Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh – The NEN

Edinburgh scientists shaping international conservation

Scottish scorecard for wild species goes global

A Scottish-developed conservation tool to protect land-based animals and plants has been expanded to include marine species such as fish, dolphin, porpoise, sharks, skate and birds for the very first time.

Scientists at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, the University of Edinburgh and NatureScot created the low-cost tool for tracking the genetic diversity of wild species, which has traditionally been difficult and expensive to monitor.

It scores how well species threats are being managed, and the conservation actions in place, from the work of land managers to conservation efforts in botanic gardens and zoos.

First published in 2020, the scorecard has already given animals and plants a better chance of coping with changing weather, new diseases and food shortages.

It has since been updated and expanded to cover a wider range of terrestrial animals, plants and fungi, and the latest version, reflecting new research, now extends that protection to marine species for the first time.

Maintaining genetic diversity is vital for nature’s survival. Helping species adapt to change helps give us things we need, such as food to eat and materials to build with, and can even help soak up pollution from the air.

The Scottish approach is already being used for species management in South Africa, and in a joint project with the University of Benghazi in Libya. A site-based version has also been developed, working with farmers and land managers in Scotland, Libya, Mexico and Australia.

Speaking ahead of a two-day attendance at COP17 on Biodiversity in Armenia, the Cabinet Secretary for Climate Action and Rural Affairs Gillian Martin said: “I want to thank the scientists at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, the University of Edinburgh and NatureScot who developed this low-cost tracking tool.

“The fact that this Scottish resource is now being used internationally, and can support marine species for the first time, demonstrates the global value of expertise developed here in Scotland as well as underlining just how impressive Scotland’s scientific community is.

“Biodiversity is in crisis, both globally and at home, so maintaining genetic diversity is essential if species are to adapt and survive. This innovative tool helps conservationists make better decisions in order to better protect nature.

“The groundbreaking work by Scottish scientists shows we have a strong story to tell, and we should tell it with confidence, using our voice at events like COP17 to push for ambitious biodiversity and climate action.”

Dr Isa-Rita Russo, ConGen Africa, an initiative dedicated to the conservation and genetic management of African wildlife, said: “The scorecard has been a brilliant addition to the wildlife management guidelines used across Africa. It takes complicated genetic science and turns it into something practical that conservationists can actually use day to day.

“Instead of needing specialist genetics expertise, people managing wildlife can now easily understand the genetic health of a population, spot problems early, and decide what action to take.

“This has made genetic diversity far more visible and useful in real-world conservation work across African wildlife and beyond.”

Professor Tarek Mukassabi, University of Benghazi, Libya, said: “The Scottish scorecard has effectively helped in demonstrating genetic biodiversity in Libya. The structure and contents of the scorecard have organised scattered local biodiversity literature and guided national research to build a useful, effective national database.

“This direct, clear scorecard will help us make the right decisions about conserving biodiversity. We are now working with NatureScot to develop a site-based version of the scorecard called ‘GenDivA’.

“In Libya, we have conducted the first trial of GenDivA, assessing the genetic biodiversity of one of the rare native plant species of the south-eastern Mediterranean.

“The procedure was highly organised and focused, and in a short time addressed biodiversity issues that could significantly change conservation policy in the territory.”

The Conference of the Parties to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (COP17) takes place in Armenia from 19 to 30 October 2026, bringing together governments, international organisations, scientists, civil society, Indigenous Peoples, youth and the private sector.

A jewel in Edinburgh’s skyline: Palm Houses captured from above

TO mark the reopening weekend of its newly renovated Palm Houses, Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh lit up the capital’s skyline with its spectacular Cathedral of glass shining like a precious jewel.

Drone content captured from the air shows the Georgian and Victorian structures aglow with warm light, spotlighting the luscious greenery within.

This weekend the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh’s iconic Palm Houses reopened to the public, welcoming visitors from around the world to view its rare collection of plants. Following years of painstaking restoration, the glasshouses are open once again to offer a beacon of botanical wonder in the heart of the city.

Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh (RBGE)

Founded in 1670 as a physic garden, the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh has grown into a world leading scientific botanic institution with over 120 scientists working on research related to its National Botanic Collection comprising of a living collection of 13,500 plant species, a herbarium of 3 million specimens, and a library and archive of rare books, paintings, photography and art related to Botany.

