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29 May, 2013

Exploring the Highlands


The garden had a Friday off for the Queen’s birthday, and I took the opportunity to go on a day tour of the Highlands. If you ever come to Edinburgh, I highly recommend The Hairy Coo tour. I heard about it from several people before I went who all enjoyed it too. The tour is free, with tipping encouraged at the end. 
The tour travelled to the northwest from Edinburgh into the Loch Lomond & The Trossachs National Park. 

Famous Forth bridge at South Queensferry. I just took the train over this bridge on my way to Pitlochry.

View from William Wallace Monument in Stirling.

Lake of Menteith, the only “lake” in Scotland, all the others are called lochs.

Border collie herding demonstration at Aberfoyle.

Overlooking Loch Drunkie, so named because illegal whisky distillers would hide their barrels in it.

It was the perfect weather on our tour! This is Loch Achray, with a wedding chapel in the background. 
The namesake of the tour are these highland cows, or “hairy coos.” They’re HUGE and eat whole slices of bread from your hand! 

Shy baby coos ventured close, but still stayed behind their mothers.

Picturesque Loch Katrine

We stopped at Doune Castle on the way home.



Dawyck Botanic Garden


Dawyck is one of the three satellite gardens of RBGE. It is located south of Edinburgh near Peebles. The garden is located inland, about 60 miles from either coast, which gives it a much cooler climate than Edinburgh. Temperatures go as low as -20 C in the winter. The gardens also receive plentiful rainfall, about 36-43 inches per year. The gardeners at Dawyck had to close some of the steeper grass paths in the garden which had become too slippery from heavy rainfall.
I was able to go to Dawyck with three staff from RBGE who were checking on the Scottish Rare Plant Trail at the garden. Dawyck’s main focus is on woody plantings, so gardeners from RBGE go down to do the more detailed maintenance and planting of the herbaceous displays. The weather stayed pleasant while we were there, and I thoroughly enjoyed wandering about this very naturalistic and peaceful garden!

Tommy and Natasha replace daffodils with native Trollius europaeus.

Signage on the Scottish Rare Plant Trail is very informative. The Lady’s Mantle is said to be used to treat animals attacked by elves!

Prickly new growth on Oplopanax horridus, which is native to moist woodlands in the northwest US and the Great Lakes area.

Sequoiadendron giganteum, the Giant Redwood, grows well here! One of the oldest of these trees was planted in 1859. 

Beautiful Meconopsis is just beginning to open at Dawyck, a little behind the plants at RBGE.

Flower of the rare Blue Heath, Phyllodoce caerulea, is found on only a few mountains in Scotland. It grows best in cold hollows where the snow cover stays the longest.

Vaccinium myrtillus or Bilberry, is in flower and will later produce edible berries very similar to blueberries.

Just my summer house.. This house on the grounds is not open to the public.

Some of the trees of Dawyck.

A few sheep graze just outside the garden.

Tommy, Heather and Natasha discuss the suitability of this hollow for planting native willows. This is a north-facing slope where the snow will collect and melt late, which will cover the plants and discourage nibbling by rabbits!

23 May, 2013

A familiar plant from home..



A few weeks ago I planted some familiar plants in the peat garden: trilliums! Though I have to admit, this was the first time I had actually planted these unique Eastern North America natives. Robert, the supervisor for the Rock and Woodland gardens, collected these trilliums from North Carolina in 2011. After we set them out, he asked Kate to take some pictures of “the American planting the American plants.” I felt proud because these were some really cool trilliums in flower!


Just planted!
Getting ready to record planting information

Planting

Trillium erectum

Trillium simile, my new favorite!

22 May, 2013

Fragrance

A sample of some of the fragrant plants I've discovered in the garden..

Maianthemum racemosum is growing in the woodland garden. I've learned this plant before, but didn't remember that it has a strong fragrance from several feet away!

