The Big Give – Green Match Fund
Some of you who are reading this blog know me from my BBC Radio 4 Appeal days. As a producer, I was privileged to work with hundreds of charities helping them to tell their stories and raise funds in a 2 min 50 second slot on Radio 4. Sorry to sound pedantic but that equates to about 420 words, including the ask. You don’t have long.
Last night, I was confirmed as a trustee of Plant Heritage during the online AGM. Since my first board meeting back in December, I have been learning about the work of this small charity. Old habits die hard and I have found myself thinking about how one would describe the work in 420 words and persuade people to join and support the charity. So forgive me but I wanted to try it out here with you.
The news, during the AGM, that Sussex Bonfire had been found.
A charity appeal
Why do garden plants need help – we don’t immediately think of them as being ‘in need’. But remember the first ever episode of the podcast about peonies? Here is a flower that went out of fashion for years but is now back in fashion and Claire Austin who we talked to, holds a national collection.
National plant collections are living reference libraries where all the plants in a genus or group can be seen together, compared and researched. But when plants go out of fashion, if no one is looking after them, they can literally disappear. And we really can’t afford to lose them because having a diversity of plants offers some protection against the threats of new pests and diseases and climate change.
If you have listened to this week’s episode featuring Adam Alexander you will have heard him talk about the importance of ‘adaptive plants’ … “adaptive, means that as the climate changes, they too can evolve and change”. He urged us to save seeds, to seek out heritage varieties.
Plant Heritage was founded: ‘…to conserve the unique gene pool of accumulated variation from centuries of selection and breeding.’ We can’t afford for those plants, the product of years of work, to just go missing from the reference library, they are too important to our future. Plant Heritage is safeguarding 95,000 different plants.
Then there’s the depth of knowledge. We can’t afford to lose that either. Remember Mercy and Sam with the Spiderplants, Emma with the Snowdrops, and Mona with the Corokia? And sometimes that knowledge can develop in unexpected places, a national collection of Tulbaghia is now held in a women’s prison.
If you join the charity, no matter how small your space you too can get involved with conservation, becoming a Plant Guardian looking after just one endangered plant. People often find ‘their plant’ at the annual plant exchange where last year 500 plants were swapped. Then there’s the seed shop, 6000 packets donated by members. And plant fairs, I’ve said I’ll help Mel with the set-up for the Highgate one at 7.30am on Saturday! So if you like plants then you’ll definitely meet your tribe at Plant Heritage.
If I’ve inspired you to want to support this small charity then now is a great time to do so because as part of The Big Give – Green Match fund any donation before midday Tuesday 29th April is doubled. The target is £5000 which would become £10,000. A donation of any size would be amazing. Thank you.
420 words
Thank you for reading that and if you can give - well that is incredibly kind and thank you. Enabling charities to tell their story on the Radio 4 Appeal was very rewarding. I know that there is so much more for me to learn about Plant Heritage and over the course of this trustee journey I’m looking forward to meeting members and national collection holders and building my understanding of the work. Sharing that story will also be key.
And with that an update - hot off the press from the AGM! You might have heard Gwen Hines the Chief Executive, talking about rare and missing daffodils on the Today Programme on Radio 4 recently. She mentioned Narcissus ‘Sussex Bonfire’. Two weeks ago a young woman got in touch with the Sussex group of Plant Heritage to say she thought she’d found Sussex Bonfire. It is in her parent’s garden. Her grandparents knew the breeder and he would often give them bulbs. Another plant returned to the safety of the reference library.
And if you happen to live in or near North London then this weekend’s Spring Plant Fair organised by the London group is from 9.30am - 2pm at St Michael’s C of E primary school, North Road, Highgate, N6 4BG. Entry £2.50 bring cash and cards. A number of nurseries will be there and I guarantee you will leave with plants!
Have a lovely weekend.
Sally
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