Visiting the Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh, Scotland
Ten glass houses: Orchid and Cycad, Ferns and Fossils, Tropical Palm House, Arid Lands…an interconnected maze of plant zones protecting the species: bursts of yellow dahlias; heart-shaped anthuriums; spider-laced ferns; profusions of orange nasturtiums; purple rhododendrons; enormous lily pads, edges turned upward to form red-veined, green-leafed circles.
Each glass house is its own habitat—fostering growth for centuries, hands conserving varieties should species die out, as they did in China, vegetation losses so severe the Chinese requested garden cuttings from its native flora to re-grow after the war.
Such particularity of care inside these greenhouses, transparent gardens within the huge Royal Garden, while outside the glass, fields of flowers disappear. Were we to vanish, who would remain to distinguish clematis from passionflower, the variance in shades of purple from purple?
Marianne Werner’s passions are travel and nature, and she journeys to distant places and often writes about or photographs her adventures. Read more.