After five years behind closed doors, the historic Palm Houses at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh have reopened to visitors, bringing almost 600 plants from Scotland’s National Botanic Living Collection back beneath their glass roofs.
The reopening marks a major milestone in the Edinburgh Biomes project, the most ambitious restoration and development programme in the Garden’s 356-year history. The scale of the work has been considerable. All 5,750 panes of glass have been replaced, 600 square metres of ironwork restored or updated, and 500 square metres of sandstone repaired. Some of the replacement stones weighed as much as a quarter of a tonne.
At the heart of the restored buildings is, of course, the plant collection. Featuring the tallest traditional stone-built Palm House in the world, on reopening, the Palm Houses will be home to almost 600 tender specimens. Visitors can also explore a new interpretation experience telling the stories of the plants growing inside, including multimedia and digital tours.
SAVING PLANTS FROM EXTINCTION
The reopening was marked by the planting of one particularly precious specimen, the endangered lion plant, Valdivia gayana, from Chile, with the Scottish Government’s Cabinet Secretary for Climate Action, Gillian Martin MSP, joining Professor Julia Knights, Regius Keeper of Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, to mark this important moment. Known as planta del león in its native Chile, there are estimated to be fewer than five natural populations in the wild, with the specimens growing at the Botanics thought to be the only ones in cultivation. Experts from the Garden are playing a leading role in the propagation and cultivation of this species to ensure its future survival, following collection of seeds from a cave in Chile in collaboration with local partners. That work is continuing alongside conservation partners in Chile.
The restored Palm Houses provide a home for a number of other threatened plants, including the Three Kings vine, Tecomanthe speciosa, from New Zealand, and the critically endangered Catkin yew, Amentotaxus argotaenia. Other plants to look out for include the St Helena tree fern, Dicksonia arborescens; the endangered Juan Bueno, Rhaphithamnus venustus, from the Juan Fernández Islands, and the threatened Chinese palm leaf begonia, Begonia hemsleyana.
Professor Julia Knights, Regius Keeper of the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, described the reopening as “a truly historic moment” for the Garden. “Visitors now have the opportunity to see this unique collection of some of the world’s most fascinating plants, some endangered in the wild, underneath the breathtaking glass-domes of the Palm Houses. The reopening of the Palm Houses is a major milestone in the 356-year history of the Garden. As the guardians of one of the world’s most biodiverse Living Collections of plants on Earth, we are working at pace to tackle the impacts of biodiversity loss and climate change, and to save species from extinction in partnership with institutions and scientists from across the globe. ”
The reopening is one stage of the wider Edinburgh Biomes programme. Attention now turns to the Garden’s Research Glasshouses, where future work is intended to safeguard around 3,000 more plants used in conservation, research, and horticultural science.
For gardeners, plant lovers, and anyone who remembers visiting the Palm Houses before they closed, their return offers the chance to step back inside one of Edinburgh’s great horticultural landmarks and more importantly, to see some extraordinarily rare plants growing safely there once again.
The Palm Houses at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh are now open to visitors. Advance booking is recommended through the RBGE website.
This work was supported by investment from the Scottish Government and a significant fundraising campaign, with over £10.6m raised from major donors including The National Lottery Heritage Fund alongside generous donations from supporters, members and the public.
