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Winter Interest

During winter many of our herbaceous plants take refuge underground and deciduous trees shed their leaves. This allows the spotlight for rich evergreens and other plants in the garden to…

November 2018 Garden Wildlife Report

Male Blackcap (Sylvia atricapilla), 15 November 2018. Photo Ken Dobson. November 2018 was a rather ‘grey’ month, living up to that month’s reputation. There were only around half a dozen…

Reasons to be cheerful

Seeing these two images of Ophiopogon planiscapus ‘Nigrescens’ side by side illustrates the change weather can play on plants. Walking around the garden on a wet morning the lustre on…

Hybrid capture from degraded DNA: quality metrics for duplicate extractions

For one of the taxa in our study set, Begonia scottii (living collection no. 20170076), we made a few replicate DNA extractions using Qiagen DNeasy plant mini-kits, and assessed the

In the bowels of the plant

Astelia chathamica is a vigorous bold clump of sword shaped leaves. A native to New Zealand, more specifically, the Chatham Islands. Our well established plant is fruiting prolifically. The fruit…

Working with others to improve our public engagement

LearnToEngage staff and participants at the Botanics We have been working with botanic gardens and museums from across Europe to develop educational courses for staff who are involved in public…

3 newly described Aframomum (Zingiberaceae) species in the Living Collection at Edinburgh

Aframomum fragrans 19982770*A A new monograph of Aframomum by David Harris and Alexandra Wortley , from Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, was published at the beginning of 2018. The monograph includes…

RBGE publication: Guide to Collecting Herbarium Specimens in the Field

In a time of habi tat destruction and species loss it is vitally important to ensure that fundamental botanical work is being carried out to identify, assess and conserve biodiversity…

August 2018 Garden Wildlife Report

Cereal Leaf Beetle (Oulema melanopus), 20 August 2018. New Garden record. Photo Ken Dobson. August 2018 was cooler and wetter than July, much more like an average August. The mean…

Thought for Food: Chelsea Marshall

…most about her job, Chelsea said she enjoys having the opportunity to engage directly with people’s stories. In today’s busy society we often forget to take the time to ask…

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 scandent form…

The Tale of Anne and Beatrix

Research about Victorian botanical illustrator Anne Pratt turns into a Beatrix Potter book binding mystery… Anne Pratt was born in 1806 and, suffering from poor health as a child, spent…

The Last Word on The Lost Words

As the doors close on what has been our most popular exhibition in Inverleith House it is worth reflecting on what has made The Lost Words such a phenomenal success….

Fragrant flowers

Intense and heavily sweet, the fragrance from the coral white flowers hanging hidden within the climbing canopy of Schisandra grandiflora is overpowering. In bud the dangling spheres are a peach…

A violet for Walt

The Shawnee National Forest skirts the midwestern town of Carbondale, which is home to one of the campuses of Southern Illinois University. It’s also one of the prettiest areas you…

Drimia maritima

Drimia maritima (L.) Stearn RBGE Accession number:19771097 Living plants of this accession 19771097A G20 Temperate Lands Collected in: Spain: Canary Is Collection number: 5602 Collected by: Long, David G. Drimia maritima (syn. Urginea…

Fern Book Presents from Christmas Past – 2

In December 1945 the world was entering its fourth month of‘peace’ after six brutal years of global war. A small sign of that ‘peace’ was the arrival in Edinburgh of…

Sir Henry Raeburn and Indian Botany

Recently I was looking at the catalogue of the memorable exhibition of Raeburn portraits held in the Royal Scottish Academy in 1997. In it is reproduced a radiant portrait of…

Hybrid capture from degraded DNA: testing bead cleaning on a 50bp ladder

When we made our Begonia libraries, working with (in some cases) relatively small quantities of very degraded DNA, we should have diluted the adaptors. We didn’t. Consequently, we ended up…

Chelsea Flower Show 2018

  Alpine Section This year was my first year at Chelsea. I was lucky enough to be able to work at Chelsea for Kevock garden plants. The display had a…