Kent based National Collection heads for Germany
Leading garden conservation charity, Plant Heritage is delighted to announce that its Kent based Scientific National Collection Holder of Lavandula, Dr Simon Charlesworth is working with a German garden centre to help establish a similar Collection in Germany.
Simon, who owns Downderry Nursery in Tonbridge, Kent has been working for a number of years with market-leading German producers Helix Pflanzen (www.heliz-pflanzen.de) towards selling his lavender in Germany under the Downderry brand. Simon and Hans Muller of Helix have been testing different lavenders for hardiness throughout the country, and over time they have found 30 which are likely to survive the harsher continental winters. A display of the resulting plants will be created in the Downderry Lavender Garden at the Dehner garden centre headquarters in the stunning Flower Park at Rain am Lech.
Planting will commence this spring using Simon’s hardier cultivars and will be available for the public to view later this summer. Dehner are Europe’s largest garden centre group with over 100 centres in Germany and Austria, and employ more than 5000 people, 1000 of them at their flagship store in Rain.
Helix hold a national collection of Lavandula angustifolia with the German equivalent of Plant Heritage, Netzwerk Pflanzensammlungen(http://www.netzwerkpflanzensammlungen.de/); and a part of that collection is formed by the Downderry plants. Involved in the announcement at IPM Essen were Bettina de le Chevallerie of Netzwerk Pflanzensammlungen and Karl Zwermann, of the German Horticultural Society equivalent of the RHS.
Speaking on the news Plant Heritage Conservation Officer Mercy Morris said: “I really am so pleased that we are working with collections held in Germany. Creating better international links between Collection Holders has been a passion of mine for some years, and I hope to see many more in the future.”
Downderry_12Simon Charlesworth (3rd from left); Muller; German Agriculture Ministry Head, Dr Ingo Braune; Dehner Plant Procurement Chief, Wolfgang Graeser (4th from right); German Horticultural Society President’ Karl Zwermann (far right); Collections Project Manager, Bettina de la Chevallerie (2nd from right)