Edinburgh Gardens

[David Shaw]

To celebrate the Anniversary the Edinburgh Group held an open garden W/E to coincide with the celebration. Carol and I took the opportunity to visit many varied and interesting gardens and meet some lovely people. I will post a limited number of pics of each.
Firstly The Botanics (sorry, Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh .
A couple of views of the garden, an outstanding clump of Arisaema urashima and, whilst enjoying the views within the garden, don't forget the wonderful views of the city.

[David Shaw]

We stayed for the weekend with Carole and Ian Bainbridge. Their garden is in a woodland and their love of Rhododendrons has not imporoved the sumshine situation. The woodland provides a perfect home for an Arisaema consanguineum which is about a metre in height. Sun lovers are accomadated in the south facing scree or the alpine house.

[David Shaw]

The smallest garden we visited belonged to Geoff Hill who lives in a small semi in Roslin. Geoff is a valuable member of the Mec Group so some fine Meconopsis stands were not unexpected. The garden is very open to the sun and successfully grows other genus such as the Celmisia. In the people shot are Carol Shaw (blue top) and Kath Rimmer(grey top) who is Carole Bainbridge's mum - these two seemed to follow me around all weekend!

[David Shaw]

On Sunday we went out of town a little way to visit Stella and David Rankin (Kevock Nursery). The frontage of the house is unimposing and gives no clue to the view that lurks behind the white wall. Note the band of trees going across the centre of the meadow. There is a cottage amongst the trees that was once the home of George Forrest - what a neighbour.
The garden is long and on a very steep incline offering Stella and David a wonderful challenge. The garden is probably half woodland and half open and full of magnificent plants. How do they manage to garden after a hard day 'in the office'. I would just be sitting on the balcony with a G&T soaking up that view.

[art600]

David

Thanks for sharing your visits.

Is that Iris chrysographes in the last photo?

[David Shaw]

Finally we went out to Pencaitland  to visit Beryl and Ian McNaughton (MacPlants). There garden is in the open countryside and includes rockery on a steep slope and herbaceous beds on easier territory. I could not resist the fine clump of Arisaema jacquemontii and Beryl is very attached to the glorious Mec.

[art600]

How do they manage such a large and interesting garden.  I would need an army of gardeners.

[David Shaw]

Yes, Arthur, that is a superb Iris Chrysographes with two bright little yellow eyes at the top of the fall.

All the gardens we visited grew the same basic plant groups but each in a manner characteristic of the gardener. One of the things I noticed was the condition of the Hosta leaves - very few were chewed by snails. One gardener admitted to using pellets but most of the gardens were just too big to have used them, except by the hundredweight.
I am an Arisaema enthusiast. Nearly all of the gardens had excellent stands of Arisaema growing happily. Yet, this the east coast of Scotland - a region with relatively low rainfall. Also, in the Botanics, the Arisaema were growing out in the open beds without any shade at all. As we propagate more tubers we intend to try them out in the open in our own garden.

We had a wonderful weekend and I would like to thank any of the Edinburgh members who helped to organise it and are reading this posting. It was great.

[Carol Shaw]

As one of those who 'followed David around all weekend' I too would like to thank all the members of the Edinburgh Group who opened their gardens to us. From Geoff's small but fascinating space to David and Stella's acre of ground they all had wonderful and interesting plants for us to look at and, of course, we had the chance for a blether with the growers. As an aside if any of your are up in our neck of the woods feel free to give us a call or just come and visit! We both work during the week but are mostly around at weekends however, a word of warning, we are likely to issue buckets and hand forks at the gate!

[Luc Gilgemyn]

David,

What a wealth of absolutely fabulous gardens and stunning plants.
My deepest admiration for the inspiration, knowledge and energy  of all gardeners involved !
Wonderful roundtrip David, thanks for taking us along ! 

[Ian Minty]

Thanks for the excellent pictures David.
It helps to pass my time when offshore and means that I can get my regular fix of plants.

[David Nicholson]

Very enjoyable set of pictures David.