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    Garden blogs

    Seed collecting on Kenfig National Nature Reserve

    by Carly Green

    Seed collecting season is upon us, and so far it’s been a fruitful year! The National Seed Bank of Wales was launched at the end of 2018, and since then we have been busy gathering valuable collections of plant material from our own Waun Las National Nature Reserve. This past month saw our first seed […]

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  2. Garden blogs

    Last Plants Standing- A Display of Endangered Arable Wildflowers

    by Carly Green

    Bright red poppies, delicate corncockle and sunny corn marigolds were once very familiar to the arable farmers of Wales and grew side-by-side with them for centuries. The diversity of wildflowers that used to pepper our fields may have once been a thorn in the farmer’s side, but our arable ‘weeds’ are now facing a high […]

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  3. Garden blogs

    Re-imagining the Whitebeam Grove: Part 3

    by Carly Green

    Three weeks after the first tree was dug up from the Whitebeam Grove, we’re finished! The final tree (a little Sorbus aria, the most widespread whitebeam in the UK) was planted on Friday, completing the planting stage of the redesign. We’ve just managed to squeak the trees in on time, as spring will soon be […]

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  4. Garden blogs

    Re-imagining the Whitebeam Grove: Part 2

    by Carly Green

    The weather has really been against us this past week-and-a-bit. After the trees were dug up, we had only enough time to wrap their roots in warm felt blankets and stack them in a huddle (with our arboriculturist Tom comparing them to emperor penguins) before the frost and snow of last week hit. It’s been […]

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  5. Garden blogs

    Re-imagining the Whitebeam Grove: Part 1

    by Carly Green

    One of the projects I’ve been looking forward to ever since I took over the Conserving Welsh Plants area was to re-vamp the collection of whitebeams planted opposite. This collection contains some of the rarest trees in the UK, but in recent years its needed a little TLC to better showcase these amazing plants. Whitebeams […]

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  6. Garden blogs

    Conserving Welsh Plants: the Revamp

    by Carly Green

    When you think of rare plants at the National Botanic Garden of Wales, where do you think you will find them? Maybe they’re steamy, exotic orchids blooming in Plas Pilipala. Perhaps they’ll be the enormous, alien-looking Proteas in the Great Glasshouse? I’m almost certain you aren’t thinking of the Welsh Cotoneaster, which is only found […]

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