Category: Point of InterestPage 1 of 15
Places of interest around the Gardens
This is an extended version of the talk I gave at the ‘Trailblazers’ online event to mark RBGE’s 350th anniversary on the 15th October 2020. I work in…
Reginald Farrer (1880-1920) was a remarkable botanist whose correspondence and photographs are among the treasures of the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh Archives. Many of the species that he…
I was studying History and Archaeology at the University of Edinburgh with a focus on architectural archaeology. I had no idea how important the stories held in the stones of this unassuming cottage would become to me.
A Cottage Volunteer My Introduction to the Botanic Cottage The Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh has always had a special place in my heart, especially since my son proposed…
In a time of such unpredictable global conditions, we can’t pull ourselves away from thinking about the timely delivery of RBGE’s newly adopted artwork Early Warning Signs. Taking up a prominent position at the entrance to Inverleith House at the beginning of this year, it seems only too fitting that the spinning ‘climate/change’ (‘change/climate’) sign arrived during a particularly stormy January.
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.
Flowers set on bare branches are a delight in winter, but there are also some evergreen plants that flower. They are a great comfort to the soul during…
This building is named in honour of the Royal Caledonian Horticultural Society (RCHS, often known as the ‘Caley’). They commissioned its construction in 1841, primarily as an exhibition…
This elegant house was designed by renowned Scottish architect William Playfair and was completed in 1826 to provide accommodation for the Curator of the Experimental Garden of the…
1914-1919 The Service Roll is different from the Roll of Honour in that it shows the names & a short statement of service of all members of staff…
We Will Remember Them Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh Roll of Honour, 1914–1919 At the outbreak of war in August 1914 the appeal for H.M. Forces met with ready…
All plants have stories. The Botanics over its 350 years has managed to create many, from intrepid tales of plant hunters to discovering plants new to science. Some…
It will be of no surprise that an attractive plant has been found in this particular genus. One in which has been so highly regarded by the garden,…
Situated beneath the Memorial to the members of staff at RBGE who gave their lives during the First World War is a smaller, but no less poignant memorial…
Some of us may be lucky, or in this case, unlucky enough to experience a life altering event that comes to define us whether we want it to…
In the past few years at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh (RBGE) we have experienced changing weather patterns that reflect how climate change will affect Scotland in the…
“Indirectly the war has robbed the Botanical Society of a member of its Council and a frequent contributor to its meetings in the person of Dr. R.C. Davie,…
When I was contacted by Dr Bill Lynch in August 2018 with a query about a former RBGE gardener called David R. Tait and his work for Sir…
With the dry, warm weather this autumn the Annual Poppy, Papaver rhoeas, has produced a timely show of flowers to add colour in the lead up to Armistice…
Henry McBeath was from Rogart in Sutherland, born in November 1878 to James McBeath, a farm grieve (foreman) and his wife Johan from Rovie, a farm in Rogart…