Temporal Meadows

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Cultivated gardens and habitat for wildlife can harmoniously occupy the same space. We have two temporal meadow spaces just as you enter RBGE’s Edinburgh Garden, by the East and West Gates. In these areas, we cultivate late winter bulbs and herbaceous plants from our living collection that flower in spring or autumn, and allow volunteer plants to colonize and thrive in the summer season. By doing this, we create a multifunctional space that showcases the Living Collection while providing space for native plants and the wildlife that depend on them. Please enjoy these seasonal changes!

Along the northeast path by the East Gate, enjoy the softly floating flower-tops of yellow buttercups (Ranunculus sp.), oxeye daisies (Leucanthemum vulgare), and self-heal (Prunella vulgaris) in the summer months. These volunteer visitors will be cut down in September/October, then watch this space for the cheery brightness of many cultivars of Narcissus, those sunshine-shaded daffodils.

By the West Gate, step into a mowed path flanked by the ethereal forms of volunteer meadow flowers under a canopy of trees. Feel the cooler temperatures these plants provide and spot the common spotted orchids we’ve had the pleasure to discover have grown on their own. The end of the meadow path takes you out to the sunny, colourful Living Lawn, its bounty of low-growing ground flowers, and its aging orchard trees. See if you can count the bees!

These long grass meadows are cut down in mid-August, giving space for the planted colchicums, snowdrops, and drifting camassias to establish and sprout.

Planted species:
- Camassia leichtlinii (tall, star shaped purple-blue flowers in lovely drifts, perennial)
- Colchicum spp. (meadow saffron/ naked ladies (looks like a large crocus))
- Galanthus nivalis (snowdrops)
- Fritillaria meleagris (snake’s head fritillary)
- Narcissus spp. (daffodils)
Volunteer species (selection):
- Cirsium arvense (creeping thistle, native to the UK, food source for birds)
- Senecio jacobaea (common ragwort, native to the UK, favoured by the black-and-red cinnabar moth)
- Centaurea nigra (common knapweed, native to the UK, favoured by the meadow brown butterflies)
- Leucanthemum vulgare (oxeye daisy, native to the UK)
- Dachtylorhiza fuchsii (common spotted orchid)
- Vicia faba (Broad bean)