RBGE Botanics Spring 2023

THREE TOP WRITERS REVEAL THEIR SANCTUARIES ARIT ANDERSON RELISHES A SEASON OF CHANGE HOW SEAGRASS HELPS BOOST BIODIVERSITY

GREEN VISION

THE GARDEN’S KIRSTY WILSON ON PLANTING WITH NATURE

ISSUE 85 SPRING 2023

DIVE IN

OUR CONTRIBUTORS

Susan Flockhart

A freelance journalist based in Glasgow, Susan Flockhart is a former editor of The Big Issue in Scotland and a long-time comment and features editor for The Sunday Herald. She writes on a broad range of topics, including literature, heritage, nature and wildlife.

Arit Anderson

A presenter of BBC Gardeners’ World, Arit Anderson is also a writer, garden designer and host of the podcast Growing Greener with Arit Anderson. She discovered horticulture following a career in fashion retail and creative events, first making an impact at the 2013 RHS Chelsea Show.

Dr Alexandra Davey

The Garden’s science policy and impact officer, Dr Alexandra Davey specialises in biodiversity, plant systematics, evolution and morphology. She is part of a team delivering our Science and Biodiversity Strategy, and is author of World of Plants, Stories of Survival

18 Dawyck is a haven of creativity for writer

IN THIS ISSUE

2 THE VIEW

Find the endangered Kazhak pear tree in blossom at Edinburgh

5 EXPLORE

The latest news, exhibitions and events to inspire you

9 FIONA LEITH

Our columnist discovers the joy of sowing in anticipation of summer

11 ANATOMY OF A PLANT

The secrets of the vibrant Primula veris, also known as the cowslip

The Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh is a Non Departmental Public Body (NDPB) sponsored and supported through Grant-in-Aid by the Scottish Government’s Environment and Forestry Directorate (ENFOR).

The Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh is a charity registered in Scotland (number SC007983).

The Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, 20a Inverleith Row, Edinburgh EH3 5LR 0131 248 2800 rbge.org.uk

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PLANTING WITH NATURE

Why Kirsty Wilson, our herbaceous supervisor and a presenter of Beechgrove, plants for the planet

18 LITERARY HIDEOUTS

Top writers reveal how the Botanics offer them inspiration and peace

24 SCIENCE

How the Garden is helping save Scotland’s seagrass meadows

28 ARIT ANDERSON

Our new columnist, the BBC Two Gardeners’ World presenter, says grab spring with both hands

Botanics is published on behalf of the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh by Think thinkpublishing.co.uk

Enquiries regarding circulation of Botanics should be addressed to Clare Harris clare.harris@thinkpublishing.co.uk

Opinions expressed within Botanics are those of the contributors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh. All information correct at time of going to press.

Printed by The Manson Group, St Albans. Finished reading? Please pass your copy on or recycle it.

Gerda Stevenson

Cover image by Julie Howden; main image by Angela Catlin

Kazhak pear tree in blossom

Among the arresting displays you’ll discover in the Garden this spring is the blossoming Kazhak pear (Pyrus korshinskyi). Critically endangered in its native habitat of Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, due to overgrazing and intensive harvesting, the tree thrives on the Pyrus lawn in the Edinburgh Garden. This particular specimen is listed in The Tree Register as the largest of its species in cultivation. Enjoy it at its magnificent best during May.

PHOTOGRAPH BY LYNSEY WILSON

The Hebridean Baker is Coinneach MacLeod who was born and raised on the Isle of Lewis.

Inspired by traditional family recipes and homegrown produce, Coinneach rose to fame as the Hebridean Baker on Tik Tok in 2020. He has motivated his worldwide followers to bake, forage, learn Gaelic, enjoy a dram or two of whisky and to seek a more wholesome, simple life.

The new Hebridean Baker cookbook, My Scottish Island Kitchen, is packed with wonderful stories and photography, and includes more than 70 recipes divided into chapters including Scottish recipes, cakes and biscuits, cosy weekend dishes, bread & scones, afternoon tea recipes and much more.

You'll also find a selection of Hebridean Baker recipes on our website: hamlynsoats.co.uk

EXPLORE

1AUSTRALIAN ARTIST EXPLORES SHIPPING ROOTS

Artist Keg de Souza will be presenting her first major solo exhibition in the UK at Inverleith House Gallery, Edinburgh, this spring. Shipping Roots is the result of Sydney-based de Souza’s three-month residency at the Garden in 2022.

De Souza’s work is part of our ongoing Climate House project that welcomes artists from Scotland and around the world to showcase work that encourages conversations about life on Earth. As part of her residency, de Souza joined a panel talk with artists Annalee Davis, Shiraz Bayjoo and Claire Ratinon, Lynsey Wilson;

exploring the issues of coloniality, environmental justice and indigenous rights through a botanical lens.

Shipping Roots takes its title from the ways that plants have been transported across the seas, intentionally and inadvertently. In the exhibition, de Souza draws on the Garden’s collections to tell

tales of eucalyptus, prickly pear and ‘fugitive’ seeds, tracing legacies through the British Empire and specifically linking Australia, India and the UK. These stories are connected to de Souza’s own experiences as a person of Goan heritage whose ancestral lands were colonised, and who now lives on unceded indigenous Gadigal land in Sydney.

Curated by Emma Nicolson, head of creative programmes, the exhibition is supported by an Outset Transformative Grant, the British Council, the Australian and NSW Governments, and a City of Parramatta Council Community grant.

