Retirement saw Dr Simon Charlesworth and his wife Dawn close Downderry Nursery in Kent after successfully hosting the National Plant Collections of rosemary and lavender at the site for three decades. The closure of the nursery brought up the thorny question of what to do with the rosemary collection, which includes over 100 varieties including prostrate, bushy and fastigiate, many of which tolerate -10 to -15 degrees centigrade in temperature. The collection was granted National Plant Collection status in 1998.
“It’s been my life and Dawn my wife’s life for 32 years – but the time was right and there are other things outside of rosemary and lavender,” explained Charlesworth.
William Dyson, salvia expert and curator at nearby Great Comp Garden agreed to take custodianship of the collection – which was moved there in November 2023. During the move the collection went into a transitional phase, with plans to be reinstated once more, with their new custodian and replanted in their new location. Dyson will apply to reaccredit the collection later this year, which Plant Heritage is set to confirm in December 2024.
“It was an emotional day helping to move Simon and Dawn’s important collection. It was bitter-sweet to know that we held so much of Simon and Dawn’s work (quite literally) in our hands. We moved them to my greenhouse and over-wintered them while we prepared the ground at Great Comp. Then in April this year we began the task of planting them out. We have been tending them quietly since and are ready to launch the area to our visiting public at the Autumn Fair on the 12 – 13 October this year,” said Dyson.
Gwen Hines, CEO of Plant Heritage said: “Our team has been working closely with Simon and William to ensure that Simon and Dawn’s important rosemary collection moves to its new home safely and smoothly. Planning for the next phase of a collection’s life is a really important part of being a Collection Holder, so that this legacy lives on. As Plant Heritage, our work is about plant conservation and the biodiversity benefits of this, but it’s also about the people behind the plants. We are delighted to know that these important rosemary plants will soon have National Collection status again, thanks to William and all at Great Comp.”
Founded in 1978, Plant Heritage is the world’s leading cultivated plant conservation charity, for plants that have been collected, bred or grown in UK gardens. Plant Heritage aims to conserve and safeguard the UK’s horticultural heritage and diversity of garden plants by keeping living examples of rare plants in the National Plant Collections® scheme, or with Plant Guardians® (who grow and nurture one or more rare and unusual plants in their own garden or house).
Dyson added: “We have the ideal conditions for growing the plants and are ideally placed to take this collection. It’s of particular pride for us that our Senior Gardener Krystina has taken on the job of looking after Simon and Dawn’s collection. A National Plant Collection is a means of safeguarding a group of plants, to look after, propagate and grow them in ideal conditions so that they can be shown for educational purposes, but also to conserve them, in case they die out in the wild or are lost from other collections. It is important to keep records, as Simon has, and keep propagating, we don’t know – there could be a new cure discovered for an illness in the future and that’s a good reason for conserving species.”
Visitors will be able to see the rosemary collection on site at Great Comp Garden in Platt, near Sevenoaks.