15/09/2026
Did you know that limes grow at Armadale? 🌿
Not the green citrus kind, though. Our Lime trees belong to the Tilia genus, also known as Basswood in North America, and produce small, round berries which can be roasted and ground into a cocoa-like powder. One of our gardeners recently put this to the test and made a rather successful banana-lime-chocolate smoothie!
Around a dozen ancient Lime trees can be found throughout the gardens, particularly along Lord Macdonald’s Drive, where there was likely once a Lime Avenue leading from the main road to the castle.
Keeping them looking their best takes some work too. Generations of gardeners have trimmed their epicormic shoots, the shoots that grow directly from the stem, to prevent a skirt of brushy branches forming around the trunks.
“Lime” is an alteration of the tree’s older name, “Lind” or “Linden”. So, a special mention has to go to our gardener Lyndon, who has been busy pruning this year’s epicormic shoots and keeping our Linden trunks looking their best.
- Thank you to Angus, one of our gardeners, for writing this interesting piece!🌲
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