New projects a Working Group are reviewing the. Threatened Plants Project. New relationships Hozelock who are supporting the

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1 NEWSLINES Welcome to our new look Newslines. It s a busy time of year for everyone at Plant Heritage and the show season is well and truly underway Summer 2012 The team gets its hands on the Olympic torch* Articles: Page 2 Members Weekend Page 2 Barnsdale Visit Page 3 New National Plant Collections Page 4 Royal Visit at Chelsea Page 5 Scottish Threatened Plants Page 6 News Page 7 Meet Gill and Gillian We may have gone quiet in terms of updates but the work has never stopped! New projects a Working Group are reviewing the National Collection application process New relationships Hozelock who are supporting the Threatened Plants Project New staff Vicky Shepherd, our PR Officer (and Editor behind the new look Newslines) The face of cultivated plant conservation is changing and we are making sure that Plant Heritage is in the vanguard of its development. So your support for cultivated plants is very important it may not be an Olympic event but the staff team are leading the way!* Genevieve Melbourne Webb Executive Officer * With thanks to Philip Spencer for lending us his Torch. PLANT HERITAGE 12 Home Farm, Loseley Park, Guildford, Surrey. GU3 1HS Telephone:

2 Margaret Robinson A trip to Holehird Gardens Plants ready for exchange Members Weekend Plant Heritage members enjoyed a fantastic weekend and AGM in May, organized by our North East Group in Lancaster. Margaret Robinson, grower of giant vegetables, treated visitors to an interesting talk as well as nurseryman turned gardener Peter Foley. Peter s passion for Ligularia has led to trying to reestablish a third/fourth generation National Plant Collection. He initially inherited plants from Annette Bensen who held a National Collection from Annette got her plants from Chris Mortimer, who in turn got them from the first custodian Eleanor Fisher, Collection holder until Although he doesn t have National Collection Holder status he is in the process of getting his collection up to the standard of reapplying. Everyone who travelled for the weekend enjoyed a visit to Holehird Gardens in Windermere run by the Lakeland Horticultural Society, which currently holds three National Plant Collections, Astilbe, Hydrangea and Polystichum. A highlight of the weekend was the annual Plant Exchange, which saw plants travelling from all over the country being sorted and re-boxed ready for their new homes. This year heralded the introduction of red labels to indicate those plants, which are deemed threatened. Those endangered in cultivation have been found in at least one National Collection or notable garden. If it s labelled Critical in Cultivation this is the only plant we know of! Barnsdale Gardens Nick Hamilton The annual Friends Day is now a firm favourite in the Plant Heritage diary and enjoyed by all. For the third year of holding this event, we picked a day out to Barnsdale Gardens in Rutland. Owner Nick Hamilton gave the Friends a treat with a unique two-hour guided tour of the gardens. Nick with his very easy, natural style made many references to his father, Geoff, giving snippets of information about how to create a garden on a shoestring and still get massive impact. We are very grateful to our sponsor Hozelock for supporting the day. The delicious lunch, all locally sourced produce, was held in a marquee on the lawn. We were lucky to be under cover, as the heavens opened just as the tour finished and we sat down to eat. It was a wonderfully relaxed day and everyone enjoyed themselves, and the banter that always goes with meeting fellow gardeners and Plant Heritage members.

3 Prunus The Bride New National Plant Collections Plant Heritage welcomed a number of new National Plant Collections to its family recently including the addition of Prunus, Gongora and Crassula Collections The National Plant Collection of ornamental flowering cherries (Prunus) is based on campus at Keele University, Staffordshire and has been growing since the first ornamental grounds were laid out in the 1940 s. Based on a collection of Japanese garden cherries it also includes trees from China, the New World and Europe. Speaking on the news, collection curator Dr Peter Thomas of the University s School of Life Sciences, said their aim had been to establish the first flowering cherry collection in the Midlands. Being acknowledged as a National Collection gives us the kudos with other collectors and is a wonderful acknowledgement of the hard work that we ve put into bringing the collection together, he said. The Crassula Collection based in Hook, Hampshire, has been put together by horticulturist, Amanda Whittaker and is held in a greenhouse in her back garden. Crassula Former teacher turned horticulturist Amanda started the collection, which now holds over 56 different species, in 2009 as a way of extending her interest in botany and plant hunters. I have always been interested in succulents since childhood, said Amanda. But having a young family of my own meant that I could not actively go on field trips. I came across the Plant Heritage website and the seed was sown. Gongora gracilis The Gongora collection, held at Haywards Heath, West Sussex by Drs Gary and Maria Firth has been developed over 30 years; soon after the couple fell in love with Cymbidium orchids on their honeymoon in Madeira. Speaking on their new Collection Holder status, Gary said they had moved onto other orchids soon after their first Cymbidium flowered in 1982, and quickly became fascinated by the form and scent of the Gongora genus of orchids. They have been building up their Collection ever since.

