St Andrews Botanic Garden

[Maggi Young]

That was a grand visit, Frazer! Thanks  

What is 7 hectares  as measured in acres, do you know?  Ah, I remember, found ready reckoner.... hectares to acres = multiply by 2.47 so Gardenscover 17.29 acres ..... a goodly size, and more than I would care to look after!! 

Not sure what the plant in reply 5, image 4401 actually is, but it is not Physoplexis comosa  

[Ragged Robin]

A terrific tour of the gardens, Frazer, isn't it amazing what they can grow in spite of the North Sea winds/gales    Imagine it must be behind walls as I was at school in St Andrews for many years and hadn't a clue there was a Botanical Garden of such diversity there at the university    Access to such things was pretty well denied anyway 

[ranunculus]

What a mammoth posting sir ... I shall return to this on a number of occasions and enjoy at my leisure ... many thanks for taking the time and trouble to post (I know just how much preparation is involved).

[Brian Ellis]

Many thanks for your posting Frazer, certainly a garden to put on the "want to visit list", it looks well tended  and with all those seats a day could be well spent there.

[Stephenb]

Thanks for the tour, Frazer. Have been wanting to visit ever since Stuart Pawley (now seed manager at SRGC I believe) told me that it was not to be missed some 10 years ago. Next time I'm in Edinburgh, I'll be going to St. Andrews instead of the usual visit to the Edinburgh botanics. 

[Paddy Tobin]

Frazer,

This is obviously a wonderful garden - as well as having the selection one would expect in a botanic garden. There are great vistas, beds, planting etc. A great report, many thanks.

I'm puzzled by 4454-1, looks like a window suspended within a glasshouse?

Paddy

 edit by Maggi: pic repeated below..... click to enlarge

[Luc Gilgemyn]

A wonderful tour Frazer !!
The whole garden looks magnificent but the rock garden is my favourite (no surprises here !!  )
Nice Primulas as well !! Not familiar to me... 

Thanks for showing !! 

[Paddy Tobin]

Maggi,

Thank you for moving the photograph to the post above. Do you know what it is? Is that a plant within glass or is it a plant somehow painted on glass, even stained glass?

It's an odd thing.

Paddy

[Maggi Young]

I've been having a good look at the hanging "thing"...... I think that it is an artwork, hanging in the glass house... possibly ceramic sections, painted with floral parts.  I think the uppermost part shows a large Aloe    And the lower section is a representation of tropical plants ....

[Matt T]

Edit by maggi: I have a merged these posts by Matt to the original  thread  about St. A.B.G


During our week in the East Neuk we also visited St Andrews Botanic Garden. We both agreed that it was the best day out that £2 can buy. It was refreshing to find a garden that felt real, it wasn't overly manicured and the focus is clearly on the plants (like our own garden). Plenty of flower power in the alpine house, including lots of forms of Cyclamen hederifolium and some Cyclamen africanum. There was also plenty of interest outside, with the perennial borders in fine fettle including Echinacea purpurea just at its peak. In other areas autumn had taken hold where the leaves of Prunus contrasted beautifully with Helleborus foetidus. We spent a whole afternoon there, but there'll be plenty more to see on a return visit. Highly recommended!

[Maggi Young]

St Andrews Botanic Garden

"Come and join old friends and new at this year’s Botanic Bonanza - 8 weeks of talks given by experts on different topics to do with botany , horticulture and ecology. The series begins on Thursday 9 October from 10am - 12pm with John Mitchell from RBGE who will talk on some of his botanical expeditions through the foothills of the Hindu Kush in Afghanistan to Tajikistan and Kurgyzstan in spring time. Not to be missed!"

www.st-andrews.ac.uk and follow link to Adult Education. (£50.00 for 8 weeks or £8.00 for a single session).

[Anthony Darby]

The last time I went there twenty or so years ago they had a beautiful Atropa belladonna bush unprotected and covered in juicy black berries.

[FrazerHenderson]

Matt

Whilst you were at St Andrews we were exploring the majesty of the Outer Hebs, marvelling at escapees of fuchsia, montbretia and gunnera manicata and sitting in the billowing feathers of the guga hunters!

Here's a link to a previous thread on St Andrews botanic gardens http://www.srgc.net/forum/index.php?topic=4245.0

Frazer

eidt by maggi - seemed a good idea to merge the threads, Frazer. 

[Matt T]

It sounds as though you enjoyed your trip, Frazer. We certainly do have a small number of feral garden plants that seem to do very well here. A large proportion of our garden is covered by Crocosmia, gloriously colourful for a few weeks of the year and a menace for the rest of the time!

[Chris Johnson]

Whilst you were at St Andrews we were exploring the majesty of the Outer Hebs, marvelling at escapees of fuchsia, montbretia and gunnera manicata and sitting in the billowing feathers of the guga hunters!

Frazer

Frazer, I don't know weather to congratulate you on your astute observation or be depressed that these Invasive Non-Native Species (INNS) are so obvious.

Outer Hebrides Biological Recording have an ongoing project to record these INNS and create public awareness. More information here: http://www.ohbr.org.uk/INNS/INNS.php

Chris