Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh

Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, Scotland

Situated in an area of 29 hectares and one and a half kilometres from the centre of Edinburgh in Scotland, lies a Royal Botanic Garden of unimaginable beauty. This place is considered to be one of the most amazing on Earth as it unites within its borders a huge number of unique plants, the collection of which is represented by 13,300 species.

The herbarium of the Royal Botanic Garden deserves special attention. It contains more than three million varieties of dried plants. Hundreds of thousands of tourists visit from all over the world and local residents come to this corner of vegetation to enjoy the beauty of nature and to experience the aroma of fragrant flowers.

The history of the Royal Botanic Gardens in Edinburgh

The founding fathers of the Royal Botanical Garden include two doctor-scientists – Andrew Balfour and Robert Sibbald. The second oldest botanical garden in Great Britain after Oxford was founded in the courtyard of St. Anne’s in 1670, based on the private collection of the second Lord Elibank, Sir Patrick Murray. Initially it was a small plot of land and was more like a vegetable garden for growing medicinal plants. Over time the garden’s territory expanded and new areas were added. The garden was joined by Balfour’s lease of the Trinity Hospital in 1676 and in 1763 the garden, with all its plant collections, was moved from an urban area to a five-acre site in the “Physicians’ Garden”, located on the west side of Leith Walk (this area is called Bellevue today).

The next move of the garden to the place it occupies to this day was carried out in the early 1820’s. William McNab oversaw this move.

Territory of the Royal Botanical Garden

The grounds of the Royal Botanic Gardens of Edinburgh resemble a square, in the centre of which is the 18th century building Inverleith House. Inverleith House is the heart of the botanic garden. It was the base for the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art during the period 1960-1984. However, since its move to Belford Road, Inverleith House has become a gallery showcasing temporary art exhibitions.

The entire botanical garden is an area planted with dense vegetation and is divided into eight themes, each of which house certain types of plants. The corner in its northwestern part is occupied by administrative and scientific buildings as well as luxurious glass greenhouses.

One of the most striking areas of the garden is the palm greenhouse. It was founded in 1834, but was reconstructed in 1960. Its length is 128 metres. There are ten rooms equipped here which reproduce different climates including tropical, subtropical and desert. Here you can find exotic exhibits and many kinds of palm trees. The most striking plant in this area is considered to be the giant water lily “Victoria Amazonica” whose first flower bloomed in 1967 – on the very day when the botanical garden was inaugurated.

The China Zone is the world’s largest collection of plants from China located outside of that country. The territory of the site occupies one hectare and is represented by 16,000 plant specimens.

The youngest section of the garden is the ecological garden. There is a wide variety of local flora represented. Plants were collected for it throughout Scotland and are represented by mosses, lichens, mushrooms, ferns and other species.

The rockery, which was founded in the garden in 1870, is located on the northern slope and is planted with alpine plants. In addition to the flora, huge stones and boulders from different parts of the country were used to decorate the rock garden between which rushing streams and waterfalls run, and in the spring tulips, crocus plants and primroses bloom.

A heather garden lies to the east of the rock garden and was built in 1997, being a reconstruction of the first heather garden in 1935.

The Arboretum, once created for teaching students, is an area with spectacular park compositions and hundreds of trees of various species. You can feel the intoxicating smell of pine needles while in this place, since its coniferous trees predominate in numbers here.

The herbarium, which is also located within the garden contains three million dried specimens of flora, making it the world’s leading collection in botany. A special house was built for the herbarium in 1964, where it is located today.

In addition to the greenhouses, a demonstration garden is located in the territory of the garden. Here, everyone can get acquainted with the mechanisms and characteristics of the reproduction of various plants.

The garden also has a large library which is Scotland’s national reference collection and contains resources on botany and horticulture. The library houses approximately 70,000 books and 150,000 periodicals, making it one of the largest libraries in all of Scotland.

Royal Botanic Garden today

Today, the Royal Botanic Garden in Edinburgh is a scientific centre which studies plants and their characteristics and also works on how to conserve amazing flora and maintain the diversity of the plant world. People all over the world have a unique opportunity to become acquainted with a huge variety of flora, learn about new and amazing plants and see the beauty of nature that surrounds us with their own eyes thanks to the work of each employee in particular and the entire scientific centre in general.

The garden is open to visitors throughout the year, but the best time to explore it is in the summer. It is at this time of year that exotic flowers, shrubs and trees begin to bloom and smell fragrant. The Royal Botanic Garden of Edinburgh also includes in addition to this area three other gardens which are located in different areas throughout Scotland. These include: