PLANT HERITAGE, NATIONAL PLANT COLLECTIONS^® 

In 1978 the National Council for the Conservation of Plants & Gardens, (NCCPG), was founded in order to preserve the UK's great biodiversity of garden plants for the benefit of horticulture, education and science.

This was done by creating 'National Plant Collections' to encourage the conservation of cultivated plants in the British Isles and by supporting and publishing research into these plants, their origins, their historical and cultural importance and their environments, and helping to educate the public in the importance of cultivated plant conservation.

The charity is organised into area groups, each with its own Committee which includes an Area Collection Co-ordinator and details of the activities of our local area group, Grampian & Tayside, can be seen on its website.

The NCCPG is now more generally known as Plant Heritage and there are over 650 National Plant Collections^® which fall into three categories, Provisional, Full and Scientific.

In 2009, we realised that we were growing all of the five reported forms of Cardiocrinum and it occured to me to investigate the possibility of having these registered as a National Collection. My initial belief was that the genus was too small to warrant a collection but both the Scottish and local Plant Collection Co-ordinators encouraged me to apply and, in November 2011, we were granted full collection status.

One of the conditions of holding a collection is that the holders must allow public access to the plants and we are happy to show individuals or small groups around the collection if given a few weeks notice by email. No charge is made for a visit but we welcome a donation towards the upkeep of the collection. The plants will be in flower from the last week in June to the first week in August depending on the species, (see this link for more details). We are quite difficult to find and I suggest that visitors look at or download a map of the route to Redhall from Kirriemuir.

It is also a condition of holding a National Collection that the collection material is made available to the public. We do this by donating bulbs to Plant sales and offering seed for sale.

We have C. giganteum & C. giganteum yunnanense available most years, the other types depend on how many offsets were harvested or how the seedlings are coming on.