THERE are two very good reasons for visiting Scotland's glasshouses in winter. One, it gives you a chance to experience exotic blooms from around the world, and two, it'll give you a blast of heat, helping you to forget about the weather outside. From Aberdeen's Duthie Park to botanic gardens in Dundee, Glasgow and Edinburgh, these impressive glass structures allow a far greater range of species to be grown in Scotland than if we were able only to garden outdoors.
"Almost a quarter of our collection is grown under glass," says David Mitchell, curator of the Indoor Living Collection at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh (RBGE). "We grow everything from tropical plants to cacti, temperate ferns and orchids; we h
ave plants grown specifically for educational purposes and we're perhaps best known for our wonderful displays of Victoria amazonica (giant water lilies) in the summer months." At this time of year, highlights to look out for include a group of rhododendrons from south-east Asia, the Vireyas, which flower from December until March, along with the orchid collection, much of which is currently in bloom.
Many of Britain's most dramatic glasshouses were built during the Victorian era. RBGE's first glasshouse, the Tropical Palm House, was built in 1834 at a cost of £1,500. Twenty-eight years later, the Temperate Palm House was built with a parliamentary grant of £6,000. The Kibble Palace at Glasgow Botanic Gardens was originally a private conservatory, located at Coulport on Loch Long. It was moved to its present site in 1873, and was initially used as a concert hall and meeting place, hosting speakers such as prime ministers Disraeli and Gladstone.
Some glasshouses from the Victorian era proved too expensive to maintain and were lost, but others have been restored. The Kibble Palace itself closed in 2003 for major restoration work, re-opening in November 2006 to once more display the national collection of Australasian tree ferns (many dating back to the mid-19th century) along with other temperate plants such as Australian Bottlebrush, Japanese Banana and Camellia cultivars.
"At Glasgow Botanic Garden, because their remit is slightly different from that at RBGE, the Kibble Palace always has a wonderful floral display," says Mitchell. "If you go in there in winter there'll be gloxinias and poinsettias and cyclamen and all these wonderful things that we associate with this time of year. You can always just go and have a wander round and enjoy the architecture. People come into our temperate palm house and they sit and are inspired by the elegance and tranquillity of the space."
Glasshouses have survived at some of Scotland's grand historic houses, including the National Trust for Scotland properties Crathes Castle in Banchory, Inveresk Lodge at Musselburgh, and Threave, in Dumfries and Galloway. Brian Corr, head gardener at Threave, explains that heavy snowfall caused the glasshouses to collapse in 1996, but they were rebuilt in the Victorian style and opened the following year – with computerised, automatic ventilation and heating. The glasshouses feature a wide range of tropical and temperate plants such as bananas, birds of paradise, begonias and palms, and a cool house contains a cactus bed and water feature. They also serve an educational purpose, Corr explains, providing a training ground for the gardeners undertaking the NTS's Practical Gardening course at Threave.
Building glasshouses on a grand scale didn't end with the Victorians – in the 1960s, a new, radical design was created for RBGE in the shape of the Front Range, which features five climatic zones through its ten glasshouses. Topsoil from the construction site of the Forth Road Bridge, which was being built at the same time, was used to make the plant beds.
Mitchell says the story of glasshouses continues to evolve: "There has been a lot of money spent lately by the Heritage Lottery Fund around Britain on restoring Victorian glasshouses," he says. "They are very much part of our cultural heritage. But thanks to modern technology – computer-controlled energy systems, different kinds of shading and insulation screens – glasshouse managers and engineers are able to run them much more efficiently."
Mitchell describes glasshouses as a window on the world and says that at a time when we're constantly hearing about climate change, a walk round the glasshouse brings you into close contact with the plants that are under threat:
"When you look round the flora of the world in a glasshouse and you think about all the habitats in different countries, whether it's rainforest or desert or temperate forest or high mountaintops, you realise that if the global greenhouse heats up, many of those things are going to be lost."
Many of the tropical plants found in Scotland's glasshouses have particular and direct relevance to our everyday lives – more so than we might imagine. Mitchell mentions as an example lipstick, which contains seven different plant products, four of which come from the tropics. One of these is carnauba wax, which is also used in shoe polish and car polish.
And how many of us are aware that cellulose extracted from eucalyptus is used to make car dashboards? Then there are the staple food plants grown here under glass, such as rice, bananas and coffee – and a wealth of medicinal plants. "Our whole lives are affected by plants from the tropics," says Mitchell, who despite worries over global warming remains optimistic about the future, and the role of the world's flora in it.
"There are plants that we haven't discovered yet that could be useful to mankind – to cure diseases or provide pleasures in life. Imagine finding the thing that tastes better than tea or coffee or chocolate – it's maybe still out there."
Whether you're looking for inspiration for your own greenhouse, want a closer look at plants from around the world or just need to warm up, Scotland's glasshouses are the place to be this winter.
Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, www.rbge.org.uk (0131-552 7171); Glasgow Botanic Gardens, www.glasgow.gov.uk (0141-276 1614); National Trust for Scotland, www.nts.org.uk (0844 493 2100).
The full article contains 1014 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
