In July 2004, PlantNet held a workshop, for staff in botanic and heritage gardens, at the Eden Project: Foreign Bugs: Managing Pests and Diseases in a World of Increasing Imports. After the meeting, there were calls from several organisations for guidance on complying with international legislation and implementing quarantine and import procedures. The Plant Health Officers Helen Long (then at the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew), Fiona Inches (Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh) and Katie Treseder (Eden Project) agreed to pool their collective experience and produce a set of guidelines that could be adopted, in whole or in part, by these institutions.

These guidelines are available as a hard-copy A5 booklet at £2.50 per copy, from Judy Cheney, PlantNetwork Administrator, c/o University Computing Service, New Museums Site, Pembroke Street, Cambridge CB2 3QH, UK. OR as a downloadable pdf document
PlantNetwork is grateful to the John Spedan Lewis Foundation for funding the publication and distribution of this booklet.

Horticulture has unwittingly imported a few of the most notorious invasive plants to these islands. An initiative to collect information from individual gardens about emerging invasives in their collections has been launched. Have you grown something that might be the next Giant Hogweed or Japanense Knotweed that you haven’t read about elsewhere? If so read on . .

Conservation Status of Chinese (& Sicilian) Conifers
29th December 2006

Are you growing any Chinese conifers? or do you have a specimen of Abies nebrodensis? If so Bedgebury would like to know more . . .

A Force for Change and a Vision of Hope
29th December 2006

During 2007 BGCI will be celebrating their 20th anniversary, and as part of the celebrations a number of events are planned, starting off with a lecture at the Royal Geographical Society in London.
Professor Wangari Maathai, a grass-roots activist and Nobel Peace Prize winner, will speak at 7pm on Thursday 8 February 2007 on her experiences in bringing about social and environmental change across Africa.
Tickets are £10, and can be bought online at the BGCI website.

Proceedings of conference on Data Capture and Dissemination
12th November 2006

Our Autumn conference was held in the University of Hertfordshire, at the Science Learning Centre, Bayfordbury, 7-9 November 2006. Twenty speakers presented a wide range of talks on the application of electronic techniques in mapping, record keeping and data capture. The second day looked at practical ways of using these and other technologies, such as podcasts and mobile phones, for enticing new audiences, as well as some exciting new ways of captivating young minds...
The full timetable of talks, as well as many of the presentations is available here...

Historic and Botanic Garden Bursary Scheme
10th September 2006

The scheme is now funded for 4 years, and Fiona Dennis has recently been appointed as Co-ordinator. The scheme will enable a number of employees in the sector to undertake detailed training placements and exchanges (of 3, 6 or 12 months). It is expected that about 16 full-time-equivalent placements will be available every year.
A website has been developed (http://www.hbgbs.org.uk) that includes details of the scheme, a list of placements on offer, events for continuing professional development (CPD) and a trainee application form for placements. Under the CPD part of the scheme, some bursaries may be available for the meetings of the PlantNetwork Forum groups and conferences.

BGCI scholarship fund
11th April 2006

BGCI's 6th International Congress on Education in Botanic Gardens will be held at the University of Oxford Botanic Garden this September. A scholarship fund has been set up to support developing country delegates to attend the congress. If you would like to contribute to this fund please contact BGCI for more information.
Email: julia.willison@bcig.org
or sarah.kneebone@bgci.org

Cultivating skills in historic and botanic gardens
January 2006

The report on the botanic and historic gardens skills research project, initiated by English Heritage and 14 other partners, was a direct consequence of the PlantNetwork Conference held at Writtle in September 2002. Published in December 2005, the report provides an overview of the current and future status of this horticultural sector.
Downloadable versions of the report, and further details are available here . . .

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Roll out of Target 8 Project
11th December 2005

This project is PlantNetwork's programme to develop the role of horticulture in support of conservation of the flora of Britain and Ireland. The project has been started at botanic gardens in Scotland, and we are now rolling it out to other PlantNetwork gardens. To see how your garden can take part, look at the list of threatened species on the website and let us know that you would like to participate.
Project details
Complete list of the Target 8 taxa

PlantNetwork adopts eight targets to save endangered species of plant.
8th April 2005

At the spring PlantNetwork conference, on 6–7th April 2005 at the National Botanic Gardens, Glasnevin, eight targets were developed for botanical collections in Ireland and Britain to develop a co-ordinated response to assist in efforts to ensure the conservation of threatened plants in these islands. The meeting included representatives of 53 institutions in Britain and Ireland.
Full text of the PlantNetwork response is available here . . .

PlantNet becomes PlantNetwork.
5th April 2005

An extraordinary General Meeting was called at the PlantNet conference, held at Sparsholt on the 18th August 2004. The motion was tabled to change our name to PlantNetwork; the Plant Collections Network of Britain and Ireland. This is the result of a third party having trademarked the use of PlantNet throughout the European Union. Our Company and Charity names have both been amended, and so has our Bank account. At the last AGM, held in Glasnevin, this new name supplants all previous usages of PlantNet.

Training Bursaries Scheme makes it through first round of Heritage Lottery funding.
February 2005

An application to the Heritage Lottery Fund for a Training Bursaries Scheme has got through the first stage; £40 000 had been awarded towards the development of a bid for phase 2, to be completed by the end of June 2005. The application was submitted by English Heritage on behalf of 17 partners, including three membership organisations: PlantNetwork, Professional Gardeners’ Guild and GreenSpace. The activity sponsored would need to be seen as part of continuing professional development or occupational standards. If the application makes it through the next round, awards would be granted to successful applicants in January 2006.