Botanics

The kids and I went to the Edinburgh Botanic Gardens today. We love the gardens and when we used to live in Leith we went weekly (if not more).

Todays trip was to see the Titan Arum, also known as the corpse flower. Normally we dont go into the glasshouses as you have to pay and I am a renowned skinflint:) However today we pushed the boat out and paid our cash to see this rare flower. We had to go through all the greenhouses to reach it as it was a the very back of the last glasshouse. It is protected behind a cage and it is being filmed and photographed at regular intervals so that when it does flower it will be shown on their website. There is a growth chart on the wall and it is growing between 1cm and 1.5cm a day, it is at 16.5cm just now.

It really is ages since we have been in there. I forgot how wonderful the glasshouses are, I have taken more pictures today than I have in ages and although I did plan on blipping the the Titan Arum, since it does not look too much just now, I could not resist blipping the pond with the giant waterlily pads in it. I remember this so vividly from when I was young, they are so impressive and you do feel quite tempted to step on and see if they could take your weight. All the flowers are in bud just now so I think we may have to make another visit in a couple of weeks to see them in full bloom.