Suffolk’s Collection Holders were invited to use the excellent computer facilities at Suffolk New College during the recent half term break.

Plant Heritage has made available a new internet based recording system for their National Plant Collections,  and ran a training session at the college with attendees including Melanie Collins from Mickfield Hostas, Sarah Cook, who has the National Plant Collection of Iris bred by Sir Cedric Morris, and Simon Weeks who holds the National Plant Collection of Erysimum (perennial wallflowers).

After two sessions in the computer room we had all made great progress adding  plant details, photographs and documents to our records, which are now stored on the internet, so hopefully less likely to be affected  by disasters to our own computer systems.

Margaret Wyllie, from the Suffolk Heritage Garden at the Suffolk Punch Trust said “We have such a wide range of plants in our garden, the system will be invaluable for keeping all our plant records straight, storing archive material and posting pictures, not only of the wealth plants bred in Suffolk, but also of all the people who introduced them.  We hope in future that everyone will have access to this material.”

The delegates enjoyed a lunch in the College atrium, catching up on news of their plants and much else!

Melanie and Sarah will be giving a talk about their different experiences putting together medal winning exhibits at the RHS Chelsea Show –  Stowupland Village Hall,  Saturday March 25^th 2.30pm.

Sarah Cook