The Palm Houses at the Royal Botanic Gardens Edinburgh will reopen to the public today after an historic five-year restoration project. This marks the completion of a transformative phase of the wider £58 million Edinburgh Biomes restoration and development programme.
"The reopening of our historic Palm Houses has taken five years of painstaking restoration work," says Professor Julia Knights, the 17th Regius Keeper (CEO and director of the garden - a post requiring approval from the reigning monarch). "Plus many more years of planning and fundraising. This project represents a significant part of our Edinburgh Biomes programme, one of the most ambitious capital projects in the Garden’s 356-year history, with further work to come to restore more of our critical infrastructure to protect our precious National Botanical Living Collection of 13,500 plant species."
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Throughout September, the garden has hosted previews of the restored biomes, which Julia says has been an exciting stage of the project. "Seeing our patrons, members, and supporters come through the doors for the first time in years has been such a special moment," she says. "So, we can’t wait to reopen to visitors on the 2nd October so everyone can experience the Palm Houses."
The project has not been without its challenges - the team had to carefully move around 800 plant species before work could begin. "Many of the tallest palms and ferns having to be carefully turned horizontally to remove them," says Julia. Those plants then had to be cared for in the garden's research glasshouses for five years, after which 600 specimens were selected to return to the space, with a particular emphasis on palms and ferns. "This has been a tremendous example of horticultural expertise," adds Julia.
Unfortunately, not all of the plants could be saved during the project. "We had to very sadly cut down our tallest palm as it was pressing against the glass ceiling and the team knew in advance that it just simply would not be possible to get it out and replant it successfully," says Julia. However, the horticulture team were able to save seeds from the specimen and one of its progeny has now been planted in the Palm Houses, close to where its parent plant once grew.
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Known as a Sabal bermudana, during the process of documenting the massive palm ahead of its removal, the garden's scientists identified a different species match. "This led to the team realising that it was in fact a totally different species - Sabal mexicana," says Julia. "It's amazing how science has allowed us to reclassify some of the plants in our collection - that's been the most unexpected part of this process."
The restoration itself was also an extraordinary undertaking. "Each of the 5,750 panes of glass had to be digitally measured (as they were all slightly different sizes) and replaced with replica-sized glass, better able to withstand the strong winds that climate change is bringing," says Julia.
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Expert craftspeople restored 600 square metres of iron work and 500 square metres of sandstone. The project also joined up the tropical Georgian house, built in 1834, with the temperate Victorian House, built in 1858, to create one stunning temperate glass house space.
"For me, the Palm Houses embody the very best of the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh," concludes Julia. "A commitment to conservation, scientific excellence, horticultural expertise, and public engagement, and also a celebration of who we are – a special family made up of colleagues, volunteers, students and supporters, who alongside the Scottish Government, have helped to save the Palm Houses and protect our Living Collection of rare and endangered species for decades to come."
