The Splendour of the Glasshouses

It's a grey, dismal afternoon, the kind of day when heavy drizzle seems to permeate every inch of your body, and the leaden skies are in danger of creating a mood to match their depression. So where do you go for some colour, some warmth, a trip through lands far across the seas, a journey that takes you from rain-sodden clouds to the other side of the rainbow? That's easy - or it is for those "in the know."
The Royal Botanic Garden in the heart of Edinburgh houses over twenty five glasshouses, some for display and others for research, quarantine and propagation. Are you aware that over 80% of the world's flora occurs in warm, temperate and tropical regions. These glasshouses offer environments suited to these plants, an amazing diversity of plant life, a collection of over 2,400 species that many of us will never see in their natural habitat. The pre-Victorian elegance of the Tropical Palm house, built in 1834, the magnificent Temperate Palm House, opened in 1858 and at twenty three metres high one of the tallest traditional palm houses in the world, and the more modern, simplistic Main Range constructed in 1967 all lead you from country to country as you soak up both the heat and the beauty of the natural world.
So where will your journey take you, a journey protected from the chill of the outside world by countless glass panes, a widow from one civilisation to another. The Amazonian rainforest, the cloud forests of Australia, sun-baked Arabian deserts, Indonesian mountainsides, a global extravaganza of the bizarre and the beautiful, towering palms and delicate flowers, the pointed and the prickly, plucked from one world and planted in another.
The gentle splendour of the orchid, fragrant blossoms, ferns draped along the walkways, cacti daring you to touch, giant lilypads tempting you to step aboard and float across the pond ......  Exotic fruits exude beads of sweat, palms stretch out high above the heads of the glasshouse explorers, such awesome beauty from environments we are in danger of losing forever. So many species that need protecting before it is too late - that is why work carried out in places such as these is so important, and becoming increasingly more urgent as each day passes.
Of equal interest are the wonderful borders surrounding the glasshouses. Trees, shrubs, climbers and many herbaceous plants adorn their sides, a microclimate created by warmth from the lagged heating ducts suiting many of these plants. A Chilean Terrace boasts many wild plants collected during several botanical expeditions. The south-facing and free-draining Ramp has been devoted to plants from South Africa, whilst the Yurt is surrounded by species that can all be used by man and have ethnobotanical (the use of plants in folklore, religion etc - I think) importance. And the Fossil Courtyard, often home to interesting and thought-provoking exhibitions, houses a centrally placed fossil tree.
So when you need your grey skies turning blue, you know where to go. Take a trip to warmer climes in the amazing glasshouses of the Botanics.