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UK gardeners urged to help save pollinator-friendly plants

UK gardeners urged to help save pollinator-friendly plants

The request comes from Plant Heritage, which has published its Missing Collections 2025 list.
It highlights 16 plant groups not yet represented in the charity's conservation scheme.
Gwen Hines, CEO of Plant Heritage, said: "The National Plant Collections are an amazing way to protect the UK's favourite garden plants for the future.
"Through our network of dedicated volunteers, we are safeguarding 95,000 different plants, but we need to do more – especially because we are losing plants due to climate change.
"We hope to inspire more people to get involved as collection holders or to support our work in other ways."
The missing groups include Campanula (bellflowers), Silene (catchflies), Arbutus (strawberry trees), and Gaillardia (blanket flowers).
The campaign encourages gardeners to conserve these under-represented plants.
The National Plant Collections scheme is one of the UK's leading plant conservation initiatives.
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UK gardeners urged to help save pollinator-friendly plants
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The request comes from Plant Heritage, which has published its Missing Collections 2025 list. It highlights 16 plant groups not yet represented in the charity's conservation scheme. Gwen Hines, CEO of Plant Heritage, said: "The National Plant Collections are an amazing way to protect the UK's favourite garden plants for the future. "Through our network of dedicated volunteers, we are safeguarding 95,000 different plants, but we need to do more – especially because we are losing plants due to climate change. "We hope to inspire more people to get involved as collection holders or to support our work in other ways." The missing groups include Campanula (bellflowers), Silene (catchflies), Arbutus (strawberry trees), and Gaillardia (blanket flowers). The campaign encourages gardeners to conserve these under-represented plants. The National Plant Collections scheme is one of the UK's leading plant conservation initiatives.

Hunt for rare daffodils that are feared lost
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Rare British daffodils may be hiding in plain sight in gardens and parks and experts want to track them have drawn up a wanted list of long-lost varieties linked to local places, such as the vibrant "bonfire yellow" daffodil associated with bonfire nights in varieties could be lost if they're not found and cared for, said Gwen Hines of the plant conservation charity, Plant Heritage."There's the joy that they bring to all of us in the springtime ... and also, in the future, they might be important for medicines for science," she said. Believed to have been brought to Britain by the Romans, daffodils are a source of galantamine, a treatment for Alzheimer's much-loved plants have been bred for centuries and now come in a dazzling array of about 30,000 different shapes, sizes and daffodils are yellow but some are white, orange and gardening charity, the RHS, is asking for help in finding rare and missing daffodils that are feared lost to history and science. The Sussex Bonfire The Sussex bonfire is named after the famous bonfire night in the Sussex county town of daffodil is one of many bred by the local plant breeder, Noel Burr, but has not been seen for at least 20 is known for its very bright orange-yellow horticulturist Roger Parsons hopes it is still growing in a garden somewhere."Perhaps someone planted it in their garden and it still exists but our challenge is to find that person," he said."Finding this and other daffodils thought to be lost helps maintain those genes for future plant breeding." The Mrs R O Backhouse daffodil This daffodil is one of many bred by the plantswoman Sarah Backhouse. It was named for her by her husband after her death in 1921. The daffodil is unusual in being one of the first daffodils with a pinkish colour. It has a salmon-pink trumpet surrounded by ivory flowers. The daffodil is known to exist in national collections but its actual whereabouts are unknown. The Mrs William Copeland daffodil Daffodils were fashionable in late Victorian and Edwardian times, bred into different shapes and Fowler Copeland (1872 to 1953) is a particularly well-known daffodil breeder from this named this white, double-flowered daffodil after his wife. The RHS is also calling on the public to record where and when they see daffodils appearing this scientist Dr Kálmán Könyves has spent 15 years studying "these remarkably fascinating plants". He said mapping which daffodils grow where will help us find out how the plants are responding to the changing climate."With this we can get some data on whether the flowering time changes as our climate changes," he said.

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