Scotland's botanic gardens launch emergency appeal as cost of damage from Storm Eowyn runs to six figures

Gusts of up to 82 miles per hour had savaged all four Scottish gardens, in Edinburgh, Dawyck, Benmore and Logan on Friday, putting the thousands of plants and trees in the royal collection at risk.

“We had a good indication, with all four gardens in the red weather warning zone,” says Mr Milne, regius keeper at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh (RBGE). “So we knew it was highly likely there would be significant impact. We were geared up.

“Then the team came in to start the assessment and it became apparent that the destruction was significant.”

A short time later, Mr Milne stood in front of the remains of one of Edinburgh’s most iconic trees, which, along with many others, was destroyed in the storm.

In the Edinburgh garden, 15 trees were fully uprooted, with up to 60 destroyed across the four Royal Botanic Gardens. Of another 200 which have sustained damage, it is not yet known how many will be able to be saved.

“There's been significant loss and damage to the national botanic collection, which is one of the world's greatest plant collections,” says Mr Milne. “These are not any old trees, this is a very special botanical collection. Every tree is special. Every tree has a history or a cultural significance.”

Now RBGE has launched a Storm Damage Recovery Fund to help fund the estimated hundreds of thousands of pounds needed to rebuild the gardens.

The team of around 30 staff, who had rushed to the gardens on their day off, quickly realised that one of the most high profile casualties of the storm was the 166-year-old Himalayan cedar, planted by the-then Prince of Wales - known as being Edinburgh’s tallest tree at 30 metres.

“Until you see it, you don't realise [the full impact of] it,” Mr Milne says. “It's like saying goodbye to an old friend, it is such an iconic tree. I was definitely a bit emotional about losing such a grand old tree.

“It was the tallest tree in Edinburgh and it is no longer the tallest tree in Edinburgh because it is on the ground and that’s really sad. It’s been a special part of our botanical community since 1859.

“Walking around the gardens since the storm, I’ve seen a lot of people just standing and looking at the fallen cedar in silence.”

Mr Milne warns the clean up will take “many months”, while some parts of the collection will not ever be able to be restored.

“It will take many, many months to clear up after this storm and it will take decades for the plants to be replaced in the sense of growing.”

He adds: “I hope that people who have an affinity with our gardens, all four of them, or any individual one, or an affinity with plant collections and amazing trees in the natural world will consider helping us through the fund to deal with the situation.”

The cedar’s future is yet to be decided, with options including removing it entirely, or turning its remains into a structure for another plant. Just metres away stands another dead tree, a chestnut, which was fenced off a few years ago after damage from another storm.

“We’re not sure we want this area to turn into a tree graveyard,” says Mr Milne. “We still have to decide what to do.”

He pays tribute to the “Herculean effort” of the staff, who have worked tirelessly since being allowed back into the gardens once the Met Office’s red warning passed.

“So many of the team came in on Saturday. Because they really care for the plants, they’re with them every day, they've got, they've got an affinity to them.

“They may have collected the seed out in the wild, in Nepal, or other other countries, they've propagated them, they've grown them, they've nurtured them. A lot of them will have conservation value, and therefore they feel very attached to them and it’s heartbreaking when some of them are destroyed.”

He points to an increase in the “frequency and intensity of storms” and other volatile weather events.

“We’re having to plant things in a different way to cope with climate change,” he says.

Although the Edinburgh garden reopened to the public on Sunday, the planned seasonal reopening of the other three sites is set to be delayed as the attractions are made safe for visitors after the storm. Benmore saw an entire glasshouse blown down, and also lost a polytunnel.

Across the garden in Edinburgh, contractors are working on the roofs of the 29 glasshouses, 80 per cent of which took a battering in the storm. More than 150 panes were cracked or shattered, while hundreds more were dislodged and require attention. Many of the glasshouses are used for research and scientific study, with only a small number open to the public.

Ronnie McAlpine, contractor at SG Access, estimates it will take around two weeks to painstakingly replace all broken panes in the glasshouse roofs. Workers have to carry large glass panels up ladders to carefully restore the structures.

“We don’t know until we get up there on each roof what the extent of the damage is,” he says. “Inside and outside, there is just glass everywhere.”

The Victorian Palm House, which has been restored and was not significantly damaged in the storm, is due to open as scheduled later this year

The long term impact on the plant collection is as yet unknown.

In the glasshouses, plants, many of them originally from warmer climes, are kept at high temperatures. The broken panes have allowed cold air into the buildings, potentially putting the species at risk.

Experts have wrapped up some particularly vulnerable plants to protect them from the cold, while the glasshouses are being repaired. Meanwhile, “razor sharp” shards of glass falling from the roof have sliced parts off other species inside the glasshouses.

Sadie Barbour, research and collections manager at RBGE, says the cracks in the glasshouse roofs have left plants vulnerable, although the full extent of the damage will not be known for weeks. While staff were allowed in initially to try to conserve the most vulnerable species, they are not allowed inside the buildings while repair work is going on.

“We can’t know the full impact until we get back into the glasshouses,” says Ms Barbour. “It will be a couple of weeks before we know which plants have suffered a ‘cold shock’, we can’t see it straight away. We just have to wait and see.”