Its mission to explore, conserve, and explain the world of plants is at the heart of national and international efforts to address the impact of the biodiversity crisis and climate emergency and save and conserve as many plant species from extinction as possible, in collaboration with partners from across the globe.

Across our four Botanic Gardens in Scotland – at Benmore, in Argyll, at Logan, in Dumfries & Galloway, at Dawyck, in the Scottish Borders, and at Edinburgh – the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh is home to our National Botanic Living Collection of more than 13,500 species of plants.

Together our four botanic gardens welcome around a million visitors every year.

Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh reopens historic Palm Houses following five-year restoration

Final planting of endangered lion plant marks momentous completion of half decade renovation

TODAY (Friday 2 October 2026), the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh is reopening its historic Palm Houses to visitors. This completes a landmark point in the most ambitious restoration project in the Garden’s 356-year history, ensuring the protection of a unique and globally important plant collection.

Amongst the top four botanic gardens in the world, the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh and its iconic Palm Houses have long been at the forefront of global science and conservation horticulture, working to save species at risk of extinction since the 19th century.

However, by 2021, substantial restoration was required to safeguard the buildings’ ironwork, stone and glass, along with the priceless plants housed within.

As part of the extensive restoration work, all 5,750 panes of glass were replaced, 600 m² of ironwork was fully restored or updated, and 500 m² of sandstone repairs were completed with replacement stones weighing up to a quarter of a tonne.

Featuring the tallest traditional stone-built Palm House in the world, on reopening the Palm Houses will be home to almost 600 of the more tender plant specimens in Scotland’s National Botanic Living Collection, spanning 13,500 species from 152 countries.

Stories of the plants will be shared through an engaging new visitor experience which will include innovative multimedia and multisensory digital tours.

The opening was marked by the planting of the endangered lion plant (Valdivia gayana) from Chile. The Scottish Government’s Cabinet Secretary for Climate Action, Gillian Martin MSP, joined Professor Julia Knights, Regius Keeper of Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, to mark this important moment as the final specimen was planted in the restored Palm Houses.

Experts from the Garden are playing a leading role in the propagation and cultivation of this species to ensure its future survival, following collection of seeds from a cave in Chile in collaboration with local partners.

Known as planta del león in its native Chile, there are estimated to be fewer than five natural populations in the wild, with the specimens growing at the Botanics thought to be the only ones in cultivation.

The renovated Palm Houses are a vital refuge for a number of rare and endangered species of plants from across the globe. Examples include the Three Kings vine (Tecomanthe speciosa) from New Zealand, one of the rarest plants in the world, and the Catkin yew (Amentotaxus argotaenia), a critically endangered conifer.

The protection of these plants reflects the wider work of the Garden to preserve critical biodiversity for generations to come.

Professor Julia Knights, Regius Keeper of the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, said: “This is a truly historic moment for the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh as we welcome visitors to explore our magnificent Palm Houses once again. Over the last five years they have been painstakingly restored to protect our incredible Living Collection for future generations.

“Visitors now have the opportunity to see this unique collection of some of the world’s most fascinating plants, some endangered in the wild, underneath the breathtaking glass-domes of the Palm Houses.

“The reopening of the Palm Houses is a major milestone in the 356-year history of the Garden. As the guardians of one of the world’s most biodiverse Living Collections of plants on Earth, we are working at pace to tackle the impacts of biodiversity loss and climate change, and to save species from extinction in partnership with institutions and scientists from across the globe.

“The next phase of this vital work will transform our Research Glasshouses to protect 3,000 more priceless plants, some of which are now extinct in the wild, and all of which are key in driving forward our globally leading work in scientific discovery, conservation, and horticultural innovation.”

This work was supported by investment from the Scottish Government and a significant fundraising campaign, with over £10.6m raised from major donors including The National Lottery Heritage Fund alongside generous donations from supporters, members and the public.

Gillian Martin MSP, Cabinet Secretary for Climate Action and Rural Affairs at the Scottish Government commented:  “For generations the iconic Palm Houses at Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh have inspired visitors from Scotland and around the world. The restoration of these heritage glasshouses helps to safeguard the globally important plant collections here for the future, ensuring vital work in conservation, education and scientific discovery can continue.

“At a time when the impacts of biodiversity loss and climate change are being felt around the world, the work undertaken at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh to save species from extinction is critical. The reopening of the Palm Houses is a powerful reminder of the value of investing in our natural and cultural heritage, and I congratulate everyone involved in this extraordinary restoration project.”

