The Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh (RBGE) has reopened its palm houses today, Friday 2 October 2026, after five years of restoration work. The refurbishment, costing £23.5 million, involved installing 5,750 panels of toughened glass.
Before the renovation, hundreds of glass panels could crash to the greenhouse floor during windy conditions, leading to plant damage. Sadie Barber, the glasshouse curator at RBGE, noted that plants had been "decapitated by falling bits of glass." Access to the glasshouses was restricted when winds exceeded 30mph, with horticulturalists shut out 15 times in 2026 due to high winds.
The restored palm houses, which are part-Georgian and part-Victorian, have retained nearly all of their original sandstone and wrought iron shell. Over 600 temperate plants have been returned to the building, where the air is purified by ferns.
Despite the palm house upgrades, many other glasshouses at the 356-year-old garden are decades past their intended lifespan and are still awaiting renovation. Leaks from Scottish rain have been known to damage or kill plants' rootstock.