The creme de la creme of the show is to be found in the Gold Marquee which is set aside for previous RHS Gold Medal winners, writes Eileen Crone. Centre-stage will be the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, who last year, with the Alpine Garden Society won a Gold Medal at Chelsea. This year another area of their expertise will be shown on the 100 square metre stand, that of tropical, sub-tropical and aquatic plants. This show will feature the recreation of a tropical glade including a swamp, two serene ponds and a tree festooned with exotic epiphytic plants, which grow on the surface of larger plants, many holding water in the middle of their cluster of leaves.
This habitat is recreated using artificial trees made from bark cladding over a steel frame. In the show a tree festooned with exotic plants will be similar to the one in the South American Aquatic House at Inverleith, where there is a beautiful display of this versatile
relative of the pineapple family, Bromeliaceae. Some bromeliads providing a herbaceous cover on the forest floor, while others are perched on the artificial tree.
Other plants to look out for include begonias, bananas, gingers, orchids, insectivorous plants, Marantaceae and the Giant Victoria Water Lilies.
The pool at the Tropical Aquatic House is dominated by the huge floating leaves of this exotic aquatic plant, which is a perennial in its native Amazon basin, Bolivia and Guyana, but has to be grown from seed annually so far north in Scotland. Under optimum conditions, they can reach a diameter of two metres, and can support a weight of up to 75kg.
The plants will be sourced from The Glasshouse Experience, 10 massive exhibition structures set in 31 hectares at the RBGE Inverleith base. Each contains a wealth of botanical treasures including the Orchid and Cycad House, the Tropical Palm House, the Tropical Rock House and the Peat House containing the most noteworthy Vireya rhododendrons of South East Asia, Borneo and Indonesia. Some of the RBGE collection, which is the largest in the world, will be on display at Strathclyde Country Park.
David Mitchell, curator of the Botanic Garden's indoor department and project manager for the Strathclyde exhibit, said that the plants will be picked for horticultural reasons, but also equally important are groups of plants that are the subject of current scientific research in Scotland, such as the Vireya
rhododendrons.
He said; ''These plants were brought into cultivation since the 1870s and the variety is enormous in the 368 known species. The size of the flowers can vary from half a centimetre to a couple of inches, there are many flower shapes, some are scented and they range in colour from white, pink, red and yellow.''
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