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Royal Botanic Gardens Edinburgh pt. 1

Staying directly across the street from The Botanics, I arrived Tuesday morning to a familiar sight and a warm welcome from Elspeth MacKintosh and John Mitchell. I was incredibly eager to see the progress of their tufa wall and new alpine house and made a B line to both.

The morning commute through the Rhododendron gates







For those who do not know, I was here two years ago on the same Diana Aitchison Fund to study how alpine houses are built. On my last part of that trip, I spent a day talking with John and Elspeth on their alpine houses to better understand how they are built and to get ideas on how to build one for Betty Ford. The alpine display house had signs of age and was undergoing plans to be rebuilt. At first I almost mistaked the new one for the old one but quickly noticed the new cedar and paving surrounding it. In keeping with the same look as the older one, the new alpine house is absolutely beautiful and quite "smart" as Elspeth would say. The trough patio and gardens that surround it are an ode to rock gardens and draw people in to look closer and hopefully gain a new respect for these amazing plants.




Ipheion

After briefly walking through the new alpine house and tufa wall, I was put to work. With the grand opening in just a few weeks, there was lots to do. Carly and I were given the privilege to build a peat garden on the north facing side of the new alpine house. Having never built one, I was very excited to give it a try. We acquired a few peat blocks and then discussed how to design it. At first we debated whether to do a curving line through the bed or to do individual areas. The way in which I design or look at new areas is to address the surroundings. The straight lines and rectangular shapes of the alpine house and trough garden was my inspiration. Using the peat given, I placed each piece like rocks in a crevice garden. We then broke it down into 3 sections. It took us a good part of the day but we successfully built and planted with careful attention. I may try building one at Betty Ford..






We placed Schizocodon soldanelloides, Shortia uniflora, Primula juliae, Podophyllum delavayi and many other shady, peat loving plants to fill the bed. I will be curious to see it grow in the next few years and feel honored to build something for RBGE.

For the next day, I spent some more time looking around the bulb house and cold frames to take note of what is growing and to converse with many of the staff. I was particularly intrigued with the Iris collection and of course the Dionysia, Saxifraga, Draba, etc... Elspeth is a master grower of just about everything. Plans for building more propagation areas was filling my head all day and will be particularly my focus when I get back to Colorado.








Podophyllum delavayi

Bulb house

Cold frames


*Update*

I have been off the grid in Iceland since leaving Scotland but will have another blog out soon on the rest of my time in Edinburgh. Thank you for reading.

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