News

Extra Events

Please add this extra event to your diaries:

Rod Leeds will give a talk on Autumn Bulbs on Saturday 23 October 2010 at Stowupland Village Hall at 2.30pm. Again members are free and guests welcome at £3.

Plant Heritage Threatened Plant Project

Mercy Morris, National Collections Co-ordinator,and the Threatened Plant Project Officer came to meet some members of our Suffolk Group for a conference on the way forward with the ‘Red List’ of plants in danger of extinction. Ways need to be found to evaluate, prioritise and decide what should be conserved.

Discussion took place on the process of establishing which plants should be included in terms of their rarity and horticultural merit for taxa in cultivation in the UK. To evaluate rarity a process has been designed to be applicable across the range of cultivated plants, by amateurs and professionals.

After selecting a genus, a system of sieving through the following three categories takes place:

1) Vulnerable in cultivation (VUic), 2) Endangered in cultivation (ENic) and 3) Critically endangered in cultivation (CRic).

Then, evaluation of significance takes place by looking at horticultural merit, benefit to man (chemical, culinary, cosmetic or medicinal) and historical importance.

A draft sheet (Excel) was given out for members and, particularly Collection Holders, enabling members present to practice going through the system. For more information, the full survey appears on the National Website Newspage – Red Data List.

www.nccpg.com

Plant Sale Dates

The date for the 2010 Autumn Plant Fair is September 19th to be held at Helmingham Hall.

SUFFOLK GROUP