Inspired by the wild flower the Ghost Orchid (Epipogium aphyllum), Scottish artist Siobhan Healy's delicate and lovely glass pieces - currently on display in the John Hope Gateway atrium at Edinburgh's botanical gardens - are intended to encourage the viewer to reflect on the transience and potential loss of this and other rare species. "The ghost orchid is an evocative emblem of the 1 in 5 of our wild flowers that are threatened with extinction. It is the most mysterious wildflower in Britain, the strangest, the rarest, and it was declared extinct during an absence of 23 years. But like a wandering spectre, the ghost orchid has reappeared." You can read more about it here.
Sadly, the Royal Botanic Garden (our neighbour) lost 40 trees in the gales earlier this week. I haven't yet been in to see the sorry sight, but I know there were some important specimens among those that have fallen.
As you know Kew lost many important large trees in earlier gales (1987?) and although indeed sad it provided important new spaces so it won't all be loss at RBG. Sadly I have never seen the Ghost Orchid but I have seen Corallorhiza trifida and Epipactis purpurata which also lack (usually) any chlorophyll.
Posted by: Dark Puss | 06 January 2012 at 04:03 PM
I can't tell you how much I enjoy my daily visits to Cornflower. I am an American (North Carolina in retirement) who owns an island hidey-hole on the Isle of Bute. I have spent a good deal of time in Edinburgh with friends and, for many years, at the Festival. Today I was particularly saddened to hear of the damage to the Botanical Garden. It's a place I particularly like to visit.
I am a reader and a cook too, so you push all my buttons. Thank you for sharing your interests and your life.
Posted by: Today y | 07 January 2012 at 12:35 AM
Beautiful!
Shame about the trees but as gardeners the people there will probably see their loss as a planting opportunity.
Posted by: Barbara | 07 January 2012 at 08:34 AM
How sad it is when trees are ripped out like this, nature is very cruel sometimes. I suppose it's true the gardener's will see it as an opportunity, after all, there is a silver lining to every cloud!
The glass ghost orchid is very beautiful, both physically and symbolically. As the wife of a keen orchid-lover, I have learnt quite a bit about them over the years. One day, I hope to get to Edinburgh, it's not that far but we have never yet made it - a New Year's resolution?! A delicious treat it will be, anyway, not least thanks to various tips from Cornflower.
Posted by: MelD | 07 January 2012 at 12:00 PM
Dear MelD, Nature isn't cruel it just is. When we grow specimen trees we do so in a very unnatural way (as we do in managed forests) that almost certainly lead to more exposure to destructive winds; if anything you might plausibly argue that gardeners are cruel.
Posted by: Dark Puss | 07 January 2012 at 01:49 PM
It is sad to see mighty trees fallen, but it is actually quite natural, of course; I am a close neighbour of Kew Gardens, which suffered terribly in the Great Storm, and not only was it a planting opportunity, as others have said, but the garden repaired itself astonishingly quickly. Go there now, and you would find it hard to find evidence of the many (I recall much more than 40, as Kew is many times the size of Edinburgh, more like hundreds)casualties of that night. The RBGE will be fine in no time at all!
Posted by: Lindsay | 07 January 2012 at 06:29 PM
I hope you will make it here before too long - and we can lay on better weather for you than we've had this week.
Posted by: Cornflower | 07 January 2012 at 07:24 PM
You're most welcome - thankyou for being a loyal reader.
Posted by: Cornflower | 07 January 2012 at 07:27 PM
The Royal Horticultural Society's garden at Wisley in Surrey lost a lot of trees in the 1980s storms, on the positive side it gave them the opportunity to replant sections of the woodland.
We love the Edinburgh Botanic Garden, it's one of our regular call in places when we're in Scotland on holiday. We tend to go there on a Sunday to take advantage of the free on street parking.
Posted by: Geraldine | 09 January 2012 at 09:28 AM
Lindsay is as usual correct! Kew lost nearly 700 mature trees in the 1987 storm.
Posted by: Dark Puss | 09 January 2012 at 10:47 AM
I live near the west coast outpost of EBG,Benmore - there has been a lot of damage here too, though I don't know the details yet.We had 90 odd hours without power too (not that that mattered to the trees, but the staff must have found it trying!)
That little tip about parking in Edinburgh is very useful. Another thing I like about blogs...
Thank you for yours, its great!
Posted by: Freda | 09 January 2012 at 02:34 PM
Yes, parking in Edinburgh is never easy!
Posted by: Cornflower | 09 January 2012 at 07:21 PM
Thankyou, Freda! To be so long without power must have been very difficult.
Posted by: Cornflower | 09 January 2012 at 07:22 PM