What it takes to start a National Plant Collection?

You may wonder what it actually involves to start a National Plant Collection (NPC). Is it enough to simply add new species or cultivars to your garden? Well, it is a little more scientific than that. Equally, it is not overwhelmingly technical either.

The Plant Heritage website unfortunately is not too informative on that subject until you dig deeper. The application form for a NPC gives a lot more detail, although many would not necessarily look here when they are only at the very beginning of 'maybe having a NPC'. So for those that may not pursuit this idea with full steam but are generally interested in the subject will not find comprehensive information without more in depth research.

'This conservation scheme relies largely on your research.'

And that is already the essence of preparing for a NPC. This conservation scheme relies largely on research. How else would you know what to collect and which plants are rare or endangered? In depth research is required at all times and therefore also the knowledge of how to acquire genuine information.

Nowadays research could not be easier. The internet enables us to access everybody and everything. Countless amounts of files and data is stored on online servers to provide the whole globe with shared knowledge, historical facts and personal experience.

I dare to imagine what research must have been like 50 years ago. Computers were not available to the general public. Only libraries collected knowledge in form of books and magazines, yet most libraries would only have very limited if any information on specific topics such as rare and endangered plants. Even today libraries are poorly stocked on that matter as it is far too specific and rarely demanded by library general users.

Specific scientific knowledge on rare topics requires specific libraries which offer such information. I only know of one library in England that would fulfill such expectations: the library at Kew Gardens in London.

Library at Kew Gardens, London, UK

It is indeed one of the most important botanical reference sources in the world. Not only books are available, this library also stores botanical illustrations, photographs, letters, manuscripts, periodicals, many of which are many decades old and origin from the colonialistic age when botanic expeditions frequently set out to explore the world. Letters and journals tell stories about incredible adventures and how botanists saw the plant world in those days. Many descriptions and most of all plant names have been revised (and potentially changed) since, so a lot of the information might be difficult to match up with knowledge we know today.

So despite the internet being a fantastic tool when it comes to research, some written knowledge is still on paper the 'old fashioned' way. In any case, research is time consuming, not only to find relevant information but also to filter out genuine information amongst the junk which is cluttering the internet, as well as books.