A lifelong passion for plants

Jun 13 2009 by Tony Henderson, The Journal

Environment Editor Tony Henderson talks to the North East’s plant protectors.

A PASSION for plants has always driven botanist and gardener Veronica Goulty. She enjoys a large garden at her home near Wylam in Northumberland and is vice-chairman of the North East branch of Plant Heritage.

She is also helping to organise the group’s Great North Plant Sale at Kirkley Hall College, Ponteland, tomorrow where people will have the chance to buy rare and unusual varieties grown by members.

Plant Heritage is the newly-adopted everyday name for what was previously the National Council for the Conservation of Plants and Gardens.

Last year the organisation celebrated its 30th anniversary and Veronica has been a member for most of that time.

As concerns mounted about the rate of loss of plant varieties, the body was set up to encourage the growing and conservation of cultivated plants in Britain and to research their historical, cultural and environmental importance.

Every year the Plant Finder publication appears, listing every plant for sale in the country and supplying nurseries.

The body also runs the national plant collections – “the jewel in the crown,” says Veronica.

They are assemblages of as many varieties of a group of plants as possible, which are grown and conserved so that diversity survives for the future.

National collections are held by individual gardeners and allotment holders, councils, large estates, specialist growers and bodies like the National Trust and English Heritage.

“Some groups of plants represented in the collections can be six to 10 varieties while others can run into hundreds,” says Veronica.

“It’s about that collecting drive which is part of human nature, and also about preserving plant DNA.

“It is also infectious and can take over people’s lives.”

Veronica herself is committed to her garden and her plants. “I’m not happy unless I am surrounded by plants,” she says.

Her garden features personal collections of birch trees, sorbus, cherry, medlar, quince, apricots and a fruiting peach tree. Veronica is researching the walled gardens of Northumberland with the aim of publishing a book.