Get growing to help endangered plants

Plant Heritage is calling for greenfingered volunteers to help save ten plant groups at risk of being lost from our gardens.

The appeal is part of their Missing Genera 2021 campaign.

Anyone with a passion for plants is being asked to consider looking after a specific plant group as part of the charity’s annual campaign.

Plant Heritage, a leading horticultural conservation charity, is calling for volunteers in all corners of the UK to help save ten different plant groups at risk of being lost from our gardens.

Each year, the Missing Genera showcases different plant groups that aren’t cared for as part of a National Plant Collection.

If plants aren’t being actively conserved in these collections, they are at risk of disappearing from cultivation.

Since the campaign started in 2016, the Missing Genera has resulted in eight new National Plant Collections conserving over 650 species and cultivars, including Alcea (Hollyhocks) and Aeonium, and there are many more in the process of building up their collection.

Vicki Cooke, conservation manager at Plant Heritage, explains: “Starting a National Plant Collection doesn’t have to be daunting – in fact, we have several that are cared for in homes, conservatories and gardens.

“Anyone can help and by caring for a plant group means that future generations can enjoy them as much as we do now.

“What matters is that the interest and love for saving a plant is there.”

This year, the ten plant varieties in need of a home are: Campanula, also known as bellflowers; Erigeron, which is elated to daisies; Lysimachia, the UK native species have yellow flowers but the garden types include whites and deep maroons; Papaver (Oriental Group), pretty perennial poppies that are a stalwart of early summer; Phormium, also called New Zealand flax; Phygelius, a low-growing evergreen shrub; Pittosporum, with its glossy, evergreen leaves;

Sansevieria, popular houseplants due to their tolerance for low light and Silene, some of which are familiar wildflowers and Zantedeschia, commonly called arum lilies.

To find out more, visit: https://www. plantheritage.org.uk/national-plantcollections/missing-genera/