Keg de Souza: Shipping Roots is at Inverleith House Gallery, 24 March to 27 August. kegdesouza.com

Bryony Jackson

Artist Keg de Souza during a residency at the Edinburgh Garden and (below) de Souza explored water scarcity in the installation Not a Drop to Drink, 2021

Logan Botanic Garden has collaborated with the Rhins and Luce Red Squirrel Network Group to install feeding stations around the Garden, enabling us to monitor and survey the red squirrel population. While red squirrels at Logan have been thriving in recent years, they are under increasing pressure from the non-native grey species, which outcompetes them for food and carries the deadly squirrel pox virus. Cameras have been placed strategically around RED Logan to monitor the feeding SQUIRREL stations. It is hoped that, through FEEDER this partnership, the stronghold can be maintained so that visitors will SUCCESS continue to enjoy the opportunity AT LOGAN to spot some red squirrels.

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DON’T MISS

The Botanics Shop is open daily, 10am to 6pm, with summer bulbs, gardening gifts, locally sourced products, home accessories and more. Browse the full spring collection and order online at rbgeshop.org

More details on page 27

MARVELLOUS WORLD OF MOSSES REVEALED

A LIFE SAVED AND A GIFT FOR THE EDINBURGH GARDEN

When Jeanne Reilly went into cardiac arrest at the Edinburgh Garden in 2021, a host of people helped save her life. Jeanne, a retired speech and language therapist, pictured above, returned to the Garden to thank those involved, including Shiona Mackie, a patron and retired doctor who administered CPR and defibrillation, and Ian Harwood, a technician from the Scottish Ambulance Service. Jeanne’s visit marked the installation of a defibrillator outside The Terrace cafe. Jeanne’s friend Jane Wood, who was with her when she collapsed, raised more than £2,000 to purchase it. Besides The Terrace, there are now defibrillators in Edinburgh at reception, the John Hope Gateway, East Gate Lodge, the Botanic Cottage and the Caledonian Hall – as well as one at each of the Regional Gardens.

The critical role mosses and their relatives (bryophytes) play in climate change prevention is among the topics explored in The Hidden World of Mosses by

bryologist Dr Neil Bell. The book, published by the Garden this spring, features images by bryologist and photographer Des Callaghan. It illuminates the intriguing environments of these plants, which have their own ecological norms and mechanics. Find out about their ability to hold and control water in forests, uplands and mires, and discover their miniature forests filled with grazers and predators. The book is available to buy at rbgeshop.org

Alamy

DON’T MISS

5

MAKING PROGRESS ON PALM

HOUSES PROJECT

The Garfield Weston Foundation has awarded a grant of £500,000 to support the restoration and conservation of our A-listed Tropical and Temperate Palm Houses in Edinburgh.

The renovation work is the centrepiece of the seven-year Edinburgh Biomes project, which will help protect the globally significant collection of almost 800 plant specimens previously housed in the historic Palm Houses.

Enjoy spring menus at The Gateway Cafe and The Terrace, with dishes created using seasonal ingredients from our market garden. Find out more at rbge.org.uk/food-and-drink

A 16-week programme began in autumn 2022 to construct steel scaffolding that would fill the interior and encase the exterior of the buildings. Specialist cladding was then moulded to the structures, creating a weatherproof seal that will protect both artisans and the natural environment.

Scaffolding platforms enable access for teams of conservation architects, engineers, stonemasons and architectural glaziers. Around 5,750 panes of glass were removed before ironwork –including walkways, guttering, and the 18 arched windows on the Temperate House –was dismantled prior to restoration or replacement.

The Garfield Weston Foundation grant complements funding pledged by the Scottish Government and the National Lottery Heritage Fund.

Find out more at rbge.org.uk/supportbiomes

Growing gains

“If it wisnae fur yer wellies, Wherewud you be?” wonders Billy Connolly in his Welly Boot Song. Anyone who has ventured with rubber-resplendent abandon onto their dear green patch in Scotland during February will know the results can be existentially wounding. Whether it’s a rebounding-trowel injury from first contact with solid soil, or the inertia of willed-for spring emergence, the garden’s refusal to bend to our early optimism can test even the rosiest of dispositions. Seasons are increasingly altered by

climate change and, while the south of England might bask in late spring sunshine, we northern us to our

souls will be biding our time until that last frost in childish

May before we plant out without worry.

March, however, is the time of year to take

matters into your own hands and sow seed indoors like your life depends on it. By the time

the spring equinox graces us with its presence on

20 March, half of our day will consist of daylight. These hours are gardening gifts.

green-fingered

behaviours as we

pinch and pot up’

Sowing seeds combines two of my favourite aspects of gardening – hope and the opportunity to get naked with nature. Readers, I’m talking about going glove-free here; what are you thinking of? Sowing returns us to our most childish and rudimentary green-fingered behaviours as we poke, pinch and pot up with soil and seed. Wherever you have light, air and water, something can grow – whether it’s on windowsills, doorsteps and balconies or in borders.

What you sow and where will depend, of course, on the above, but my recommended approach is to consider what you think you will enjoy chewing and viewing. Cast forward to summer – would you rather be reaping the rewards of a salad bowl or a charming floral display you’ve nurtured to life with your own hands?

Fiona Leith is If I had to choose a seed from both sides of the kirk, it would be a graduate of tomatoes and sweet peas. Both are simple to sow indoors and can Horticulture with then thrive outdoors in Scotland’s climate. I have had unexpected Plantsmanship at RBGE/SRUC. bounties right through to autumn without so much as a cold frame She now runs her or greenhouse in sight. Sweet pea seeds need a narrow and deep own business as container in which to extend their roots. As with tomato seeds, The Plantswoman, don’t be tempted to overheat your seed space in a race for growth. supporting Scottish nature and gardens. Gardening may reward the brave, but only the patient prevail.

