Monday 21 April 2008

Royal Botanic Gardens, Edinburgh

The Royal Botanic gardens in Edinburgh are well worth a wander. Even in April, there was plenty to see, but I imagine that coming here in June would be fabulous.



The East Gate entrance is rather
splendid - this main gate is flanked by
two pedestrian gates, ina similar design.

I wish I could have photographed one of the gates
with a plain background behind,
so that you could see how beautifully
detailed they are,
but this flowery sculptural gate is about 9 feet wide,
so you can at least see the scale of it.
Absolutely stunning!



There are 2 Andy Goldsworthy sculptures on
site - this one is called 'Cone'.

If you don't know Mr Goldsworthy's work,
just Google his name.

He does the most amazing ephemeral
sculptures, using natural
materials - stone, ice, leaves... wonderful!!!



A banana bud...



I have finally found the macro button on my camera,
and spent time in the glass houses
learning how to use it.
I forgot to write the names of the flowers down,
so you'll just have to admire their beauty
without knowing what they are called.


This one is a Hibiscus...


I took about 12 shots trying to catch
the Koi - which were huge - about 2 feet long - and beautiful.

I tried with the polarising filter and without.
This shot is the only usable one,
and even now I think it will become something
much more abstract in photoshop
before I can call it beautiful!!!



This was an interesting plant.
I discovered that it is hard to take
decent photos on glass houses, where the light
behind the subject is often strong!



The Chinese Garden, with tumbling stream.
There was also a lovely pagoda,
and a couple of nice bridges.
We had missed the best of the spring azaleas
and rhododendrons,
and the Acers weren't out yet,
but the bamboos were splendid!



The vanilla orchid - the seed pods
produced by this orchid
are what makes our ice cream and
other puddings taste yummy.

It looks pretty good, too!



Another orchid - apparently there are more species of orchid
than there are of any other kind of flower.
Although I am pleased to have found
the macro button to be able to take close ups like this,
I want to run before I can walk,
and take ARTY close ups.

None of the arty pictures I took came out
well enough to share in public!


Strange flower - I have seen this plant as a house plant
many times in the UK,
but have never seen it flowering before.

The average UK home must be too cool
and not humid enough for it
to be happy enough to flower.


Wow, how about that for a splash
of colour!!! Red frilly orchids...



There were also unusually coloured orchids - several
green ones and this interesting combination
of rusts and yellows.

1 comment:

Carol said...

Lovely, gorgeous photos. Thanks for sharing. I'm surprised you missed the azaleas & rhodies and only a few of ours our beginning to bloom. We must just have the late varieties.