Where the wild things grow

The changing season brings a different kind of magic to the Edinburgh Zoo gardens – the leaves turn and the rustling in the trees adds a spooky vibe to the atmosphere. We sat down with our gardens team to find out how they keep things looking wild and wonderful throughout autumn – and to learn if they’ve ever had any Halloween surprises of their own!

How does the atmosphere of the zoo gardens change in autumn?

• A lot of the trees that we've got start to change colour, so you get all the firework colours – orange, red and yellow. A lot of plants die as well, everything drops and you've just got the skeleton of the trees left.

Autumn brings decay and regeneration, what’s the creepiest or most fascinating thing you’ve seen while working with plant life in seasonal transition?

• The creepiest thing I've seen is in the winter, there's some odd footprints. We always think it's a centaur because it's kind of like a hoof and the way it walks, it's not a rabbit or a badger, so we don't know what it is. I'm not sure I want to know! Plants-wise, there's a phenomenon called fascination where they basically grow two heads or the stem can be misshapen. You can get that with a lot of plants.

Are there any poisonous, spiky or otherwise dangerous plants in the collection that people might be surprised to learn about?

• Lots! Poisonous wise, probably aconitum (monkshood) or Ricinus, which can kill. Foxgloves, hemlock, all these are very dangerous. They're everywhere in the zoo – aconitum are planted in some of the beds, they're really tall and purple. Just don't eat them! The thing is, it's important to educate people that if you come here, you shouldn't just go and pick plants and eat them. You can't think of things as "they're poisonous, we shouldn't have them", it's about how you educate people. I think the aconitum is the one that historically used to be called 'Queen of poisons', it's very hard to trace. So stay on the good side of the gardens team! 

Which plant or tree in the zoo would you call the most mysterious or “haunted” and why?

• I'd probably go for the big cedar tree at the back of the Budongo building. That looks like something out of a Tim Burton movie, Sleepy Hollow. Most haunted I would say the Corstorphine sycamore, you can tie it in with the legend of the White Lady, who haunts Corstorphine wood and the zoo. 

Are there any legends, odd stories, or strange sightings associated with the zoo grounds?

• Apparently mansion house is haunted. It has the Grey Lady and allegedly, at night time, you can see a silhouette in the window. Security have even gone up to look as they thought someone was in there past opening hours and found no-one. 

If the gardens were the setting for a ghost story, what would the plot be?

• I would make it the Grey Lady and the White Lady and they would have been romancing the same guy. The Grey Lady was in love with the guy and the White Lady was incredibly jealous, so she killed them both and she killed her, she was executed. She haunts zoo carrying the sword she killed them with, carrying the head of the man. The Grey Lady sits in the mansion house and just cries.

If the gardens were enchanted and one plant could talk, which one do you think would have the oldest and strangest stories to tell?

• Definitely some of the oak trees, there's one up by sloth bears that must be around 150-200 years old. Or even the Corstorphine sycamore, that's from the 1920s. They would have a lot to talk about.

As daylight fades, the gardens take on a life of their own. Wrap up warm, take a wander and see what wonders (and whispers) you can find amongst our plant life.

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