David Knott

Curator of Living Collections at Edinburgh’s Royal Botanic Garden chooses the giant redwood

My favourite trees, among the many cultivated within the Living Collection of the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, are the Sequoiadendron giganteum, or giant redwoods.

There is a group of small trees in Edinburgh that has been named the John Muir Grove after the Scottishborn environmentalist who pioneered the conservation of wilderness areas in the US, while a number of taller and larger-diameter specimens are at Dawyck Botanic Garden in the Scottish Borders.

At Benmore Botanic Garden there is an avenue of 49 trees planted in 1863, now all more than 50 metres tall, which stretches over 500 metres, creating one of the most impressive entrances to any botanic garden in the world.

This iconic tree now faces a number of challenges: in its native habitat, human settlement has resulted in many groves of the trees being in decline; and in cultivation at Benmore, the impacts of climate change and subtle changes in rainfall patterns, wetter winters and drier springs, now require remedial intervention by the horticultural team to save this iconic avenue and inspire future generations.