EDINBURGH

Open daily, 10am–6pm rbge.org.uk/edinburgh

BENMORE

Open daily, 10am–5pm rbge.org.uk/benmore

DAWYCK

Open daily, 10am–5pm rbge.org.uk/dawyck

Open daily, 10am–5pm rbge.org.uk/logan

Embrace the opportunities that spring brings, whatever your gardening space, writes Fiona Leith

‘Sowing returns

most

and

rudimentary

Grygorashchuk Aida/Shutterstock

LOGAN

Primula veris

This bouquet of spring flowers, including the strikingly yellow cowslip, was painted by Edinburgh artist Charlotte Cowan Pearson

1Primula veris (cowslip), the plant with the egg-yolkyellow flowers on the left, was once common in the UK. Due to loss of habitat such as meadows and grasslands, and changes in agricultural techniques, the plant is a rare sight these days. 2

Cousin of the primrose (Primula vulgaris, also pictured), the cowslip is a semievergreen that flowers in AprilMay, hence its species name, veris, from the Latin for spring. The name cowslip is said to be derived from the Old English for cow dung – cowslop – as it grows in grazed fields.

IN SEARCH OF THE COWSLIP

Spot Primula veris in March and April in the Alpine Houses and the Rock Garden in Edinburgh, and at Dawyck. Please note access to the Alpine Houses is at weekends only during Charlotte Cowan Pearson (1837-1917) was born and construction work brought up in Edinburgh. She lived with her siblings in the for the Edinburgh city’s Royal Terrace, painting plants and landscapes on paper Biomes project. and crockery with an almost photographic eye for detail

3The flower is closely associated with British folklore and has adorned many May Day garlands across the centuries. Shakespeare refers to cowslips throughout his work, as does Robert Burns, whose song Again Rejoicing Nature Sees includes the line “In vain to me the cowslips blaw”.

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This stunning illustration is from a volume of botanical paintings held in the Garden’s Collection. Although the paintings were attributed to Charlotte Cowan Pearson this wasn’t confirmed until, in late 2022, an image in the Garden’s calendar was spotted by the artist’s great-greatnephew. Thanks to Michael Pearson, a Patron of the Garden, she is now verified as the volume’s creator.

BACK TO LIFE

Taking simple steps to plant with nature can help secure Earth’s future, as the Garden’s Kirsty Wilson explains to Susan Flockhart

ILLUSTRATIONS: HAZEL FRANCE

As you read this the earth beneath our feet will be teeming with life. Bulbs that have slept all winter will be sending up shoots, and come April-May the wide borders leading to Botanic Cottage will be a riot of colourful tulips.

When I visit the Edinburgh Garden in late November, those beds are a hive of human activity as Kirsty Wilson and her team make final adjustments to the well-tilled soil, ready to hand-plant 16,000 bulbs.

“Spring is one of my favourite times,” says Wilson, the Garden’s herbaceous supervisor and a presenter of the BBC horticulture show Beechgrove. “It’s almost a season of colour overload,” she enthuses as she points out places that will be “a sea of yellow aconites” amid the February snows; and a hedge of Rhododendron ‘Praecox’ that will bloom purple in late February and early March. “Those, and the snowdrops, are among the first things to come into bloom, but we’re spoilt here,” she says. “There are so many plants that there’s almost always something in flower or fruit.”

We’re meeting as Wilson prepares to publish her book Planting with Nature: A Guide to Sustainable Gardening, illustrated by Hazel France, a botanical

illustrator and horticulturist at the Garden. A nature-lover since childhood, Wilson is passionate about encouraging biodiversity in our gardens and her book is packed with tips on how to do it, even on a balcony or in a tiny front yard.

Where once gardeners prided themselves on “taming nature”, the focus of Wilson – and the Garden – is on creating an environment where birds, insects and other wildlife can flourish. The Garden’s renowned herbaceous border is a case in point. At 165m long and backed by a towering beech hedge, the border is aflame with colour each summer but now, in late autumn, dying stems and rustling seedheads abound. “People used to spend a lot of time cutting all that down,” says Wilson. “Now we leave it so insects can overwinter in stems.”

In fact, the whole of this worldfamous 70-acre Garden exemplifies the principles outlined in Wilson’s book. Nectar borders, wildflower meadows, living lawns? Check: come summer, those Botanic Cottage beds will hum with pollinators as poppies, cornflowers and umbellifers replace the spring tulips. Pests and weeds are managed organically here, while machines such as hedge-trimmers are electric,

Phil Wilkinson

rather than powered by fossil fuels. There’s even an experimental Raingarden, designed to absorb climate change-related floodwater.

Flooding apart, water is an ecological necessity, not least as a wildlife sanctuary. “Animals can use water to wash, drink, shelter and even lay eggs,” Wilson explains, pointing out that frogs and toads are natural pest-killers (they devour slugs). Yet some 70 per cent of the UK’s rural ponds have been lost and many of those that remain are polluted. Adding a wildlife pond is the single most sustainable thing we can do in our gardens, believes Wilson, who looks after six ponds here in Edinburgh.

And for anyone wondering how to fit a wildflower meadow or pond into a tiny suburban plot, she points out: “You can even grow a meadow in a pot and on Beechgrove I once showed how to create a pond in a container.” In Planting with Nature she offers a step-by-step guide to doing exactly that using troughs, sinks and barrels suitable for patios and balconies.

