Victoria Lily

One of the highlights of our visit to the glasshouses of Edinburgh's Royal Botanical Gardens, came as we entered the 'Plants and People' house. The area is dominated by a large pond filled with lilies, among which the world's largest water Lily was flowering.

This particular lily is a hybrid between Victoria amazonica and Victoria cruziana and has leaves up to 9ft across in the wild. The underside of these lily pads is covered with ferocious-looking spines.

But the most exciting thing about it was its beautiful flower. Pollinated by beetles in the wild, each flower opens at night with white petals on the first night, turning pink on the second night. At about a foot across, this was an impressive flower by any standards.

The pond was home to several other species too. Floating on the surface were Pistia or Water Lettuce and the blue-flowered Eichornia or Water Hyacinth. Standing proud above the water surface, a lone pink flower of the Sacred Lotus or Nelumbo nucifera.

The seeds and roots of this species are used in Asian cooking.

Other lilies in the pond included the Blue Lotus Nymphaea stellata and a yellow-flowered cousin.

This one, seen growing among those Water Lettuces.

Just time for one last look at the Victoria Lily before we move on through more glasshouses.

Gardens Too

Returning to yesterday's wander round the Royal Botanical Gardens of Edinburgh, we continue our stroll around the grounds.

It's sometimes easy to forget to look down as well as up when walking round a garden, but when you do remember, you can be rewarded by the most magnificent sights. Such was this diminutive Gentian, which more than made up for it's size, with the richest blue you could imagine in a flower.

Before heading inside the glasshouses, we took in the Alpine houses.

Here too, colours abounded - but in very small doses.

Tight little cushions of green, supported tiny flowers of great beauty and delicacy - and most from plants which would easily fit in the palm of your hand.

Time to head inside for a look at the Palm House and Glass Houses. Hot and steamy in some of the houses, the flowers were rather more exotic.

Even those plants with names with which we think we are familiar, had a decidedly unfamiliar form. This for instance, is an Impatiens (Busy Lizzie).

Strange and colourful...

and getting hotter and steamier.

Hanging from other plants and supports, 'waterfalls' of Tillandsias or Air Plants seemingly living on nothing but air and fog.

Below all this exotica, Orchids flowered in the dim light.

I think this splendid specimen was a Paphiopedilum and what a stunner!

Much more to come from the glasshouses tomorrow...

Royal Botanic Gardens

One of the things we have to do when we visit Edinburgh, is to have a walk around the Royal Botanic Gardens. We first discovered its delights two years ago and on that occasion the weather was atrocious, so it was with some relief that this time, although dull and a little showery, it was a lot more conducive to an outdoor stroll. We started by heading for the 'Chinese Hillside.'

This area is dominated by small streams and rocky waterfalls tumbling through the foliage, before emptying into a small lake, passing under a typically oriental-looking bridge.

Some of the shrubs were already beginning to show signs of Autumn colour, contrasting nicely with those which were still flowering bravely.

Onward we went, passing some magnificent specimen trees and shrubs.

Below many of the trees, large patches of Autumn-flowering Crocus were colouring the borders...

While bright berries adorned the bushes with a lusciousness which made them look good enough to eat.

Here and there, some very exotic-looking plants caught the eye. This Roscoeae was particularly gorgeous.

Moving on to the Rock Garden area and water was again in evidence, forming pools among the rocks and more than 4000 different mountain plants.

Steps up through the plants, leading to unseen areas, give the rock garden a magical feeling, leeding you on to discover more.

Thankfully, it was quiet in the gardens (except for one group of over-excited grandparents and their charges). 

Again, more Autumn colour, this time punctuated by the more vibrant hues of some Turks Cap Lily.

That needs a closer look!

There was still much more to explore - and we haven't even got to the Glasshouses!

Edinburgh Views

Carrying on around Queen's Drive, we found a patch of Viper's Bugloss growing by the roadside.

The blue of the Bugloss flowers contrasting with the yellow Ragwort and the views of Duddingston Loch below, made for a nice picture. The Bugloss flowers were proving very popular with the Bees too, and I inadvertently managed to include one in this photo.

Leaving views of Duddingston behind...

... we moved on until the imposing rock face of the Salisbury Crags came into view.

It was at this point that the whole of Edinburgh city centre started to come back into view too and we again had views of the Castle - complete with the remains of the tattoo seating around the esplanade - as well as the spires and domes of the other city buildings.

Soon, we were approaching the end of our walk round Holyrood Park, which meant that Carlton Hill and the Parliament building also came back into view.

Finally of course, the 16th century Palace of Holyroodhouse, along with the ruins of the 12th century Holyrood Abbey also demanded attention.

Time for one last, zoomed-in view of Carlton Hill from Holyrood Park.

Tomorrow, we move on to the Botanical Gardens...

Arthur's Seat

As usual on our jaunts around Edinburgh, we took in the delights of Holyrood Park and Arthur's Seat. The circular route around the park, known as Queen's Drive, was closed to traffic on this occasion to allow workmen to repair some of the roadside paving. So, it was unusually quiet as walked round.
We started at St. Margaret's Loch...

The ruined remains of St. Anthony's Chapel keeping guard over the loch, it was strangely calm here too with none of the usual frenzy of ducks, swans and pigeons to disturb the scene.

A little further on, we came to the second of the small bodies of water, this one known as Dunsapie Loch.

Rather more bird-life was to be found around this loch, with a few Mallards, a lone Mute Swan and lots of noisy Jackdaws disturbing the peace, while a single Grey Heron stood at the water's edge.

Further on and we got some lovely views across the Duddingston and Portobello regions of the city and out to the North Sea.

In the far distance, the triangular form of Bass Rock - some 21 miles away - was just visible through the grey weather.

Round a bit further, the views were of Duddingston Loch and the small Duddingston Kirk, which dates back to the early 12th century.

The Loch is protected as a bird sanctuary, while the Kirk hides some ornamental gardens on the banks of the loch, known as Dr. Neils Garden.

Much more to come, but that's enough for today!

Edinburgh

Malcolm and I have been away for a short break in Edinburgh. We have always been very lucky with the weather on our trips to the Scottish capital, but this time we were not quite so lucky. Having said that, we still managed to get out and about and do everything we had in mind.
On Monday, we took in the sights of Calton Hill.

As you can see from the pictures, it was rather dull while we walked among the attractions and other tourists of the hill, but at least it was dry at the time.

The weather did have the effect of keeping the numbers of sight-seers down and we had a rare view of the National Monument without hundreds of people getting in the way.

Things were very busy down in the city and Princes Street was its usual bustling self.

There will be lots more pictures to come over the next few days as I sort through them. So, keep watching this space...