Royal Botanic Gardens, Edinburgh

I'm terribly overdue for a blog post and last November I promised to tell you about our visit to the Royal Botanic Gardens in Edinburgh.  It was a blustery day with the sun ducking in and out of the clouds.  If it were warmer, we could've walked, but a taxi sufficed. 

Once we were inside the gardens, practically the first thing we saw were these enormous leaves... easily big enough to hold Big Schlepp and Herr Professor Bear.  Immediately a group of school girls saw me and I had my picture taken with all of them.

With the weather turning blustery, we thought we'd try the glass houses at the other corner of the gardens.  Our tickets got us entry into all 12 of them.  It wasn't a long walk and the entrance was the 120' high Palm House.  Truly amazing.  

 

One greenhouse led to another with wonderful plants in profusion.  Here is some variety of Spanish Moss and  a purple orchid. 

 

Farther along was an enormous indoor lily pond with 3' in diameter water lilies from Africa.  Beyond was a glass house with an entire forest of tree ferns.  

 

After we left, we wandered up the hill and had a light lunch before exploring the rest of the gardens.  On the way out, we discovered these lovely blooms.  

All in all, an exquisite day, even with the cold and wind, these gardens are not to be missed no matter what the season.  And in the worst of weather, the best is still the warm and beautiful glass houses.