Royal Botanic Gardens Edinburgh

With two full days left in my trip, I was ready to pack in as much as I could in Edinburgh. 

I had a chance to walk around Edinburgh Botanic Garden for about an hour after I visited Cyril's garden and got small taste of what I would be in for the next 2 days. I was pretty excited after seeing a glimpse of the garden and alpine house. I met with John Mitchell and Elspeth to make a plan for the following two days and went back to Ian and Carole's home to yet another delicious Scottish home cooked meal.

Rock wall, original alpine house and new alpine house

Outside tufa bed blending into the covered tufa wall

I liked the interpretation around the alpine house, Simple yet scientific

The next morning I met up with John Mitchell, Alpine Supervisor, and we talked a great deal about how he built the tufa wall at Edinburgh. John showed me many pictures of the work that was done to build the house. Although the Edinburgh alpine house will be different to ours, there were great comments made by John on how to work with tufa. A great suggestion he had was to cut large tufa boulders with a diamond tip saw so that you can double your supply. Cleaning the boulders with a pressure washer is also a great technique to getting the tufa clean before plancing. Many of the tufa boulders we are getting have soil and grass growing in them so it will be a big project once they arrive to get them clean. Another great thing I learned was that the holes that Edinburgh drilled to get plants into were drilled with a diamond core bit. The holes are roughly the same size and drilled downwards to hold soil and plants better. Many of the holes reach the irrigated sand behind the boulders. Larger boulders where holes don't go all the way through tend to be a little drier as well.

A planting hole in the tufa. Boulders are also secured by stainless steel nails and a hypertufa cement

I also explained how our house would be built and John made some great comments on the design and to take my time when building it. "Planting may take up to a year but it will be worth it" said John. The more we talked, the more confident I became in not worrying too much about instant appeal and to first learn how our new alpine house works after a year of experimenting.

I was then handed off to Elspeth, Alpine House and nursery Senior Horticulturist. Elspeth showed me around the nursery and talked about growing and managing many of the plants. She even let me near her cherished Dionysia afghanica, which may be the only one in cultivation right now. We then picked out a few plants that are grown specifically for the tufa wall in small 1-2" pots. The reason for the smaller grown plants in the tufa wall is that they 1. fit into the drilled holes. 2. They establish quicker and healthier.

Elspeth explaining the reason of smaller grown plants for the tufa wall 

After lunch we gathered the plants and tools and headed over to the alpine house. After a quick demonstration from Graham on how to plant, I gave it a shot. I have to say the first 1 or 2 were quite difficult and intimidating but after a little while I started to get the hang of it and really enjoyed it. We will see how they fair over the next few weeks...

Graham filling in the hole with the compost mix using a plastic pipe and stick to tap and jam the soil in. 

Me pretending to know what I am doing. So much fun

Happy cushion plants of the tufa wall

After a great day at The Botanics, I had a chance to walk around Edinburgh and see some sights such as the castle.

And I even watched a sunset from the top of the a dry ski slope. (scariest skiing in my life)

The next day I went in early with John and walked around RBGE. The size of RBGE is pretty large considering how many planting beds and different areas encompass the grounds, The conservatory is also massive. I particularly liked the fern house and seeing a few Victoria waterlilies being grown for the summer.

I then met up with Robert, Senior Horticulturist of the Rock Garden and Woodland areas. Robert took me on an extensive tour of both areas as well as some history. The Rock Garden was originally built in 1870 but then redone during WW1. Like a few other gardens I visited, beds are separated geographically. Robert is also responsible for most of the interpretation around the garden and he showed me a great way of attaching signs to rocks using velcro.
The woodland garden is also quite interesting although most of the plants were just starting to come up. I really enjoyed the stumpery areas and the Scandinavian peat blocks. Rhododendrons were also coming into full glory and a few were original collections from the wild that date back many years.

Stumpery

Robert talking to one of his gardeners on methods of keeping children out of the beds 

Easy to replace and blends nicely with the rock garden beds

There was also a unique bed that was dedicated to rare or endangered plants of Scotland from the coast up to the high peaks. The labels even had the common name in Gaelic.

If you have read this far, thank you for taking the time. RBGE was such an important part of my trip and I can't thank John, Elspeth, Robert and the rest of the staff for taking me under their wing for 2 days.

I will  be writing one more wrap up of my trip in the next day or 2. Stay tuned.