Glasgow Botanic Gardens
Great Western Road, Glasgow (pictured)
There are plenty of places where you can enjoy plants without having to endure the sting of hailstones on your cheeks, whether it’s the shelter provided by a walled garden or a grand Victorian glasshouse.
One of the most famous and best loved of the latter is the Kibble Palace in Glasgow’s Botanic Garden.
The wrought-iron framed glasshouse was initially used for public events, and was the venue used for the installation of Benjamin Disraeli and William Gladstone as rectors of Glasgow University.
As well as orchids and some carnivorous plants, the main group of plants here are Australasian tree ferns, some of which have lived in the palace for 120 years and which now form the national tree fern collection.
Plants from tropical rainforests grow in the adjacent palm house, and the Tearooms, the newest addition to the Gardens, can be found in the former curator’s house.
Logan Botanic Garden
Port Logan, Dumfries and Galloway
Located 14 miles south of Stranraer in the Rhins of Galloway is Logan Botanic Gardens, the most exotic of the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh’s regional outposts.
Due to the area’s mild climate and the sheltered aspect of the gardens, species thrive here which are rarely seen elsewhere in the UK, with botanical treasures from South America, South Africa and Australasia.
Though at its most stunningly vibrant from June to September, Logan’s walled garden blooms with colour throughout the year while yet more exotic plants from Tasmania and Africa can be seen in the newly-built eco-conservatory.
Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh
Arboretum Place, Edinburgh
Glasshouses at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh (RBGE) date back as far as 1713 when one was built at the Trinity Physic Garden – now Waverley train station.
Now the RBGE has a number of glasshouses, the oldest being the Tropical Palm House, designed by an unknown architect in 1834.
It’s home to a palm that is even older; the Sabal bermudana, which was moved from a previous site in Leith Walk in 1822.
Almost 40 years later, the Temperate Palm House became home to a selection of ferns, palms and frost-tender species. Other glasshouses at RBGE include one which is home to a variety of tropical plants such as the Amorphophallus titanium or “corpse flower”, the world’s smelliest plant.
The Dunmore Pineapple
Dunmore Park, Stirlingshire
Commissioned by the Earl of Dunmore in the late 18th century is the huge, eight-metre high roof in the shape of a pineapple which adorns the garden pavilion in the grounds on Dunmore Park near Airth.
The property has been converted into holiday accommodation and the surrounding grounds, in the care of the National Trust for Scotland, contain two walled gardens offering enough shelter and warmth for fruits, vegetable and ornamental plants to thrive.
Inverness Botanic Gardens
Bught Lane, Inverness
Opened in 1993, Inverness Botanic Gardens features a tropical glasshouse and cactus house featuring hundreds of species planted among 75 tonnes of rock.
A charity which depends on donations and plant sales, the Gardens also offer a reasonably-priced sales area, cafe, secret outdoor garden and a wild flower meadow.
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