Falling glass and ‘decapitated’ plants: the race to protect Edinburgh botanic garden’s plants

The £23.5m refurbishment has kept nearly all of the original sandstone and wrought iron shell. Photograph: Murdo MacLeod/The Guardian

In the early autumn sunlight, Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh’s extensive plant collection appears safe in their glass enclosures. But danger lurks from above for the tropical ferns, cycads and rare alpine heathers.

Soon the September sunshine will give way to the storms and gales of the Scottish winter, which can bring hundreds of glass panels crashing to the greenhouse floor on the windiest days. Nobody is allowed inside when the wind is above 30mph.