Giant redwood snapped in half by Storm Eowyn in Benmore Botanic Garden, Argyll, Scotland (Photo by Max East at https://www.flickr.com/photos/maxeast/7024372169
Dear Readers, whilst down here in London Storm Eowyn rattled a few patio chairs and blew a bird feeder off the lilac, the damage in Scotland has been extreme. Look at the poor Giant Redwood (above)! This 50 metre specimen was planted in 1863, and here we are. Winds reached 135 mph in Scotland, and broke an 80 year-old wind speed record in Ireland. But as the world warms, it’s likely that there will be more ‘extreme weather events’. Ever feel like the proverbial frog in a saucepan? I wonder when we’ll decide to ‘jump out’ and do something about turning the gas off.
Anyway.
The Royal Botanic Society in Edinburgh has four sites in Scotland. At the Royal Botanic Garden in Edinburgh, a 29 metre Deodar Cedar, the tallest tree in the collection, was blown over. It was planted in 1859 and had survived all the storms up until now. This beautiful tree is the national plant of Pakistan, and is considered sacred in the Hindu religion. In addition, over 27 other trees have been badly damaged, and the greenhouses have lost more than 100 panes of glass.
Deodar Cedar (Cedrus deodara) Photo By Paul Evans from London, United Kingdom – DSC00483.JPG, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=9471983
Benmore seems to have suffered the worst damage with 200-300 trees lost, and several greenhouses and polytunnels, which were protecting some of the endangered plant collection, crushed and damaged beyond repair.
At Dawyck Botanical Garden in Peebles, 50-60 trees were lost, and it’s estimated that it will take a full year to make the garden fully accessible again.
At Logan Botanical Garden in Stranraer, opening of the site will be delayed due to storm damage.
The Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew are sending four arborists to Scotland to help assess the damage and help with the clear up, but you can see the scale of the problem here.
You can argue that botanical gardens are largely ‘zoos for trees’ – they have collections of plants that would never be found together in the wild, and that is true. However, they also do remarkable conservation work, and help to introduce people to plants that they might never get a chance to see ‘in the wild’. I am going to make a little donation to the clean up effort for the Edinburgh Botanical Gardens, and if you feel similarly moved, there’s a link below…
https://www.rbge.org.uk/support-us/donate/
Devastating. So sad. 😞
Hi. Sorry to hijack your post, but are you heading back to Obergurgl this year? I’ve drawn a blank with Inghams and TUI Lakes & Mountains as one doesn’t seem to like single-person bookings, the other has stopped taking people travelling from Manchester, or so it seems!
Hi Charlie, yes we are! Staying at the Olympia from 5th July for a fortnight…travelling from Gatwick. Last year Easyjet cancelled the flight, and there wasn’t another one until Thursday so Inghams refunded us the holiday cost. In the meantime I broke my leg, so I couldn’t have gone anyway…..
Broken leg… sorry to hear that. I was last at the Alpenland, but this time it looks like I’ll be travelling independently. I look forward to your Oetztal updates.
There are flights by Lufthansa to Innsbruck, but the transfer can be expensive if you go all the way by taxi – I think we were quoted about 300 euros each way when we looked into it. I guess you could get the bus from the bottom of the valley?
Yep, a train from Innsbruck to Oetztal Bahnhof, then a bus up the valley. I think it will have to be Manchester-Frankfurt-Innsbruck.
They haven’t stopped the Manchester-Innsbruck flight, but I think I am right in saying that Inghams will no longer transfer guests from it to the Oetztal. Sounds illogical, but seems that way.
Vivienne, interesting what you say about Inghams losing interest. Whether or not true, there is a north-south divide when it comes to getting to Austria and Slovenia. I’ve given up trying to communicate with Inghams about anything where a considered reply is demanded of them!
I’ve seen a few trees down in our local Forest too and by the side of the road towards Bala. The wind speed was not so bad inland, but clearly strong enough to bring them down.
Charlie could always try Switzerland – I can recommend it! 🙂