No garden too small

OF nine new National Plant Collections accredited this month, five are on humble allotments. These new additions include red-hot pokers

(right) and bee-favourite globe thistles

(below) in Warwickshire and, in Kent, a gathering of ferns that began in the 1970s, towering actaeas and the largest

Veronica (Parahebe) collection in the UK.

There are only ‘a handful of National Plant Collections held on allotments across the country,’ admits Vicki Cooke, conservation manager at Plant Heritage—some of the 695 are even on balconies or in conservatories —‘but as they’re not the obvious location... they’re often overlooked. These five new collections reinforce that you don’t need a garden or large plot of land… We hope this encourages more people to start thinking of places… whether on an allotment, a community garden or a school.’

Unusual English and Dutch tulips in Wiltshire, rare irises in Suffolk, Tradescantia andersoniana and T. virginiana in Gloucestershire and verbena in Cheshire make up the other four new collections; visit www.plantheritage.org.uk.

Should further inspiration be needed, the National Garden Scheme (NGS) has relaunched its Community Gardens Award programme. ‘These hugely popular grants provide funding to amateur gardeners from community groups in England and Wales,’ explains NGS chief executive George Plumptre. ‘The aim should be to bring a community together by creating or developing a space that people can share, by the acquisition and sharing of gardening knowledge and skills, and by inspiring a love of gardening.’ In 2020, 44 grants totalling more than £97,000 were awarded. Submissions close on February 28, 2022; www.ngs.org.uk

The 37th winter auction at Onslows on November 26 is one of the largest offerings of vintage posters in recent years, with 530 lots, including snowy scenes from St Moritz, transport advertisements, wartime recruitment and 1960s film posters and some evocative depictions of the British countryside, bombers and ships from the studio of Leslie Carr (1891–1969), including a watercolour and black-ink painting of Corfe Castle, Dorset, (above) which comes with two other sketches (£200–£300; www.onslows.co.uk)