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Dawyck has been an arboretum since the Veitch family (ancestors of John Veitch who founded the renowned Chelsea nursery in 1808) began planting trees in the middle of the seventeenth century. The Naesmyths bought the estate in the 1690s. Sir John Murray Naesmyth obtained wild-collected seed from planting expeditions, including those of David Douglas who explored the flora of North America. Douglas firs (Pseudotsuga menziesii) raised in 1835, a year after Douglas's death, still stand today. In 1897 the estate was bought by Mrs Alexander Balfour and her son FRS Balfour, and they continued the planting, with hundreds of rhododendrons and thousands of bulbs. Balfour subscribed to plant-hunting expeditions, and many of the trees and shrubs introduced by Ernest 'Chinese' Wilson were planted at Dawyck. In 1978 FRS Balfour's son, Colonel Alistair Balfour, gifted the garden to the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh.
Tags:  RBGE royal botanic gardens edinburgh scotland