More than anything, Wilson wants to inspire others to love and protect the natural world. “Because with climate change, biodiversity loss, we are losing so many species. After the war we lost 75 per cent of wildflower meadows, hedgerows were ripped out and there were times in the 1960s when we sprayed everything with chemicals.”

“Pollinators are essential for our world,” she adds. “If we don’t have certain species of bumblebees in the UK it might affect fruit production. We don’t want to be hand-pollinating things in the future. Plants provide oxygen, on which all life depends, so if we don’t protect our natural world we’re going to have a very sick planet going forward.”

Does she think young people are more eco-conscious than their elders? “Older people have always gardened for wildlife and nature,” she says. “But perhaps we, as a younger generation, are more worried about the future and the next generation coming up after us. There are more and more studies showing that certain species are in decline.” Conscious that people can

Kirsty wants to inspire others to love and protect the natural world

Plantsmanship at the Garden, in conjunction with Scotland’s Rural College (SRUC). She then spent two years at Highgrove “growing [organic] fruit and veg for the king”. An international traineeship at Longwood Gardens, Pennsylvania, followed and, after two years as the glasshouse supervisor at St Andrews, she returned to the Botanics in 2018, completing an RBGE Diploma in Garden Design in 2019. Now she is keen to design gardens, such as the Edinburgh Raingarden, suited to a changing climate.

sometimes feel helpless given the scale of the crisis, she wants to show that a simple step – such as hanging a bird feeder or planting a tree or shrub – can have a positive impact.

Wilson’s green-fingered expertise began with a BSc in Horticulture and

Wilson traces her passion for plants back to her childhood, growing up north of Glasgow. “I just wanted to be outside or down in the woods. I loved observing nature. I suppose I was a bit of an odd child in that way. And my parents were always gardening.”

Julie Howden

‘Plants provide oxygen, on which all life depends, so if we don’t protect our natural world we’re going to have a very sick planet going forward’

A bumblebee collects pollen from a purple coneflower (Echinacea purpurea)

Having begged for her own vegetable plot, Wilson’s horticultural acumen burgeoned when, aged 14, she “elbowed” her mother out of their small greenhouse and began sowing seeds. Inspired by school biology lessons, she became fascinated by plant propagation and began experimenting with grafting, using her mother’s roses.

She knows not all children are lucky enough to have easy access to the great outdoors and was saddened by research suggesting that 83 per cent of youngsters couldn’t even identify a bumblebee.

Wilson believes schools can be an important part of the solution by involving children in gardening or at least “trying to include nature in teaching”. (An inspirational green-

CONVERSATIONS WITH BUMBLEBEES

Studying the buzz of thousands of bees could alert conservationists to dangerous environmental changes

The Garden is an important haven for wildlife – especially pollinators. Just ask scientist Alixandra Prybyla, who is conducting pioneering research on the insects in the grounds at Edinburgh.

“It is flush with all sorts of flowers that bloom all through the year so the Garden is basically a bumblebee heaven,” says Prybyla, a PhD student at the University of Edinburgh. “Listening to nature can tell us a lot about what’s going on.”

A bee’s buzz is “exceptionally complex”, adds Prybyla, whose study involves recording the buzzing of thousands of bees with a view to promoting biodiversity. “When a bumblebee flies it flexes its thoracic [back] muscles, creating vibration that is shaped in the body, travels through the wings, then is transmitted as a sound.”

Working with four undergraduate students, she wants to find out how much we can learn about bee health and behaviour from their individual buzzes. Using ultra-sensitive parabolic microphones, the team has already collected 1,100 sound samples from foraging bees and now wants to discover whether

local bee populations can be monitored remotely. The hope is that changes in bumblebee behaviour will alert conservationists to potentially dangerous variations in soil, plant-life, pesticide use or other environmental factors.

The study involves complex technology. “I’m trying to build a database of buzzes from the seven most common species of bumblebee in Scotland, which will be used to feed an artificial intelligence algorithm and teach it what these bees sound like,” explains Prybyla.

Having had significant hearing difficulties in childhood, Prybyla has long been fascinated by “what it means to listen and how we engage with sound”.

Now, she is effectively conversing with a much-loved creature that’s also a vital biodiversity indicator. Eventually, she hopes, the database created in the Edinburgh Garden will help inform conservationists’ efforts to protect the planet.

“We’re not just listening, we’re also responding to what’s going on,” she says. “So in that way it’s quite a dialogue.”

Lynsey Wilson

minded geography teacher was among her own formative influences.)

“I am worried people are becoming more and more detached from nature,” says Wilson. “That’s why it’s so important to bring schoolkids into a botanic garden like this, so they can learn about where our food comes from, why we feel better when we’re in nature and why it is so important to protect it.”

There are lots of children exploring these verdant acres this morning, but Wilson’s focus extends beyond the Garden’s boundaries. For COP26, she helped design a pop-up green wall in Edinburgh’s Waverley Station and persuaded LNER to install a permanent one below the escalator. And her book includes a chapter on planting green roofs like the one above the Edinburgh Garden’s John Hope Gateway visitor centre. “We need to be designing urban landscapes to benefit nature,” she says. “Green roofs on top of buildings, green walls, climbers up houses will all be beneficial to wildlife.”

Being close to nature is also invaluable for human wellbeing. Wilson points to studies showing that hospital patients recover faster if they can look out on trees or greenery and believes the

Garden is an important resource for city-dwellers. “We’re free,” she says simply. “You can come in, observe nature, see plants and just de-stress.”

