A new display at Royal Botanical Gardens always calls for celebration, but when the effort results in a trifecta of loveliness, our excitement can barely be contained. The winners of this trifecta are visitors to RBG Centre where the creation of the new cactus and succulent exhibit in the lower level of the Mediterraean Garden has resulted in new spaces for the display of tropical foliage plants and the Bromeliaceae family.
RBG has always had a complement of cacti and succulent plants but in recent years they’ve been scattered across the built spaces of the garden, difficult to enjoy and impossible to interpret. Like scientists tinkering with recombinant DNA, the Horticulture staff has brought together material from multiple sources, creating a display that could not otherwise be found at the Gardens.
Plants exhibiting convergent evolution in the old and new world have been combined in a beautiful display of the diversity of the succulents and planted in containers designed to mimic the path design of the upper section of the Mediterranean Garden. Amazingly not a single plant had to be purchased; scouring the existing resources of the garden yielded enough plants to populate the display. While new plants will be added over time to develop the collection further, a grand start has been made—the plants are already showing their pleasure with their new home and visitors love it.
A consequence of the marshalling of plants for the new display is that two areas in the building have been freed for additional development. The front window bed in the McQuesten Theatre, where cacti and succulents languished, is ideal for its new display: tropical foliage —featuring a collection of Ficus trees and small palms.
The second area is one of RBG Centre’s best kept secrets—a niche garden on the ramp next to Shop @ the Gardens where terrestrial and epiphytic relatives of the pineapple, all from the bromeliad family, now enjoy a spot of sun and an occasional drink.
Improving what we have and providing new opportunities for discovery are what we are all about. Enhancing the visitor experience is a paramount concern for all of us at RBG and new initiatives like these are all for you. Come visit us—again.
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