The National Council for the Conservation of Plants and Gardens (NCCPG), also known as Plant Heritage, is a botanical conservation organisation in the United Kingdom and a registered charity. It was founded in 1978 to combine the talents of botanists, horticulturalists and conservationists with the dedication of keen amateur and professional gardeners. The mission statement of the organisation declares that "The NCCPG seeks to conserve, document, promote and make available Britain and Ireland's rich biodiversity of garden plants for the benefit of everyone through horticulture, education and science." Specifically, the aims of the organisation are to:
- encourage the propagation and conservation of endangered garden plants in the British Isles, both species and cultivars;
- encourage and conduct research into cultivated plants, their origins, their historical and cultural importance and their environments; and
- encourage the education of the public in garden plant conservation.
Through its membership and the National Plant Collection Holders, the NCCPG seeks to rediscover and reintroduce endangered garden plants by encouraging their propagation and distribution so that they are grown as widely as possible. The NCCPG works closely with other conservation bodies as well as botanic gardens, the National Trust, the National Trust for Scotland, English Heritage, the Royal Horticultural Society and many specialist horticultural societies.
The NCCPG's patron is HRH The Prince of Wales.
Famous quotes containing the words national, council, conservation, plants and/or gardens:
“It appears to be a matter of national pride that the President is to have more mud, and blacker mud, and filthier mud in front of his door than any other man can afford.”
—Jane Grey Swisshelm (1815–1884)
“Parental attitudes have greater correlation with pupil achievement than material home circumstances or variations in school and classroom organization, instructional materials, and particular teaching practices.”
—Children and Their Primary Schools, vol. 1, ch. 3, Central Advisory Council for Education, London (1967)
“A country grows in history not only because of the heroism of its troops on the field of battle, it grows also when it turns to justice and to right for the conservation of its interests.”
—Aristide Briand (1862–1932)
“We have been God-like in our planned breeding of our domesticated plants and animals, but we have been rabbit-like in our unplanned breeding of ourselves.”
—A.J. (Arnold Joseph)
“The ocean is a wilderness reaching round the globe, wilder than a Bengal jungle, and fuller of monsters, washing the very wharves of our cities and the gardens of our sea-side residences. Serpents, bears, hyenas, tigers rapidly vanish as civilization advances, but the most populous and civilized city cannot scare a shark far from its wharves.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)