Logan Botanic Garden flooding 'very concerning'

Clean-up operations have started following flooding at a site in south west Scotland which is home to some of the world's rarest plants.

Heavy and persistent rain led to drains overflowing at Logan Botanic Garden at Port Logan near Stranraer on Thursday.

Curator Richard Baines said the situation had been "very concerning" as water poured across plant beds.

He said he was hopeful the plants would recover if recent rain eased up to allow the ground to dry.

The garden is home to 120 species that are threatened with extinction out of about 2,500 species in total.

It usually enjoys an "almost subtropical climate" allowing plants to flourish which would not survive elsewhere.

Mr Baines said that when he arrived at work on Thursday the road leading to the site was already badly flooded after 72 hours of "continuous rainfall".

"Logan Botanic Garden recorded 51mm (2in) of rain - which was the highest recorded anywhere in the United Kingdom," he said.

It caused a pond to overflow and offices "narrowly avoided" being flooded but they were not able to protect all the plants.

"Once the woodland pond started overflowing it took the shortest and lowest possible route it could," he said.

"It was flowing over a number of beds which had the likes of very unusual tree ferns and rare palms in them."

He said that was far from ideal for a range of sub-tropical plants.

"It was certainly very concerning - some of these plants we grow at Logan there are only a handful of them in the world," he said.

He said such extreme weather was "quite challenging" but the plants should recover "as long as the rainfall relents".

"It is very, very unusual," he said. "I think in the last 10 years we have only had really substantial rainfall of two inches or over in a handful of events.

"This all ties into climate change where we are getting massive amounts of precipitation falling in a much more focused period of time.

"The actual rainfall figures for Logan over the last 50 years haven't changed very much but what has happened is the intensity of the rainfall is much more concentrated now."

The gardens are currently closed to visitors but Mr Baines said that - Covid restrictions permitting - they hoped to open again on 1 March.