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Rare Chilean Plants Grown for Sale in Britain's Chilly Climate

Posted on: Sunday, 14 August 2005, 12:00 CDT

RARE species of Chilean plants are to be sold in British garden centres for the first time thanks to the expertise of Edinburgh botanists.

Experts from the Capital are leading the effort to grow 12 different species of plant from the South American country in a bid to see which ones will sell best in UK garden centres.

The plants are being made available in Britain thanks to a unique agreement with the Chilean government which will see money from their sale ploughed back into a conservation fund.

The project has been led by experts at the Royal Botanic Gardens Edinburgh, who hope to show that even a small amount of money can make a huge difference to preserving plant life.

And they believe the plants will be hugely popular among enthusiastic gardeners, as they have never before been available to the general public.

There are already more than 800 species of plants native to Chile which are common in British gardens.

The first introductions were made during the mid 1800s by collectors such as William Lobb and Richard Pearce, while there were further introductions in the 1920s and 1930s.

However, none of the money made from their sale goes back into Chile, and the Botanics are keen to raise as much money as possible from the sale of the new species.

Because of this they are keeping the identity of the plants a closely guarded secret to avoid major garden centres attempting to stock the plants without giving anything to their country of origin.

Plants are big business in the UK and, in a competitive market place, the Botanics are aware of how attractive the prospect of new, rare plants which thrive in the British weather would be to commercial organisations.

The Botanics' Chilean flora expert Martin Gardner said: "There is always a huge demand for unusual and exotic species. So, it is very likely the plants would eventually have found another route into the market, and this project is a means of ploughing some money back into Chile.

"By growing these species at the Botanics we were helping to conserve the species which were being lost through the destruction of the temperate rainforests. The money will go to small conservation projects which we think can get results, so that we can show people that even a small amount of money can make a difference."

Cultivation trials on 12 candidate species are currently being tended at Liss Forest Nurseries, Hampshire.

Peter Catt, owner of the Liss Forest Nursery which will also handle the initial sale of the plants, said: "The best way to conserve plants which are threatened in the wild is to introduce them into cultivation. Not only will this initiative assist the process, it will attract urgently needed funding to Chilean plant conservation."

Source: Evening News; Edinburgh (UK)

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