For more information and to book tickets please go to the RBGE website at rbge.org.uk/palm-houses. With high interest, RBGE recommends pre-booking in advance to avoid disappointment.

Members and Patrons of the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh go free.

27 year-old fly launches major digitisation project in Scotland

As Scotland’s Climate Week gets underway, a 127 year-old hoverfly is among the first insect specimens to be digitised as part of a major new project led in Scotland by National Museums Scotland and Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh.

The specimen is a Pine hoverfly (Blera fallax), which entered the Museum’s collection in 1899. Blera fallax became critically endangered in Scotland and almost disappeared from the wild by the 2000 before successful efforts were made to reintroduce it in the wild in the Cairngorms National Park.

The DiSSCo UK project in Scotland aims to create approximately 700,000 digital records of specimens held in Scotland’s natural science collections. The project in Scotland will initially run for two years and will see more than 250,000 insects from National Museums Scotland and 388,000 herbarium specimens from the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh become digitally accessible to all.

The value of the project in documenting Scotland’s natural history is illustrated by the way in which plant specimens from the same region are also being digitised by Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, such as Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris).

The Scots pine of the Caledonian Forest is a key species for the habitat of the Pine hoverfly, with the insects using rot holes in the trees for the development of their larvae. The specimen in the Herbarium of the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh was collected in Aviemore in 1975.

Dr Vladimir Blagoderov, Principal Curator, Invertebrates at National Museums Scotland, said: “It’s very pleasing to have started work on this important work digitally documenting and making accessible this really useful and valuable information about Scotland’s natural environment and how it has changed and will continue to change over time.”

DiSSCo UK [https://dissco-uk.org/] (Distributed System of Scientific Collections UK), is a £155 million, 10-year national programme to digitise and connect the UK’s natural science collections.

The programme is funded through the UKRI Infrastructure Fund and delivered by the UKRI Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) in partnership with the Natural History Museum and over 100 partners across the UK.

In addition to material from the Scottish national collections, the project will also see digital records created for 85,000 plant specimens held by Glasgow Life, 1200 insects from The Hunterian, 2400 specimens from Shetland Museum & Archives including plants, algae and fungi as well as 1400 plant, lichen and moss specimens from The James Hutton Institute in Aberdeen.

It is hoped that future phases will encompass more of the collections of existing participants and also widen in scope to include more of Scotland’s natural science collecting institutions.

Then & Now: Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh recreates century-old archive photographs one week ahead of Palm Houses reopening

With one week to go until the reopening of Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh’s historic Palm Houses on 2nd October, some of the organisation’s students and partners have brought back to life archive photographs of staff working in the Garden and Palm Houses in the early 1900s.

Digging into the Garden’s historic archive, they retraced the images by stepping into the same spaces where their predecessors once tended and studied the Garden’s rare and exotic collection over a century ago. As the new generation of horticulturists and scientists, they are ready to care for and research nearly 600 plant specimens returning to the Palm Houses.

The photo series is a fitting tribute as the Palm Houses near completion of the most ambitious restoration and development programme in the Garden’s 356-year history.

The original Georgian and Victorian structures have undergone five years of meticulous restoration as part of the £58 million Edinburgh Biomes project, including funding from the Scottish Government and The National Lottery Heritage Fund amongst others.

Scotland Chair of The National Lottery Heritage Fund, Dr Heather Reid, joined the collective of students to celebrate the history of the Palm Houses, recreating an image featuring a sunshine recorder positioned on the outer balcony.

Restoring the Palm Houses to their former glory has involved replacing all 5,750 panes of glass, fully restoring or replacing 600 m² of ironwork, and carrying out 500 m² of sandstone repairs.

Photograph 1 –

Then: James Douglas McKenzie worked in RBGE’s Glass Department as a probationer gardener between 1903 and 1907.

Now: Liam McMenemie (HN in Horticulture (Plantsmanship) tends to the newly rehomed plants within the renovated Palm Houses.

Photograph 2 –

Then: David Sydney Fish on the roof of the Temperate Palm House checking the Campbell-Stokes sunshine recorder, captured around 1904 – 1906. The recorder works to record sunshine, with any direct sunlight being magnified by the sphere and scorching a recordable trail on the card behind it.