4 The Queen meets Caradoc Doy and Edna Squires at Chelsea Flower Show A Silver Gilt, Royal Visit and Cloakroom record for Plant Heritage at Chelsea Flower Show The months of hard work and show preparation paid off for the team who were awarded a Silver Gilt for their exhibit on Sir Harry Veitch at the Chelsea Flower Show. The exhibit, which was held in the Great Pavilion, told the life of Sir Harry, the major contributions he made to horticulture and displayed an extensive selection of plants introduced by the Veitch explorers. This was fantastic news for the team who had been nurturing the show plants to perfection through some terrible weather in the West Country this spring. Speaking at the launch of the exhibit writer, broadcaster and lecturer, Roy Lancaster praised the work of the team, which was made up of Veitch expert Caradoc Doy, Mike and Edna Squires, and said Sir Harry was one of his heroes. Without Sir Harry and the plant hunters his company employed, our gardens would be all the poorer. The team were delighted to receive a visit from the Queen when she made her annual visit to the show. once again, especially in the heat. As in the past the Plant Heritage volunteers carefully looked after thousands and thousands of items, heavy overnight luggage/ wheelchairs/plant stakes/picnic hampers (they get heavier and larger every year!), coats and of course Du Barry Boots and tons of Cath Kidston bags! But the all--important question is, did we beat the record! YES WE DID 4,800 raised. It puts the overall figure we have raised in the Chelsea Flower Show Cloakroom over the last 5 years to a total of approximately 23,000. The Veitch exhibit A quiet moment in the cloakroom A massive thanks to the huge numbers of you who helped in the Chelsea Cloakroom this year you showed enormous enthusiasm All much needed funds to support the work of Plant Heritage and garden plant conservation. Thanks to our sponsors Brother UK, Johnsons Seeds, Vital Earth, ODS Tech LLC and Club Rococo.

5 Garden World Pulmonaria Red Freckles Threatened Plants Project Update Finding more threatened plants in Scotland Whilst the garden press (the Plantsman, The Garden, Garden News) have been busy reporting our breakthrough success of the first identified threatened plant ready for propagation, Pulmonaria - Red Freckles - found only in the RHS gardens and donated to the HPS Pulmonaria Group for propagation (7 potfuls, from the Wilderness Area at Wisley) - the project keeps pushing on. The National Trust for Scotland (NTS) gardens have joined the notable collections providing data for us to search for threatened plants - we have already found 20 different plants at 5 properties, 11 of them uniquely held. A volunteer from NTS is already going through the list of each cultivar identified, ringing round nurseries to verify availability and doing detective work on names before contacting each Head Gardener to discuss the actual plants. Meanwhile more Plant Heritage volunteers (in Scotland and England) are collections-checking (leafing through Kew, Edinburgh, Hilliers and RHS websites to see if they have threatened plants). If you have some spare computer time and like deciphering plant names, you d be very welcome to join in too. The South East Scotland Group are also sponsoring two weeks of a new student project at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, to move forward on assessing Scottish plants, and if time, extra Irish and northern England National Collection genera. Watch this space for news - and if you ever want all the latest facts and figures, have a read through the website - it s reviewed frequently... Infocentre/Threatened-Plants- Project.aspx This project is supported by Hozelock and the Esmé Fairbairn Foundation.

