Scotland’s four Royal Botanic Gardens are still in recovery two weeks after Storm Eowyn’s 100mph winds wreaked havoc as a rare red weather warning was issued.
This week’s cold snap - a return to typically chilly February conditions after a warmer start to the month - feels like a walk in the park compared to the unforgiving weather of late January.
And the recovery effort following the chaotic weather is still underway as the return of the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh to its majestic state continues.
The 70-acre capital’s garden was first established in 1670, but has existed at its current site in Inverleith sine 1820.
Scotland’s four Royal Botanic Gardens are still in recovery two weeks after Storm Eowyn’s 100mph winds wreaked havoc as a rare red weather warning was issued
GB News
It is one of four Royal Botanic Gardens found across Scotland.
Due to significant risk to life from Storm Eowyn on Friday 24, January, the horticulture team was not able to return to the garden.
Suzie Huggins, RBG Edinburgh Communications manager told GB News: “None of us knew the impact until they started to walk in.
“At the same time, the same thing was happening at our three other gardens, as people went round and from our perspective we started to get the news filtering in.
“The first big news was the cedar coming down.”
The 100-foot Himalayan cedar tree which towers over the rest of the garden was planted in 1859 by Queen Victoria’s eldest son, Albert.
The tree - known to live for 600 years - was snapped in two by the ferocious gusts of Storm Éowyn.
Visitors often take pictures of the aftermath with branches littering the ground and a domino effect of smaller trees all resting at peculiar angles, left untouched since discovered.
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The felled canopy is set to be removed eventually.
“Going around the garden, we eventually found 15 trees either completely uprooted or downed,” Huggins said, “and another 26 plants were very badly damage - and that’s just in the Edinburgh garden.
“The other big problem we faced was with our 26 glass houses and what our team found when they went up there.”
RBG Edinburgh’s Glasshouse Manager Fiona Inches said the scale of the damage and the risks posed by February’s cold snap to the temperate, tropical and desert plants reliant on a warmer environment.
“Very strong winds blew right through the garden,” Inches said, “and in the glass houses we lost about 150 panes of glass, which we’re still in the process of fixing two weeks after the storm.
“It’s a long process and we’ve got protected plant materials in there so we’re monitoring temperatures and the rain causes problems as well.”
Visitors often take pictures of the aftermath with branches littering the ground and a domino effect of smaller trees all resting at peculiar angles, left untouched since discovered
GB News
The recovery effort following the chaotic weather is still underway as the return of the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh to its majestic state continues
GB News
Due to significant risk to life from Storm Eowyn on Friday 24, January, the horticulture team was not able to return to the garden
GB News
Repair and recovery at the glasshouses is an excruciatingly slow process, involving workers getting rigged up in a harness and replacing panes of glass at odd angles one by one, tackling the most vulnerable plants first.
Huggins explained that “the immediate clear-up is well underway” across the four Scottish gardens, but to fully complete the recovery is a different story and each site has its own projected completion.
“Certainly in Edinburgh,” Huggins added, “I would think we’re probably talking probably months before it’s completely fixed.
“For some of our other gardens - for Benmore in Argyll - probably a year, maybe more than that.
“So I would say it’s a question of months or maybe years before we could sat [they’ve] fully recovered.”
Despite years of hard work, the 166-year-old Himalayan cedar will never be brought back - changing the canopy skyline forever in the wake of Storm Eowyn.
Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh remains hopeful that despite the destruction of the tree’s upper half, the tree’s significant root system appears to be undisturbed.
The team hope that the cedar can bounce back to flourish this spring.