Now: Still in use today, Dr Heather Reid, Scotland Chair of The National Lottery Heritage Fund, checks on the sunshine recorder on the roof of the newly renovated Palm Houses, which have now been unified as one temperate zone.

Photograph 3 –

Then: An unnamed gardener tending to RBGE’s Order Beds in front of the Glasshouse Range. Taken around 1905.

Now: Chase Mathey (MSc in Biodiversity and Taxonomy of Plants) tending to the paths outside the research glasshouses and renovated Palm Houses, preparing the walkway for guests to once again experience this area of the Gardens.

Photograph 4 –

Then: An unnamed member of the Herbaceous Department attending to an errand in the potting shed around 1905.

Now: Jessica Thomson (HN in Horticulture (Plantsmanship)) working in the modern-day potting shed. Jessica is one of many female students and staff members employed in the Gardens nowadays, whereas the first female horticulture students only began their studies in 1897.

Photograph 5 –

Then: Andrew R. Cosh was a probationer gardener at RBGE between 1907 and 1910, before emigrating to work at an estate in Massachusetts.

Now: Charlie Smith (MSc in Biodiversity and Taxonomy of Plants) watering the various palms and ferns that have been planted within the renovated Palm Houses.

The renovated Palm Houses open next week.

Local community groups reconnect with nature at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh’s Palm Houses

Botanis chior perform a song written by Karine Powart (white top, glasses) to mark the reopening of the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh Palm Houses,

Connecting the community to the power of nature was the theme at a special event at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, as around 800 guests gathered for a Community Celebration at the newly restored Palm Houses, prior to their public reopening.

The event was the joyous finale of the Garden’s 2026 Creative Programme for communities. Supported by The National Lottery Heritage Fund, the scheme brought together community groups from across Edinburgh to explore ways of connecting with nature – empowering individuals to develop their own relationship with the natural world.

The five groups involved this year – Pilton Community Health Project, Headway East Lothian, Score Scotland Women’s Group, ELREC New Scots Group and ELREC Polish Group – took part in a series of 21 creative sessions at the Garden between March and August.

Working alongside artists, musicians and specialists from the Botanics, participants explored the connections between communities across Edinburgh and the Palm Houses, helping to inspire and engage individuals new to the Garden in the beauty and creativity on offer right on their doorstep.

As well as exhibiting textile banners, ceramic vessels and a Palm House tea blend created by the community groups throughout the project, the event also welcomed award-winning musician and songwriter Karine Polwart, whose new composition, Māmāku, was inspired by the black tree fern (Sphaeropteris medullaris) native to New Zealand now growing at the centre of the Palm Houses.

Exploring themes of repair, renewal, healing and resilience, the new composition was performed for the occasion by the Botanics Choir, made up of both members of staff and people from the local community.

Chiormaster Amy Leach (dark blue dress) Karine Polwart and NLHF Diane Gray (light blue dress)

Professor Julia Knights, Regius Keeper of the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh said: “The Palm Houses have always been places of wonder, discovery and connection. Now, with the support of The National Lottery Heritage Fund, this project has brought new people, stories, creativity and perspectives into these historic spaces. We are delighted to celebrate that work together.

“At the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, our role goes far beyond science and horticulture. As well as being a global institution tackling biodiversity loss and climate change, we also deliver education and engagement programmes to inspire and engage learners.

“We work with over 120 community groups and welcome visitors from across the world; our Gardens are a place where everyone can come together, share experiences and be inspired.”

The National Lottery Heritage Fund awarded £4.8 million to help save the Palm Houses, helping to support both the renovation of the historic buildings and community engagement work that is already bringing new audiences into the Palm Houses.

Caroline Clark, The National Lottery Heritage Fund Director for Scotland, said: “Thanks to National Lottery players, we have helped support the restoration of these magnificent 19th century Palm Houses, securing the future of the precious plant collection housed within them.

“This has been an extraordinary heritage project, but it’s also brought together people from communities across Edinburgh and beyond. It has given them the opportunity to share new experiences, develop their creative skills and helped shape how this special place will be understood and enjoyed for generations to come.”

The Palm Houses will reopen to the public on Friday 2 October 2026 following a major restoration project which has seen all 5,750 panes of glass replaced, 600m² of ironwork fully restored or replaced and 500m² of sandstone repairs carried out, alongside the return of nearly 600 precious plant specimens to their historic home.

rbge.org.uk/palm-houses

Brass Among the Blooms

Qatari Police Band visits Edinburgh’s restored Palm Houses

The Qatari Police Band, currently performing at this year’s Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo, stepped into one of the capital’s most remarkable landmarks as they visited the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh’s newly restored Palm Houses, offering a rare glimpse inside the spectacular space before it officially reopens to the public on the 2^nd of October.