6 NEWS UPDATE Hampton Court Palace Flower Show 2012 Lord Ridley It is with great sadness to report that one of Plant Heritage s Vice Presidents Lord Ridley died in March at the age of 86. Lord Ridley was the first president of Plant Heritage s North East Group and was an active member. His deep love of the countryside and horticulture led him to be one of our early Collection Holders with his National Collection of Alnus in Lord Riley went on to hold National Collections for both Acer and Sorbus. Publicity for Group Events A couple of suggestions for Groups looking to publicise an event in your area. Upload details onto wherewecango.com/events for free - the Daily Telegraph which publish events up to a year in advance. Country Homes and Interiors (monthly glossy) are also keen to learn of any events. Please ontact: ann_esden@ freelance.ipcmedia.com at least three months in advance of the event. The months of hard work and show preparations paid off for the Plant Heritage team who were awarded a Silver Medal for their exhibit on Worldwide Conservation at the Hampton Court Palace Flower Show. The exhibit, which was designed by leading garden designer Claudia de Yong, was formed around a 5 continent garden using a selection of plants from National Collection Holders and plants kindly donated by RHS Wisley. The marquee also celebrated a host of awards with Tale Valley Nursery and its Collection of Rhodohypoxis and X Rhodoxis being awarded a Gold with its National Collection of Caryopteris. A Silver Gilt Lindley was awarded to the National Collection of Lobelia Species and Silver Lindley s went to Dibleys Nurseries with Streptocarpus and Saintpaulias; Roger Parsons Lathyrus and Tynings Climbers Passiflora. The late Michael Woolls Blanco, who sadly passed away a month before his Collection of Restionaceae was due to be shown at the show was awarded a Bronze Lindley. Now in its fifth year the ever-- popular Seed Shop run by Janet Wright and June James returned with over 4,000 packets of seeds, including a selection of seeds from the Buckingham Palace gardens. BBC Broadcaster Alys Fowler visits the Seed Shop The Seed Shop was kindly sponsored by Bristol based family business, Proctors who donated 1,000 to the project. Huge media interest in the shop over the week included a lovely piece on BBC 2 s Hampton Court Flower Show roundup. This years Brickell Award was presented to Lavendula National Collection holder, Dr Simon Charlesworth on press day by award founder Christopher Brickell. The award for Excellence in Cultivated Plant Conservation is presented annually in recognition of outstanding work being undertaken by a Collection Holder with Scientific status.

7 PLANT HERITAGE MEMBERS SUBSCRIPTION OFFER SAVING 50% ISSUES FOR JUST 12 The English Garden shows its readers beautiful yet achievable gardens through outstanding photography and expert garden writing. Inspirational garden features are just part of the excellent content, with plenty of practical advice, informative focuses on plants, and a whole section on grow your own with recipes, places to visit and much more. Subscribe today for just 12* every 6 months by Direct Debit (saving 50%) and receive FREE access to the online digital edition and 3 years worth of back issues (worth 17.99!) Alternatively, you can subscribe by credit/debit card for and SAVE 40% on 12 issues. VISIT: CALL: and quote code PLHE T&C s: Direct Debit is a UK offer only. Details on Direct Debit guarantee available on request. *Your subscription will continue on a 6 monthly Direct Debit of 12 until cancelled. Calls to 0844 cost no more than 5 per minute, calls from mobiles usually cost more. For overseas orders, please add 10 for delivery to Europe and 12 for delivery to RoW to the credit/debit card rate. Offer ends 10/08/2012. MEET THE TEAM MEET THE TEAM Gillian Spencer and Gill Groombridge who job share have been managing membership since Gillian works Wednesday and Thursday; Gill -- Monday and Friday and they work together on Tuesday. They administer all new memberships and work with the groups to support them in recruiting members. They can run membership recruitment workshops for Groups if required. Gillian and Gill also run the membership stand at Hampton Court Palace Flower Show. In 2011, Gill and Gillian started working in conservation and they now oversee the National Plant Collection application process. Please contact the office on: or membership@plantheritage.org. uk Gillian is also our resident blogger. To catch up on all the Plant Heritage news from her many travels visit: com Gillian and Gill Gill: I love getting out of the office and meeting members and National Collection Holders. Gillian: I love sharing the story of Plant Heritage and its legacy.