Entering the main gardens at Logan
Logan Botanic Gardens, at the southern most tip of Scotland, extends to some 11 acres of public ground. Their claim to fame is the mild climate which allows a range of plants to thrive that cannot be seen in most of the UK. Air frosts between early April and late November are very rare and many years escape frost altogether.
The gardens are home to about 1,800 species specialising in examples from New Zealand and Tasmania and include some 120 species threatened with extinction in the wild. The large shelter belts around the gardens add a further 13 acres to its size and create within them a benign, if slightly salty, micro-climate.
The central area of the walled garden
Tree ferns (Dicksonia antarctica) and on the right cabbage trees (Cordyline australis)
The new 'Edwardian Glass House', has a twist, when it was opened two years ago it was believed to be the first carbon neutral glasshouse in the UK
The Gunnera bed with a white bar to show the approximate height of a person
Another Gunnera! The white bar is approximately the height of a sparrow
Here are two species of Gunnera, the one on the left is some two to three metres tall and the one above has leaves that are smaller than your hand
Stooping only a little, adults can walk though a tunnel made from this giant Gunnera
Wallemia nobilis pines, from New South Wales, individually live for more than 1,000 years, and are one of the oldest plants in the world, having been around for at least 90 million years and probably a lot longer
This Ethiopian banana is labelled Encenta ventricosum (but is probably Encete ventricosum) and is found all down the continent to the Transvaal, its fruit are said to be inedible, but the roots are widely consumed
New palm planting
The Southern Rata (Metrsideros umbellata) is from New Zealand
Logan Gardens were given to the
Royal Botanic Gardens
in Edinburgh in 1969. Over the previous 100 years they had been established by the McDouall family who were avid gardeners acquiring many exotic plants on their travels.
A flower of the Glory Bush (Tibouchina urvilleana) which comes from Brazil
The main gardens
The New Zealand cabbage palm - Cordyline autralis
The pool by the cafe with its
'Sculptural Form'
by Joe Smith
The discovery centre has information about the gardens and beside it is a gallery displaying photos of the garden's plants in their native habitats. To the left is a prize winning cafe.
Each winter the curator, Richard Baines, spends time gathering material in northern Vietnam and assisting the establishment of the fledgling botanic organisation there.
The woodland pool is surrounded by a number of species from Asia, such as ginger, from Vietnam
The Tasmanian snow gum - Eucaluptus coccifera
Fucias at the entrance to the walled garden
The gardens are open from March to October and some 25,000 people make it to this far corner of Scotland each year.
The driveway from the road to the gardens has been newly lined with 300 palms
The palm trees that fringe the entrance area of Logan Botanic Gardens at once give it an exotic atmosphere
The next page
is about the road from Phang Xi Pang (mainland south-east Asia's highest mountain) to Sa Pa.
The last page had pictures from the Royal Botanic Gardens in Edinburgh
A glimpse of formal gardens in Iran
Go to a page on the Jurong Gardens in Singapore