The band’s captivating presence created a striking visual within the towering heritage structure, described as the world’s tallest traditional stone-built Palm House, as two distinct worlds came together beneath its newly renovated glass roof.

The Qatari Police Band are among more than 800 performers taking part in this year’s Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo, bringing together musicians and performers from across the world for A Call To Gather.

The Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo runs until 29 August on Edinburgh Castle’s Esplanade.

First for UK Botanic Garden as botanical BSL films unveiled at historic Palm Houses

A first-of-its-kind project for the UK’s botanic gardens will launch at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh this autumn, with the introduction of films demonstrating botanical terms newly developed within British Sign Language (BSL).

The short videos are designed to enhance deaf visitors’ engagement with the Garden’s remarkable Living Collection.

Created in partnership with BSL experts based at the Scottish Sensory Centre, University of Edinburgh, the films tell stories about botanical forms such as palms, ferns and fronds through sign language and will form an integral part of a new multimedia visitor experience when the Garden’s historic Palm Houses reopen following restoration.

Sarah Cathcart, Director of Learning and Engagement at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh said: “Working closely with the Scottish Sensory Centre’s BSL glossary team, we have developed a set of elegant and expressive new signs in British Sign Language to deliver a more meaningful and immersive experience for members of the deaf community visiting the Garden.

“These signs represent just the beginning of this important project. Through this collaboration we will continue to expand botanical vocabulary, ensuring that the natural world is more inclusive and accessible for all.”

Dr Audrey Cameron, Project Lead, Scottish Sensory Centre’s BSL Glossary project added: “At present, very few botanical terms exist in BSL – even for familiar plant species such as daffodils.

“By creating new language designed specifically for the deaf community, this unique project takes an important step forward in widening access to the wonders of plant biodiversity.”

To create the new signs, RBGE scientists and horticulturists worked with BSL experts to define the very essence of a plant or botanical feature. These qualities were then used by a deaf-led team of BSL scriptwriters and signers to create the videos.

Visitors to the Palm Houses will be able to access the content through QR codes positioned throughout the restored 19th‑century buildings.

As part of the Garden’s commitment to accessibility and knowledge‑sharing, the new BSL botanical signs will be shared with organisations across the UK.

Major digitisation project to document Scotland’s biodiversity

A major international digitisation project will begin this summer which aims to create approximately 700,000 digital records of specimens held in Scotland’s natural science collections.

National Museums Scotland and the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh will jointly lead the creation of a network to add Scotland to the Distributed System of Scientific Collections UK (DiSSCo UK) project, thanks to over £1.8 million in funding from the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC).

The project in Scotland will initially run for two years and will see more than 250,000 insects from National Museums Scotland and 388,000 herbarium specimens from the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh become digitally accessible to all.

In addition, four further partners are already engaged in the project, namely Glasgow Life, The Hunterian, Shetland Museum & Archives and The James Hutton Institute in Aberdeen, with more collecting institutions expected to be involved in due course.

Professor Olwen Grace, Deputy Director of Science (Collections), Curator of the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh Herbarium and project co-lead, said: “This project brings together Scotland’s exceptionally rich natural science collections in a united effort to mobilise the biodiversity records they hold.

“Drawing on the leading Herbarium digitisation approaches at RBGE, the project will boost digital heritage in Scotland and help to ensure the broadest diversity of the UK’s collections are made accessible online. “ 

The Herbarium of the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh is an exceptional collection of preserved specimens of the plant and fungal kingdoms used by researchers from around the world. From the flowering plants of coastal shores, moorland, and cities, to a tiny lichen from the brooding slopes of Ben Nevis, all specimens will be digitised.

Professor Grace added: “DiSSCo UK presents an unequalled opportunity to reveal the British and Irish species in our collections. Digitising brings recent and historic records of the country’s biodiversity together in a new way, making important information available for looking after nature in future.”

Dr Nick Fraser, Keeper of Natural Sciences at the National Museums of Scotland and project co-lead, said: “This is a really exciting undertaking. It will really activate collections which have been amassed across Scotland for over 200 years.