When we met this morning at 11am, Wilson had already been at work for almost four hours. She doesn’t mind the early starts and loves watching the sun rise over Arthur’s Seat from the high point behind The Terrace cafe. “Early morning is a great time to observe nature,” she says. “You might see a fox wandering by, or the flash of a kingfisher over the Chinese Hillside pond.”

Wilson’s voice is rich, clear and engaging. It’s little wonder she’s increasingly in demand for broadcasts, such as Gardeners’ Question Time on BBC Radio 4. In fact, while we are talking, she gets star-spotted by a Beechgrove fan. Speaking of TV, what does she make of the recent spat between celebrity horticulturists Monty Don and Alan Titchmarsh over the

thorny subject of grass-cutting, with Don calling for an end to tidy lawns and Titchmarsh arguing that maintaining his neatly striped lawn is “excellent for my mental health”?

While generally more in tune with the shaggy method advocated by Don, Wilson takes a pragmatic approach.

“It’s important people enjoy being in their gardens and maybe cutting the grass is their thing. Can you have a wee bit of stripey lawn? Yes.”

The trick is to aim for balance, perhaps keeping some areas sharp and trim but also incorporating wilder areas – a patch of nettles, some nectarrich plants and maybe a bug-pile, bird box or hedgehog house.

“There’s a lot of confusion about rewilding,” she says. “Some people think it means letting your whole garden grow wild, but no. I’m just saying we need to do a little bit to help. If you put in certain elements, then nature will come.”

Planting with Nature: A Guide to Sustainable Gardening, by Kirsty Wilson and with illustrations by Hazel France, is published by RBGE/Birlinn on 20 April, £14.99. You can pre-order it at rbgeshop.org

Kirsty immerses herself in the Rhododendron ‘Praecox’ at the Edinburgh Garden

HEART SOUL

inspiration

It is a weekday morning and Val McDermid is giving a whistlestop tour of the Edinburgh Garden, pointing out her favourite spots and recounting some of her fondest visits over the years.

The best-selling crime writer, whose prolific back catalogue includes The Wire in the Blood, Still Life and 1979, lives close to the 70-acre grounds and is a regular visitor, popping by whenever she wants to walk or clear her head.

We wander round together, following the meandering paths through the Upper Woodland Garden, pausing to enjoy the tranquil, sun-dappled grove of giant redwoods (Sequoiadendron giganteum), where a six-strong circle of these towering specimens creates a majestic cathedral-like space.

The redwoods, planted in the 1920s, soar 24m (79ft) in height and provide a canopy that has allowed rhododendrons, particularly large-leaved species from the lower slopes of the Himalayas, to thrive.

Continuing through the trees, McDermid tells me about her life as a writer – her latest book, 1989, was published in August 2022 – as we make our way towards one of her most-loved locations, the Rock Garden. This spellbinding corner is home to an impressive collection of more than 5,000 plants from the world’s mountains, and Arctic and dry rocky Mediterranean habitats. Among its highlights are springflowering bulbs, including dwarf daffodils, snowdrops and crocuses.

Late spring and early summer are when the flowering dwarf rhododendrons and alpines enjoy their peak, while the true high alpines, including the European Pulsatilla and the North American Penstemon, are also at their best.

McDermid will be back in Scotland in time to enjoy the riot of colour following four months in New Zealand as visiting professor at the University of Otago.

Here, McDermid – joined by fellow writers Sara Sheridan and Gerda Stevenson – reflects on what makes the Gardens so special.

Three Scottish writers share their love of the Gardens – and reveal which spots offer them solace and

WORDS: SUSAN SWARBRICK IMAGES: ANGELA CATLIN

Val McDermid enjoys the splendour of the giant redwoods

Val McDermid

“When I’m working on a book and trying to figure out a bit of a plot, such as how to navigate a negotiation between characters, visiting the Edinburgh Garden is useful.

“Walking round there helps, partly because it is constantly changing. There is always something fresh to look at and occupy the front of your mind, while the back of your mind gets on with the business of thinking up ideas.

“The gardeners keep a constant flow of plants, with different things coming into flower at different times, that will make you stop and go: ‘Wow – what’s that?’

“I tend not to do the same circuit on my walks. I prefer to go for a wander and take different paths through the Garden to see what’s what. There have been occasions where I have been inspired by something I have seen and then bought a plant from the Botanics Shop for my garden at home.

“Walking round the Garden never gets old. I even like when things start dying back because you see the cycle of the plant life. You watch the gardeners working away and cutting things back – we crime writers enjoy a bit of deadheading.

“In autumn, you start to see amazing colours – a palette of gold, brown and red – then, as we get into winter and the branches become bare, you can properly see the shapes of the trees.

“One of my favourite spots is the Rock Garden and I also like the row of benches outside the cafe at Inverleith House because it has the most incredible view of the Edinburgh skyline. In the winter I will toil up the hill in the cold to admire the stunning architecture of the city.

“Winter is probably my favourite time [to visit] because there is hardly anybody about. It feels much more like private gardens then than during the busy summer months. Even in winter there is always a splash of colour. The gardeners choose plants that come alive, such as Christmas roses (Helleborus niger).

“In spring, the cycle begins again. First, though, in late winter, you start to get early bulbs. The Iris reticulata come bursting through, then the crocuses and snowdrops, followed by daffodils and tulips – these little explosions of colour all round the garden. That is good for the soul.”

1989 by Val McDermid is published in paperback by Sphere

Sara Sheridan

Sara Sheridan is the author of more than 20 books, including a cosy crime noir series and historical novels based on the real-life stories of late Georgian and early Victorian explorers. The Fair Botanists, her latest, is set in summer 1822 against the colourful backdrop of the Edinburgh Garden. Here, Sheridan talks about her research and how it has strengthened her love of a place she has visited since childhood.

