started to record…

Wildlife-friendly Edible Gardening

This week is Scotland’s Nature Festival, a celebration of Scotland’s wildlife and landscapes. Growing fruit and vegetables can sometimes feel like a battle against nature. There are hundreds…

New RBGE Alpine House opens

An exciting new development has been realised after nearly a decade of careful planning, design work, fundraising and plant collecting. The dramatic ‘tufa house’, which opens to the…

‘Nest’ awarded runner up in Callum Macdonald Memorial Award 2013

I was delighted to hear that the runner up in the Callum Macdonald Memorial Award for pamphlet poetry was recently announced as Roncadora Press for Nest. Nest was produced as…

A descriptive specific epithet

The genus Ribes includes the species that provide red, white and blackcurrants, also showy species of spring flowering shrubs that are found in many gardens. Ribes longeracemosum tucked…

Will the Scottish Bluebell be Scotlands favourite plant?

For the year of Natural Scotland, RBGE has launched the Big 5 survey to find the nations favourite plant, tree or shrub. We have short listed popular plants…

Ducklings have hatched!

A brood of Mallard ducklings hatched on the main Pond at the end of last week. On Friday I counted about seven but I only saw about half…

Starlings – rare visitors!

On Friday I saw three Starlings (Sturnus vulgaris) on the lawn west of the Pond. This rather grainy out of focus image taken  from quite a distance away…

The Ash Grove

As part of the Moving Forward from Ash Dieback project we decided to search for a poem that would help people consider the value ash has in our environment…

Scotland’s Big Five: Video

This is the promotional video for Scotlands Big 5 Plants.   As part of The Year of Natural Scotland, the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh is championing biodiversity and…

Moving forward from ash dieback

Disease is a normal part of nature. But in recent years there has been a considerable increase in the number of new pests and diseases affecting Scottish trees….

Greater Beefly likes our interpretation panel!

This Greater Bee-fly Bombylius major was seen hovering above the Scottish Heather information panel in the Scottish Heath Garden at lunchtime today. It finally settled on the panel…