Abstract
The Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh (RBGE) was founded in 1670 and celebrated its 350th anniversary in 2020. In Edinburgh, Scotland, the institution has occupied four different sites in that time and has been at the current site in Inverleith since 1823. Three other gardens in Scotland are also part of RBGE: Dawyck in Peebleshire, Benmore in Argyllshire and Logan in Dumfries & Galloway. 13,750 species from 2721 genera representing 344 families are cultivated in these four gardens and this article describes some of these collections. It also describes the issues facing the Garden today in common with many large and botanic gardens, those of plant health, implementing environmentally sustainable working practices, and managing collections in the face of a changing climate and growing visitor numbers. The Garden is also planning an exciting future with ambitious plans for new buildings and the refurbishment of historical structures to not only improve plant cultivation facilities, but also to increase visitor engagement and education about the value of plants for a healthy future.
Highlights
The Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh (RBGE) was founded in 1670 and celebrated its 350th anniversary in 2020
The Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh (RBGE) was founded just over 350 years ago in 1670, by two doctors – Sir Robert Sibbald (1641–1722) (Fig. 1) and Andrew Balfour (1630–1694) – with its primary purpose being to teach students of botany about plants and their identification and to train apothecaries in plant-based materia medica – the plants used in making medicines
Innovative projects have included the installation of air-source heat pumps to heat the conservatory at Logan in 2014, and the installation of a biomass boiler and micro hydro scheme at Dawyck in 2012. These two features plus the establishment of a sedum roof on a well-insulated building constructed to stringent environmental standards (Fig. 15) lead the author to believe that Dawyck is the first carbon-neutral botanic garden in the world
Summary
Today the Living Collection is cultivated across four gardens in Scotland acquired over the last 100 years, each with its own climatic conditions and all located within 150 km of Edinburgh. The Collection includes the plants conserved by the International Conifer Conservation Programme (ICCP) These are plants which have been wild collected and grown by ICCP and RBGE staff. The Collection Policy for the Living Collection ensures that there is an awareness of, and compliance with, the current national and international protocols (Rae et al, 2006). This Policy includes the landscape design, acquisition and transfer criteria for each of the four gardens and lists the priorities for each collection. These include 9 UK Plant Heritage collections and 244 Champion Trees as designated by the Tree Register of the British Isles (Tree Register, 2021)
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