“The Fair Botanists opens with a historic event: a procession of trees – alder, ash, cedar, fir, oak and willow – being carried [by head gardener William McNab’s horse-drawn tree transporter] through the streets of Enlightenmentera Edinburgh. Under the watchful eye of McNab, the collection from the

“Walking round the Garden never gets old” for Val McDermid

Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh was slowly and carefully moved from its former home at Leith Walk to the current site at Inverleith.

“This is based on a real-life event, which took place between 1820 and 1823, when the Garden’s many plants, bushes, flowering shrubs, aloes and cacti were transported across Edinburgh.

“McNab, who had come from Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, in London, was in charge of moving thousands of plants, ranging from tiny bushes and bulbs, right up to a 46ft (14m) alder tree. He developed a series of experimental techniques and became the world-leading expert at the time on moving trees.

“My novel centres on two fictional characters – the newly widowed

Elizabeth Rocheid, who has arrived in Edinburgh from London to live with her late husband’s aunt at Inverleith House, and Isabel ‘Belle’ Brodie, an upmarket courtesan and self-taught perfumier.

“It was an age of great botanical discovery. The plants weren’t just for show: they were used by the University of Edinburgh’s medical school to train doctors and research new medicines.

“One of the important botanists at this time was Henrietta Liston and she appears in the book, as does Robert Graham, the sixth Regius Keeper of the Garden, and the novelist Sir Walter Scott.

“I enjoyed researching it and spent hours in the archives at RBGE, as well as browsing old maps at the National Library of Scotland to build a picture of how the city might have looked in 1822.

“It would have been amazing to have seen that period of the Garden first-hand and then later, in the mid-Victorian era when the Palm Houses were built.

“I have been visiting the Edinburgh Garden all my life. As a child, I was mostly excited by the squirrels and the pond. We used to visit a few times a year. I can’t remember exactly how old I was the first time we visited – probably still a toddler, with my younger brother in the pram.

“Now, I have layers of memories. I walk round the garden with a new eye and spot things, such as a little bit of wall that was part of an earlier boundary. I love that. It feels like a place that has grown with me.”

Disrobed by Sara Sheridan is published by Hodder in July

Sara Sheridan in the Botanic Cottage at the Edinburgh Garden, backdrop for her novel The Fair Botanists, Waterstones Scottish Book of the Year 2022

“What always strikes me about the Garden is the incredible trees, particularly the variety and height of them, says Gerda

Stevenson

Gerda Stevenson

A writer, actor and director, Gerda Stevenson has written several books including the acclaimed poetry collections If This Were Real and Quines, as well as radio plays and dramatisations of classic Scottish novels for BBC Radio 4. Here, she shares her favourite spots at Dawyck and Edinburgh. They include the Grade A-listed Tropical and Temperate Palm Houses, closed to the public while they are restored as part of the Edinburgh Biomes project.

“What always strikes me about the Garden is the incredible trees, particularly the variety and height of them. There is an amazing, multiple-stem Douglas fir –it is beautiful and awe-inspiring. It puts life into perspective when you see something so majestic that has lived for much longer than you. You feel almost honoured in its presence.

“I love trees. My latest book, Letting Go, a collection of short stories, has a stunningly beautiful tree painting on the cover by my daughter, who has Down’s Syndrome. Trees bring joy. They are hugely important to the planet. There is a terrible

hubris about humanity that we have not learned to respect these magnificent manifestations of nature. Standing next to that tree does feel like a privilege.

“I recently read at the Garden that during the 15th-century reign of King James IV of Scotland an estate heronry at Dawyck provided quarry for the monarch’s falcons.

“In 1715 it was reported that, in an old orchard, the herons built their nests in some pear trees, where during harvest time it was possible to see ‘much fruit growing and trouts and eels crawling down the body of these trees’. While herons haven’t nested at Dawyck since the hurricane of 1968, which devastated trees throughout Scotland, their connections are still recognised in the tract of seminaturalised woodland, the Heron Wood Reserve, that overlooks the site.

“One of my favourite spots at Dawyck is the Beech Walk – a long, flat platform of grass with a banking next to it. It shouts out for a theatre production to be happening there.

“I am also fond of the Edinburgh Garden where, in 2015, I directed an

opera called Watching. The project – part of the University of Edinburgh’s Music in the Community programme – involved 120 children, aged eight to 12, from the nearby Leith Walk Primary School.

“It was a promenade production performed through the glasshouses and grounds. There is something magical about stepping inside those spaces. Walking into this tropical humidity, it feels like you are being transported to different parts of the world.

“The Temperate Palm House is an inspirational building – I believe it was one of the biggest glasshouses in Europe when it was built. I have written a poem, which is in my book Edinburgh, about its ‘transcendental symmetry of sandstone, iron, glass and light’. I love the way it seems to soar towards the light.

“Other wonderful spots within the Edinburgh Garden are the Arid Lands House, which is full of cacti, and the Plants and People House with its glorious lily pond.”

Tomorrow’s Feast, the third collection of poetry by Gerda Stevenson, is published by Luath Press this summer

RESTORING SCOTLAND’S LOST SEAGRASS MEADOWS

Our conservation genetics team is working collaboratively to secure a future for seagrass, writes Arusa

Qureshi

With one in nine species in Scotland at risk of extinction, it is vital that new approaches to conservation are considered, and projects working hard to protect and enrich Scotland’s natural environment are celebrated.

