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Talk – Matt Heasman ‘ Rhododendron Conservation’
7th November, 2023 @ 7:30 pm - 9:00 pm
‘Rhododendron Conservation’
Speaker: Matt Heasman
Given the legacy left to us by the past great plant hunters, The Rhododendron Species Conservation Group was set up in order to look into what rhododendrons are still growing in our gardens. It had become clear that a lot of great plants that had been known over the years were now either struggling or dead. Climate change, disease and other various causes lead the group to believe that we were losing these important plants from the past at a faster rate as the years went on. At a similar time the IUCN Rhododendron Red List was published and it made for some uneasy reading.
With this in mind the group have worked to identify, then propagate and setup some ex-situ collections in order to remedy this situation.
Who knows, they may even be able to help in some small way with global protection of some endangered plants.
Matt is an amateur gardener with a deep interest in Rhododendrons and their cultivation. He have grown plants from seed, by cuttings and grafting as well as other forms of propagation, so has a wealth of knowledge about their cultivation. He has also been lucky enough to visit some of the Asian countries to see these magnificent plants in the wild.
He is also a long standing member of the Scottish Rock Garden Club as well as the Meconopsis Group and loves growing all sorts of plants.
This season our talks will take place in-person only as we do not have the facility to live-stream them. Where possible, we will record the talks and the recording will be made available on the members’ page of the website as soon after the talk as possible.
The talks will take place in the Lecture Theatre at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh. All talks will begin at 7.30pm. Our talks are free and are open to non-members. All we ask is that you make a small donation at the door or perhaps buy a raffle ticket if you can. For those who have not attended a lecture at RBGE before, entry is via the main reception: 20a Inverleith Row, Edinburgh, EH3 5LR (not far from the East Gate).
