Our Plant Guardian® scheme is a vital part of our work to keep rare plants safe for the future
Would you like to get involved in plant conservation but do not have room for a full National Collection? Our Plant Guardians look after just one or a few rare plants. Together, they are protecting nearly 3,000 plants from house plants to shrubs. Perhaps you already have a rare plant that you would like to register in the scheme. If not, we can help you source one.
How do Plant Guardians keep rare plants from being lost?
These plants are defined as 'rare' because they are not readily available from commercial suppliers. This means they can easily disappear. Recording your plants in our scheme supports our wider research and Threatened Plants Programme. We have even managed to locate some hard-to-find plants for National Collection holders. We encourage all our Plant Guardians to propagate and share their plants with other members where they can, through our free annual Plant Exchange, and we share information about them through our blog and website.
Potentilla 'Velours Pourpre'
V Lloyd-Owen
Francoa sonchifolia 'Doctor Tom Smith'
© Plant Heritage
Suitable plants
You may have a suitable plant already in your care that you’d like to conserve through the scheme, or you might be able to get one from friends or family, or through your local Plant Heritage group or our Plant Exchange. Find out more. Even if you do not think the plant you are growing is rare, it could be an unfashionable variety that has disappeared from the trade, or be at risk for a number of reasons. It may also be wanted by a National Collection holder (see the list of 'desiderata' plants).
Record your plant with us and our experts will check its status. Please note - if your plant is already safely in a National Collection, we do not also register is as a Plant Guardian plant. Any plants that fall outside of the scope of your National Collection can be registered under the Plant Guardian scheme.
Persephone
Plant Guardians can add information and pictures about their plants to the Persephone plant records system, or we can do this for you. This helps build a picture of how these plants perform across the country and may be used on the main plant search page.
Watch the short video to show you how.
Roz Cooper
Retired university project manager and librarian,gardening in a village near Durham
David Simpson
Retired sales and marketing director for a national house builder, inveterate compost maker and plant propagator
Anne Tweddle
Retailed oil company marketing executive and passional plant propagator