Tickets to visit Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh's Victorian Palm Houses on sale after five-year closure
Horticulture director David Knott said welcoming people back to the Palm Houses will be a ‘hugely amazing experience’
Tickets have gone on sale for the reopening of the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh’s historic Palm Houses.
The glasshouses, which are set to reopen on October 2, date back to 1834 and have undergone extensive restorations during a five-year closure.
Speaking to the Press Association on Monday, September 7, horticulture director David Knott said welcoming people back to the “iconic” Palm Houses will be a “hugely amazing experience”.
He said the restoration work has been “absolutely” worth the wait.
“There are times when you become a bit impatient, but obviously a gardener’s greatest virtue is being patient and making sure a good job’s done,” Mr Knott said.
“And I think that’s what the construction team, the restoration team, and the horticultural team have done well.”
He continued: “Looking at it just now outside my office window, and to see that spectacular renovation now being replanted is just quite amazing, and when the public come back in (we’re hoping) they’ll think it’s equally as fantastic.”
The restoration work has seen 5,000 panes of glass created from bespoke templates that have been specially designed to withstand the impacts of climate change. It also involved 600 square metres of ironwork repairs on the original Georgian and Victorian iron structure.
Before work could begin, the Horticulture team carefully removed 800 precious plant specimens from the Palm Houses and temporarily re-homed them within the Garden’s other glasshouses.
The RBGE has said around 600 specimens – including plants endangered in the wild – have been returned to the restored Palm Houses before its reopening.
Among them is a stone gate palm, standing over eight metres tall and believed to be the tallest of its kind in cultivation outside China. Plantings also include a young sabal palm, the 10-year-old offspring of one of the Garden’s oldest and most celebrated plants, the Sabal mexicana, estimated to be around 200 years old when it was felled in 2021.
Mr Knott described the process of transporting the collection and replanting the Palm Houses as “nerve-wracking”.
He said the plants had to be transported horizontally because they were too tall to be moved upright. The tall palm trees and plants had to be slowly lowered onto their sides and driven into their final planting positions in the restored palm houses.
“It’s been a hugely exciting and nerve-wracking time,” Mr Knott said.
“I think when you move anything that’s of a size that we have moved, there’s always an element of risk.
“It’s been quite satisfying to reduce that risk, to see the plants being transplanted carefully, and then nurtured carefully, so that we’ve minimised any losses – and they’ve thrived in their new growing environment.”
He said the success of the project bears testimony to the skill and expertise of the horticultural team.
“Having seen them being removed from our fern house and being transplanted into this glasshouse is just incredible,” he said.
Entry to the Palm Houses will be by ticketed admission, with allocated time slots available throughout the day from October 2. The Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh has recommended visitors pre-book tickets in advance.