The PLANTS project: 8 Inverewe plant highlights

This shapely tree stands quietly in a lush green lawn, close to the drive in Inverewe Garden. When it opens its sparkling red flowers it erupts with sound because the bees swarm to it – the whole tree hums with their activity. Visitors are also drawn to it, and it is the subject of many photographs. It is a native of New Zealand, where it is a significant source of honey.

This particular tree dates from 1965 and originates from Tresco Abbey Garden in the Isles of Scilly, off the coast of Cornwall, a garden which is a well-known source of a wide range of sub-tropical plants.

Lobelia bridgesii (Tupa rosada)

Visitors to Inverewe get an early treat from the interesting and colourful planting around the visitor centre entrance. Lobelia bridgesii draws attention with its attractive and unusual pink flowers on top of tall, densely leaved stems.

It is a hardy perennial that will grow large in a sheltered location and comes from a small area in the foothills of the Chilean Andes. It is named after the English plant collector Thomas Bridges – hence the name bridgesii – who spent nearly three decades (from 1828) in Chile collecting plants and seeds, which he sent to Kew. It was subsequently lost from cultivation in botanic gardens around the world until it was re-introduced to collections from an expedition in 1989.

Grevillea victoriae (Royal grevillea)

An Australian eye-catcher, you will find Grevillea victoriae at the end of the drive by Inverewe House. Endemic to Australia’s New South Wales and Victoria, it was first described by botanist Ferdinand von Mueller in 1855 and named after Queen Victoria. It is a fairly round shrub with grey-green lanceolate leaves, and orange buds opening to deep-pink pendulous flowers in late summer.

Like many plants native to Australia, it has developed grey-green leaves to help it cope with intense heat. Its branchlets and the underside of its leaves are covered in silky hairs. These help to reflect solar radiation and wind, therefore cooling the leaf and stem surfaces and protecting them from evaporation.

Eucalyptus coccifera (Tasmanian snow gum)

Osgood Mackenzie, who first developed Inverewe Garden in the 1860s, was proud of his eucalyptus trees growing in the north of Scotland, far from their native climates. The same trees are there for you to admire today, and visitors love to pose for photos among the limbs of the Eucalyptus coccifera from Tasmania that sprawls in the Rock Garden, close to the shore of Loch Ewe.

Writing in a letter to The Scotsman in 1907, Mackenzie related his experiences during a visit to an Italian region in which a large proportion of Eucalyptus had died during the hard winter of 1904–05. He felt thankful for the effects of the Gulf Stream preventing deep frost in his garden, but also believed that the Italians should be growing ‘hardier species of Eucalpyti’, recommending blue gums – he had at the time 50 or 60 specimens in 6 or 7 varieties and had never lost any in ‘the worst of winters’ over a period of 15 years. As you can see from the picture below, they continue to thrive.

Wollemia nobilis (Wollemi pine)

The grove of Wollemi pines at Inverewe is incredibly special. This tree is critically endangered and protected in its native Australia. The species was discovered growing in a temperate rainforest in Wollemi National Park, New South Wales (home to only 100 surviving trees, some of which are between 500 and 1,000 years old) in 1994. Unlike other living conifers, it sheds whole branches rather than individual leaves, and is in fact most closely related to members of the Araucariaceae family known only from 200-million-year-old fossils.

Fewer than 100 Wollemi pines are known in the wild, yet Inverewe’s trees survived temperatures of -7C in January 2010. The PLANTS project has confirmed that the Trust holds 30 of these special plants across its gardens. The Inverewe Wollemi pines were planted in 2008 and you can find them in the Bambooselem.

Hakea lissosperma (Needle bush)

Visitors from Tasmania spoke to the team when they recognised this dramatic shrub from home. It hails from southeastern Australia and Tasmania, where it is known as the needle bush for its long, spiny leaves. It grows in areas of wet eucalyptus forest and, although it is commonly found in mountainous areas, it is also found at sea level in areas of high rainfall.

One of the PLANTS project’s outcomes is to allow users to cross-search between collections and trace the origins of a plant. We know that Inverewe’s two specimens of H. lissoperma originated from the Trust garden at Brodick Castle. A fine plant at Inverewe’s Gate Lodge came from Brodick in 1965. Another, received from Brodick in 1987, is located in Inverewe’s America Garden, close to the junction of the paths to Bambooselem. In the walled garden at Inverewe, you can find another species of Hakea – the sweet hakea (Hakea drupacea) – whose seed pods can take up to six years to mature.

Gevuina avellana (Chilean hazelnut)

This evergreen tree grows up to 20m tall in its native southern Chile and Argentina. It has bright green, toothed, composite leaves and small creamy flowers in pairs on long racemes. It is known as the Chilean hazelnut, although it is not actually related to hazel. Guevin is the indigenous Chilean name for this tree, and the species name comes from early Spanish settlers likening its nuts to the hazelnuts (avellana) they knew from home.

The PLANTS project were able to confirm a 1915 specimen of Chilean hazelnut at Inverewe. Planted by Osgood Mackenzie, it is the girth champion tree for its species in Britain and Ireland and can be found in the Bambooselem.

Rhododendron ‘Seamew’

Inverewe is famous for its rhododendrons. Indeed, the saying goes that there is a rhododendron in flower at Inverewe every month of the year. Spring is the most common flowering time, so to enjoy their grandeur and see the woodland garden areas at Inverewe come into their own, an April visit is best.

If you are lucky enough to visit the gardens in spring, you will see an impressive large-scale display of rhododendrons with lush blooms in many colours. The cultivar shown here is ‘Seamew’, which is a Loderi Group x sutchuenense hybrid. You will find it on the Jubilee Walk, where its large white blooms light up the shady woodland path. ‘Seamew’ is an early flowerer, and the photos seen here were taken in late April 2024.

Plant Listing at the National Trust for Scotland (PLANTS) is the biggest horticultural audit project undertaken by the Trust and aims to celebrate, protect and better understand the flora and vegetation across our gardens and designed landscapes.

Read more about the PLANTS project