As the winner of the Innovation Award at the Nature of Scotland Awards 2022, the collaborative Generation Restoration project is a pioneering campaign that highlights a globally significant yet relatively unknown ecosystem. For this major new initiative, the Garden is working in partnership with organisations including Project Seagrass, WWF and NatureScot to study, protect and restore Scotland’s seagrass beds. These underwater meadows play an essential role in stabilising coastlines, supporting biodiversity, sequestering carbon and acting as nurseries for many fish.

Losses over time

Human activity has vastly reduced these once-abundant meadows. A 2021 report suggests that as much as 92 per cent of the UK’s seagrass beds have been destroyed, with almost 40 per cent wiped out since the 1980s, leaving only scattered beds in coastal waters.

WHY SEED STORAGE IS SIGNIFICANT

1 Eelgrass seed for restoration projects has previously needed to be stored in large high-tech facilities.

2 By exploring the effects of salinity and temperature on the maintenance of dormancy and viability of eelgrass seeds during cold storage, the team were able to develop simpler methods.

3 Seeds were stored at 1°C and 4°C in a range of salinity solutions for four months, using a simple home setup incorporating fridges and aquarium salt. Following the experiment the seagrass seeds were transferred to St Abbs Marine Station, Berwickshire (pictured right), where the team, in collaboration with the University of Edinburgh, assessed them for germination success and growth rate.

4 The research showed that seed storage does not necessarily require elaborate kit and can be achieved with minimal equipment – just a fridge, aquarium salt and water changes.

5 This new storage protocol can suit a wide range of volunteers. As a result it has the potential to greatly increase the capacity of restoration projects working with local communities.

FACT CHECK

£2.4m

11% Seagrass meadows hold 11% of all organic carbon stored in the oceans

Restoration Forth is a £2.4m project aimed at improving the Firth of Forth’s marine ecosystem

92% Around the UK coast, 92% of seagrass meadows have been lost over the last century

7% Globally, seagrass losses are estimated at around 7% every year

The project involved conducting extensive genetic analysis of more than 50 different seagrass beds around the British Isles and Channel Islands

These lost meadows could have stored 11.4 metric tonnes of carbon and supported approximately 400 million fish, which underlines the overall urgency in protecting and restoring seagrass meadows.

“Seagrass meadows are one of Scotland’s most important, littleknown and threatened habitats for biodiversity and climate change mitigation,” explains Dr Alexandra Davey, the Garden’s science policy and impact officer. “Restoring and expanding them is important and complex work, so collaborative projects such as this one – bringing in a range of expertise from genetic analysis and seed storage, to submarine planting and community engagement – are the best way to make real, lasting improvements to seagrass populations.”

Community collaboration

Using genetic data, seed storage and germination trials for eelgrass (Zostera marina) – one type of seagrass

Generation Restoration works to identify the best seed sources and storage methods for restoring Scotland’s seagrass meadows. The project also encourages direct

involvement from local communities to engage more people in seagrass restoration. In one facet of the programme, the Garden is working with Project Seagrass, the University of Edinburgh and St Abbs Marine Station to develop low-cost seed storage and germination methods which can be used by volunteers at home.

The Garden is also a partner in the three-year Restoration Forth programme, working with local communities to restore coastal habitats including seagrass meadows and oyster beds. The aim is to restore four hectares of seagrass meadows in the Firth of Forth by December 2024, and 42 hectares by 2030.

The project’s collaborative approach involves communities, national agencies, NGOs and scientific institutions all working towards the common goal of successful seagrass restoration in Scotland. The Garden’s crucial role is in providing a scientific, genetic basis to ensure new meadows are suited to their location and adaptable to future climates, as well as supporting seed storage and germination trials that are making seagrass restoration accessible to all.

‘Seagrass meadows are one of Scotland’s most important, little-known and threatened habitats for biodiversity and climate change mitigation’

If you’ve never contemplated the importance of seagrass, here’s why you should 50

‘THE PEBBLE IN THE POND’

A generous legacy left by Catherine Olver in 2004 continues to change lives and help conserve the Chilean flora she so greatly admired

A single legacy can go a long way. In 2004, Catherine Olver, a well-known

the ICCP helps Conservation Programme (ICCP) a generous legacy. Established at the Garden in 1991, dendrologist and founder of the Reading Tree Club, left the International Conifer protect threatened conifer species and their habitats through research, horticulture and training in the UK and abroad.

The endowment was the main source of funding for the book Plants from the Woods and Forests of Chile. A collaboration between Turkish artists and Chilean authors, the volume – now in its fifth edition, with 8,000 copies printed – documents some of the country’s most stunning flora.

A new volume is currently in production, using Chilean artists, some of whom were trained by the Turkish illustrators who helped make the original book.

“This is a wonderful example of in-country capacity building,” explains Martin Gardner, research associate and conifer expert at the Garden. “Through the Catherine Olver legacy, this publication has been the catalyst for much of the Garden’s involvement in Chile – it has been ‘the pebble in the pond’.”

