Before being acquired by the society, the Corstorphine hill site was a nursery, once owned by Thomas Blaikie, who planted many of the great French parks such as ‘La Bagatelle'. On this site two nurserymen raised the famous apple cultivars ‘John Downie' and ‘James Grieve'. Today, the zoo has one of the most diverse tree collections in the Lothians with 120 species. The south-facing aspect allows bananas to be grown outside. Increasingly, horticulture is seen as a discipline in its own right, with the focus on habitat creation within enclosures, food stuffs for the animals, and enrichment for both the animals and the visiting public.