“Having these records digitally available will allow us to unlock the critical information that these collections hold about changes in biodiversity over time and the impact of climate change on diverse ecosystems both here in Scotland and across the world.”

Among the significant collections to be digitised is the Pelham-Clinton moth collection held at the National Museums Collection Centre in Edinburgh.

Edward Pelham-Clinton spent decades travelling Britain and Ireland, collecting over 35,000 moths and butterflies, and filling 64 meticulous field diaries with observations on 2,169 species, building what is almost certainly the most detailed personal record of British moths ever compiled.

His collection and diaries, which contain around 250,000 entries in total, cover precisely the decades before moth populations began their dramatic modern decline, making them an irreplaceable before-and-after record of what Britain’s moths looked like when they were still thriving.

Dr Fraser added: “Unlocking the full power of this archive means digitising every page of those diaries and every specimen label.

“That means that anyone, anywhere, can ask what was flying in a Scottish meadow in the 1950s, and compare it to what is flying there now which, in some cases, may be very little due to expanded human inhabitation and activity”.

DiSSCo UK [https://dissco-uk.org/] (Distributed System of Scientific Collections UK) is a £155 million, 10-year national programme to digitise and connect the UK’s natural science collections. The programme is funded through the UKRI Infrastructure Fund and delivered by the UKRI Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) in partnership with the Natural History Museum and over 100 partners across the UK.

AHRC Executive Chair Professor Christopher Smith said: “For hundreds of years the UK has gathered and grown one of the world’s most comprehensive and diverse collections of scientific material in museums across the UK. It has been a long-held ambition to bring this collection together – and now this dream can come true.

“Over ten years, DiSSCo UK will deliver progress that would otherwise have taken over a century, including the creation of millions of newly digitised records and a network of around 100 collections from national museums and gardens, and universities to local collections that would never have had such access without it. And the outcomes of this £155m investment will offer exciting new opportunities for science as well as society.

“AHRC is proud to have led UKRI’s largest ever investment in the GLAM sector, yet another contribution to our leadership of the creative and cultural economy.”

It is hoped that future phases will encompass more of the collections of existing participants and also widen in scope to include more of Scotland’s natural science collecting institutions.

Travelling the land to inspire tomorrow’s guardians of the planet

Creating inspirational outreach to engage children and young people with the natural world has brought international recognition for Edinburgh’s Eve Armstrong.

School visits around the country, virtual lessons, and a series of videos have won her the Botanic Garden Conservation International (BGCI) 2026 Marsh Award for education in botanic gardens.

Since 2023 Eve, an Education Outreach Officer at Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, funded by The National Lottery Heritage Fund, has built up an extensive Scotland-wide outreach programme. She has engaged with over 7,000 pupils, by visiting schools from the Borders to Aberdeen and the Outer Hebrides.

In addition, she has reached a further 13,000 pupils in live streaming and enabling virtual visits to the research institute’s Glasshouses, Herbarium, Plant Nursery and Herbology room, as well as the Garden itself.

These interactive experiences have beamed into classrooms in 23 of Scotland’s 32 local authorities. Along the way, Eve has enthused primary and secondary age pupils on topics ranging from Rainforests to Scottish Native Plants and Botanic Careers.

Amy McDonald, Project Engagement Manager, nominated Eve for the award. She explained: “Eve always goes the extra mile to share the joy and importance of plants. The enthusiastic feedback we receive shows that pupils and teachers love her approach and session content.

“She always finds innovative and creative ways to connect with pupils in-person and virtually. Her videos have seen her don waders to film in a pond and borrow an infrared camera to map the heat emitted from a magnificent Amorphophallus titanum.

“Many of her lessons encourage young people to think about what actions they could take to conserve biodiversity – from looking after the natural spaces around their home, school, or local area, to lobbying adults to take action.”

As well as professional recognition, Eve receives £1,000 in prize money.

She said: “I am very fortunate to be in the position of working with children and young people right around the country. They are the future guardians of our planet and the starting point for them should be about having fun, learning about the vast number of positive experiences they can have by engaging with plants.

“We need their enthusiasm. At a time when 40 per cent of all known species are in danger of extinction, the determination of the next generation can make massive changes for the better in combating the impact of the biodiversity crisis and climate emergency. To inspire a sense of wonder in the natural world turns out to be fun and inspiring for me as well as them.”