In Yorkshire and the North East garden teams and volunteers across the region will commence a huge project to catalogue plants, trees and vegetables.
The biggest ever plant hunt of its kind in the UK is currently being undertaken by the National Trust. After launching earlier in the summer at the National Trust Plant Centre in Devon, the quest to uncover what really grows in our gardens begins in Yorkshire - specifically at the Trust’s Regional Office garden at Goddards in York.
The survey is being sponsored by Yorkshire Bank, and will capture details of the wide range of plants growing in National Trust gardens in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Head Gardeners will lead the teams of gardeners and volunteers in carrying out the survey work to help identify all of the different kinds of plants. A photo will be taken of each plant, a GPS reference will be recorded using the latest digital technology and each plant will then in turn be identified by experts.
Information from all of the survey work carried out in the gardens will be entered into a central database. This will enable experts to identify which plants, trees or heritage vegetables need to be propagated at the new National Trust Plant Centre at Knightshayes Court in Devon. The propagation of plants will enable the Trust to replenish existing collections and make plants available for other properties to add to their collections.
Goddards, a Grade 1 listed building, is the former home of Noel Goddard Terry and Kathleen Terry of the famous York chocolate firm, Terry’s of York. The house, by Walter Brierley, was completed in 1927 and is regarded as a fine example of an early 20th-century Arts and Crafts Tudor style home. The garden was designed by George Dillistone of Tunbridge Wells to complement the architecture of the house and features formal terraces, borders, ponds, a rockery, and a fine collection of shrubs.
The garden that exists today appears very much how it would have been seen over 80 year ago. The National Trust has been based at Goddards on Tadcaster Road since 1984 and for the last nine years has been managed by gardener Alison Green. The survey at Goddards will show how the garden has naturally evolved over the last 80 years – in particular, which plants have managed to survive and flourish in the changing climate.
In total across the country over 80 gardens will be surveyed and in Yorkshire and the North East this will include:
Yorkshire:
North East
Mike Calnan, Head of Parks and Gardens at the National Trust, said:
'This is the biggest and most comprehensive plant survey ever undertaken in the UK. At the moment we have records for around five per cent of plants in National Trust gardens and this survey will take that figure to beyond 75 per cent in the next three years. Hundreds of staff and volunteers will help us catalogue the plants found in our gardens, something that we haven’t had the resource to carry out before.'
Mike Calnan, continues, 'We will be able to map out the thousands of rare species of plant in the care of the National Trust which have been bred by passionate plant collectors or gathered by plant hunters on expeditions during the last 400 years or so. We might even ‘discover’ plants that we didn’t know we had.'
Dean Cutbill, Yorkshire Bank Director, said 'Yorkshire Bank’s sponsorship of the National Trust’s Outdoor Programme is just one example of our environmental commitment. Our partnership with the Trust not only provides funding for environmental initiatives but also encourages our employees and customers to get actively involved in the projects underway in the Trust’s outdoor spaces. Taking part in the plant survey gives our employees another opportunity to roll up their sleeves and help preserve the great Yorkshire outdoors. We’re delighted to be here supporting the work at Goddards.'
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