The ripples created by Catherine’s legacy continue to

SUPPORT FOR LIFE’S DECISIONS

affect people’s lives and protect Chile’s biodiversity. The Garden works in partnership with several wellThanks to her intervention, the ICCP has established an established legal firms, including Womble Bond Dickinson endowment dedicated to the conservation of Chilean (WBD), which has offices in Scotland and across the UK. WBD offers our members and patrons a preferential rate plants, and training programmes for Chilean students. for will writing, and their estate-planning solicitors could help It has supported six Chileans to train at Edinburgh, guide you through some of life’s most important decisions. either at MSc or PhD level, or through gaining If you would like to speak to a solicitor about creating or horticultural experience. updating your will, please contact Emily Pike at emily.pike@

Today, the Garden continues to work with the wbd-uk.com or Nadine Todd at nadine.todd@wbd-uk.com. graduates, especially through Fundación Chilco, a

“We are delighted to be working with the Garden on its legacy-giving programme, which provides such valuable Chilean NGO comprising staff from RBGE and Chile, support to the Garden and has a direct and positive impact founded in 2021. Thanks to her financial contribution, on the natural world,” says Emily Pike, private wealth Catherine’s passion for conservation has had a lasting partner at WBD Edinburgh. “It is an ongoing privilege for and positive impact on the country she loved. us to provide legal support to legacy giving through will and trust advice, which has always been at the core of our

If you have any questions about leaving a gift in your will or services for private clients.” if you would like to speak in confidence about legacy giving, please contact the membership team on 0131 248 2987.

Clockwise: Turkish artist Isık Güner illustrates giant rhubarb for Plants from the Woods and Forests of Chile; Catherine Olver; and Isik collecting giant rhubarb

Cultivate with kindness

Planting with nature is easier with these eight gems from the Botanics Shop

Flowerpot Brush (£16.50)

Artisan Bird

Nesters (£18)

These plastic-free Fairtrade products are handmade from natural seagrass and recycled saris by women artisan workers in rural Bangladesh. They provide a nesting place during spring and a cosy shelter in the winter.

Planting with Nature by Kirsty Wilson (RBGE/Birlinn, £14.99)

Sustainably made and plastic free, this brush removes plant and root remains, as well as old soil often contaminated with mould spores or pests.

This book by our herbaceous supervisor, Kirsty Wilson, illustrated by horticulturist Hazel France, is published on 20 April. Read all about planting with nature on page 12 and pre-order the book at rbgeshop.org

Eco Coir Compost (11.5 litre, £8.50; 3 litre, £4.75)

This alternative to peat is made solely from sustainably sourced coconuts and is perfect for growing house plants, herbs, fruit, vegetables or cacti. The fibrous nature of coir compost enables it to store nutrients and release them as needed.

Gardeners Scrub Soap (£6.50)

Made in Scotland by Lomond Soap, this treat for hard-working hands is palm oil free. Lavender and tea tree oils are antibacterial, kaolin gives extra creaminess and comfrey root soothes irritation.

Ocean Plastic (plant pot and saucer, £15; Burton pot, £28) These recyclable plant pots are made in Scotland from plastic rope salvaged from water around its shores.

Beepot Concrete Planter and Bee House (£37.50)

This bee hotel is made in Cornwall from cast concrete, using up to 75 per cent waste materials from the Cornish china clay industry. Plant something in the top layer that bees will love, then place in a garden or on a balcony.

VISIT

Drop into our Botanics Shops or browse online. Show your membership card for a 15% discount on stock (some exclusions apply). rbgeshop.org

Natural Jute Twine (ball, £5.50; spool, £1.75)

This biodegradable twine, made in Scotland from renewable resources, has various uses in the garden and home.

‘We must grab hold of this optimism like it’s rising sap’

In her new column, broadcaster, writer and podcaster Arit Anderson celebrates spring as it crashes into our lives

Arit Anderson is a presenter of BBC Two’s Gardeners’ World and a garden designer

that can help us make those all-important positive choices.

Last year I was privileged to host a twoday symposium for the Beth Chatto Foundation, titled Rewilding the Mind, with a fantastic array of speakers sharing their experience and wisdom. I would come back to that title after the end of each talk, and ask myself, “How can I rewild my thinking and act differently to bring about much-needed change in our world today?” I guess I want to extend this invitation to you, and I look forward to hearing your thoughts. Well, the conversation starts with getting out in – and being inspired by – nature.

Across the Botanics there is so much to see this season. Benmore is renowned for its fabulous collection of more than 300

write my first column for

and when better than spring? With

What an absolute pleasure it is to species of rhododendrons – offering a visual feast and a definite Botanics, photo opportunity. Dawyck knows how to put on a show, too, with bluebells sparkling in the springtime sun before the aptly-named the light increasing every day, it’s the time of Azalea Terrace becomes a blaze of colour in May and June. year when we can be full of hope. At Edinburgh there’s a floral relay going on. The daffodils at the Spring heralds life anew – and a sense that East Gate start the race in March, before handing over to a everything is possible. Seeing the first leaves magnificent tulip display in front of the Botanic Cottage in April. appear or shoots breaking ground fills the air And if you’ve kept up, in May the whole Garden has run riot with with an energy that we can breathe in. You rhododendrons. Logan, our most southerly Garden, offers guided might even experience vernalagnia – the walks on the second Tuesday of every month from March. romantic mood brought on by the season – There really is so much to see as you get a dose of vitamin N –otherwise known as spring fever. that’s nature, which comes for free.

We must grab hold of this optimism like it’s rising sap and start the season with the focus on what we can do. We are living at such an important time.

Our environment has never been more dependent on the human

species to care for, nurture and respect it for all it has to give. As gardeners and lovers of nature we can lead the way, making sure we

tread lightly in our activities, not only in our gardening spaces but beyond our boundaries, too. Everything we do has an impact, but we

must decide how many positive actions we want to own.

‘Our environment

nurture and respect it

Over the coming months I hope to explore the issues behind horticulture, look at the opportunities it offers and share knowledge for

has never been more

dependent on the human

species to care for,

all it has to give’