A massive plant hunt begins today to catalogue details of the range of
plants growing in National Trust gardens across the country.
The three-year study aims to cover tens of thousands of plants at more
than 80 gardens owned by the Trust - and may even discover varieties
the organisation didn't know it had.
Many of the country's most famous gardens, including Sissinghurst in
Kent and Stourhead in Wiltshire, will be taking part, the National Trust
said.
Each plant will be photographed and identified by experts and the
information entered into a central database, along with the GPS grid
reference for its location.
The survey results - which will also cover many of the Trust's 20
working kitchen gardens - will be used to identify which rare plants,
trees and vegetables need to be propagated by the Trust at its
conservation centre at Knightshayes Court in Devon.
Mike Calnan, head of parks and gardens at the trust, said: "We will be
able to map out the thousands of rare species of plant in the care of
the National Trust which have been bred by passionate plant collectors
or gathered by plant hunters on expeditions during the last 400 years or
so.
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"We might even discover plants that we didn't know we had."
He said the survey, which will be undertaken by staff and volunteers,
aims to increase the percentage of plants recorded in National Trust
gardens from the current 5 per cent to 75 per cent over the next three years.
The "biggest and most comprehensive plant survey ever undertaken in the
UK" begins today at Killerton in Devon, and phase one of the project
will see gardens in Devon, Cornwall, Wales, Yorkshire and the North East
surveyed.
Eventually, more than 80 gardens in England, Wales and Northern Ireland
will be studied.
Posted by: Grant, Marlborough on 11:44am Tue 13 May 08
Now there a great way for the National dis-Trust to waste money they don't have!
I suppose after a year of ripping people off for £5 per hour to park at Avebury the coffers are full and need wasting on stupid projects like this that the groundskeepers should have done as part of their job years ago!
Now there a great way for the National dis-Trust to waste money they don't have!
I suppose after a year of ripping people off for £5 per hour to park at Avebury the coffers are full and need wasting on stupid projects like this that the groundskeepers should have done as part of their job years ago!
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