Cornwall ’s famous Dahlia National Plant Collection has been save thanks to newly accredited Collection Holder Louise Danks .
Louise ( with the helper of 30 friends , family , and fellow Dahlia fans ) relocate almost 2,000 private plants from their original location at Varfell Farm in Penzance to the Kehelland Trust , an adult daycare center outside Camborne . Now the collection is in its young home , it has been re - accredit by horticultural preservation charity Plant Heritage , which wangle 695 National Plant Collections across the UK .
The mammoth resettlement procedure began in September 2020 . By Easter 2021 , the move was arrant , and on the 14th May 2021 , the first Dahlia was replant . The full Plant Heritage National Plant Collection of Dahlia was moved northward from Varfell Farm near Penzance to Camborne in an seek to ensure that the collection would stay on in Cornwall .
Vicki Cooke , Conservation Manager at Plant Heritage says : “ The Dahlia National Plant Collection has been a huge part of Cornwall ’s horticultural history since the 1980s , when David Brown ( an expert on Dahlia both here and internationally ) set it up . After Louise ’s sinful inscription and aim to spare this special collection , it was only correct that it was re - accredited as a National Plant Collection . We hope that now it ’s in a novel base , the collection will go from metier to strength . ”
Louise Danks , new National Plant Collection Holder , explicate : “ I was lucky enough to exercise at Varfell Farm when the Dahlia National Plant Collection was locate there . When I get word they were unable to continue looking after it I simply had to try and save it and guarantee a new home for it in Cornwall . After a passel of hard employment , I am thrilled to say they are now flourish in their novel family . ”
David Brown ’s original Dahlia National Plant Collection has been the largest tape assemblage of Dahlia in the UK since it was created and persist so to this Clarence Day . Dahlia have been a popular garden plant life since square-toed time as they get along in a chain of form and colors , which view visitor flock to Cornwall to see the collection . Fashions in flora fluctuate , but since the former 2000s , Dahlia have had a resurgence in popularity and are enjoying an ongoing resurgence as both a garden plant life and a cut blossom .
The fresh recognise collection , made up of 1,700 cultivars from 22 dissimilar specie of Dahlia , now lives in over half an acre of gardens at the Kehelland Trust , enticing visitor with the Brobdingnagian raiment of colors on show . The garden is open to visitors from July - October , include some weekend and even during the summer months too . Visit Facebook and Instagram for opening times .
Plant Heritage ’s National Plant Collections are make and care for by individuals or organizations who are passionate about protecting the diversity of the UK ’s productive vegetation . New collections are recognized by Plant Heritage quarterly , with the next accreditation taking place before Christmas .
For more informationPlant Heritagewww.plantheritage.org.uk
