I had the privilege of joining the young propagators society on their latest meetup at the national botanical gardens in Wales. This one day event led by staff members of the botanical gardens gave us an insight into numerous projects that were going on.
We met one of the propagators who was in charge of 'the habitats of Wales' section of the gardens, which is designed to highlights the many different environments Wales has to offer. Her conservation efforts included propagating the highly rare 'Cotoneaster cambricus', her work at the botanical gardens led an expedition to the great Orme where they collect seed to keep this wonderful plant from extinction. As we start to think about propagating cotoneaster from seed here at Burncoose, the information shared was highly valuable.
We then visited the national seed bank of Wales facilities where Dr Kevin McGinn talked us through why the establishment was necessary. Becoming an official partner organization of the millennium seed bank at Kew, the work by Kevin and his team will increase the range and genetic diversity of Welsh native plants. They talked us through how they store seed at 'seed bank' level and the methods behind collection. (how they are only aloud to take a certain percentage of the seed population.)
The day was an insight into how they operate at the botanical gardens and super inspiring to see the dedication to the conservation of Welsh native plants.
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