Daphne tangutica has very fragrant flowers and is relatively compact, growing to about 3 feet tall and wide. It is growing near the alpine house and can be used in rock gardens or mixed borders.
Zaluzianskya ovata, in the Family Scrophulariaceae comes from temperate South Africa. The foliage has a strong peppery scent.
Z. ovata is commonly known as night phlox, which makes sense as the flowers close during the middle of the day. At night these flowers open and are very fragrant.
This Philadelphus microphyllus was collected from Texas, where it was growing in a limestone canyon. The flowers of this shrub have a nice delicate fragrance.





17 May, 2013

New Alpine House Opening Soon!


The new alpine house at RBGE is in its final stages of construction. The house is designed to maximize air circulation, while minimizing the amount of rainfall the plants inside the house will get. The design mimics the conditions a plant might experience if it is growing under an overhang on a cliff for example. The new house is unique because it aims to display plants in a more natural design, rather than the traditional display where pots are placed in a sand bed in a greenhouse-type structure.

Inside the new house is a small tufa outcropping about two feet high, a pathway, and a tufa wall. All the tufa was brought in from Germany. Currently gardeners are planting into the hundreds of holes that are drilled into the tufa wall. Each tiny plant is then secured with a bit of clay and a piece of rock. These plants are being covered with a thin sheet of row cover until they acclimate to the higher light conditions.

Outside the house there is a larger bed with tufa. Plants will be planted into holes in the tufa out here, but will also be planted into the soil. Gravel was mixed into the topsoil to add more drainage. The display is centered around a small waterfall and pond.  

In between the main path and the alpine house, I helped to lay a new bed of turf. One thing I’ve noticed about the turf in the rock and alpine areas is it is cut very short using a reel mower. I was surprised to see this because it looks like grass you would find on a golf course, but it’s kept this way simply for aesthetics. Edges are also kept very clean and straight here. In order to create a straight edge on this new bed, we first built the edge up above the surrounding pavers. Pieces of sod were laid grass-side down around the perimeter, which puzzled many passing visitors! The interior was then filled with topsoil to create a level bed for the sod. Laying the sod took a while, as the bed was curved on one side. 

The Alpine and Rock Gardens Supervisor, John Mitchell, aims to open the alpine house in the next week. I feel very lucky to be here to experience some of the construction process!

Traditional alpine house on right, with new alpine house in background

New Alpine House
Alpine troughs

Tufa outcropping inside house

Tufa wall with row cover to protect plants from the higher light conditions

Closeup of tufa wall with planting holes
Plant in its new home in the tufa wall
Exterior bed with Cypripedium orchids
 
Turf bed with a sod edge and partially filled with topsoil

Laying the sod


Finished!







15 May, 2013

Scotland and the UK


Although the British government in London has governing power over Scotland, there has been a separate Scottish parliament in Edinburgh since 1999. The most noticeable reminder of this separation for me is the different bank notes. When I first changed money, I received the Bank of England notes. These are accepted in Scotland, but I always get change in the Scottish bank notes. 

Next year, there is a referendum on the ballot for Scotland to become completely independent from the UK. The general consensus is that no one knows what will happen. I haven’t talked to anyone who is fervently for or against independence. Generally the feeling is that they don’t have enough information to make a decision either way.

Bank of England Note
Notes from two different Scottish banks


13 May, 2013

Carlops hike


On Saturday, I joined a group hike from Carlops, a small town about 30 minutes south of Edinburgh. The weather was challenging that day, with strong winds that pelted our faces with rain during one section of the hike. The landscape was beautiful though, with a few farmhouses and abundant sheep! After the hike, we relaxed at the pub in Carlops. The group was diverse, including a man on sabbatical from Greece and two women from Spain. Chris, who gave me a recommendation on my beverage, had also recently applied for a seasonal job in Edinburgh to scout for Dutch Elm disease.

A charming row of houses in Carlops.


These lambs are only about 1-2 weeks old. Apparently, the lambing season has been late this year due to a colder spring than normal. 

It looks rather innocuous at this point..

A dry stacked wall with wire over top keeps the sheep corralled.

Green as far as the eye can see, with some reeds as contrast.


The wind was so strong going up this hill!

Leaning against a gate to take a picture back down the hill.

On the other side of the hill, we came upon North Esk Reservoir


A few people were fly fishing on the banks.
 

Warning: Unsafe Structure