“4 Gardens in One,” by Deni Bown is an excellent source for learning about the four sites of the Royal Botanic Gardens Edinburgh. Written with passion and an eye for lively history — Bown took the photographs, too — in her details about the Younger Botanic Garden at Benmore, I learned the full truth of Rhododendron ponticum. “Even today one will encounter areas in the far west of the garden which are yet to be cleared; these are still ponticum territory and virtually impenetrable.”
Excerpted from the Winter 2008 Arboretum Bulletin.