Podocarpus salignus - a Chilean nature plant, which is now endangered in the wild due to the popularity

While climate change and environmental concerns remain high up on the political agenda and affect all of us in one way or another, it is easy to forget the important and positive ways in which plantsmen and nurserymen are saving ‘Red List’ endangered plants from the wild and distributing them to gardeners to ensure their survival.

The media tend to concentrate on the peat issue and nurseries and garden centres have attracted particular, and to some extent well deserved, criticism for some years.  It is easy to forget that peat only came into use as the main potting medium in the early 1970’s as a replacement for fine loamy soil and leaf mould.

At Burncoose we are strongly committed to the reduction of the peat content in our potting mixes and we already use 25% non peat products (mainly bark) in the mix.  However the ericaceous plants which we grow (e.g. rhododendrons, magnolias and camellias) demand acidic compost and simply will not grow in the new green alternatives which include shredded paper, composted waste and coir.  Peat free potting mediums may well be an achievable goal one day but not yet! Reverting to using loam/soil mixes with all the attendant weed and other problems would put most nursery growers straight out of business.

What the public tend to overlook are the ways in which nurseries contribute to and enhance our gardens by introducing new plants from distant countries.  At Burncoose we import plants from growers, hybridisers and other professional nurserymen in Chile, New Zealand, China and the USA as well as throughout Europe.  Relatively few of the 4,000 or more plants offered in our catalogue are native to the UK although many of them have been so well established for so long that we often think that they are.

For instance only 3 of the 600+ species of rhododendrons found growing in the UK today originate in Europe.  Most were discovered in China in the early 1900’s by the great plant explorers and the seeds from their labours were then grown on an marketed by UK nurserymen.

The same is true today.  If you search on our website by country of origin you will discover just how many new introductions or plants which are new to UK gardeners Burncoose is now offering from Chile, South Africa and New Zealand.

We read much of invasive or dangerous non native plants and animals introduced to the UK which are a threat to our own native species.  However nothing is ever said about the immense contribution that plants sourced and grown by UK nurserymen make to our gardens.  Very few indeed of  these new species from overseas do anything other than improve the biodiversity of our gardens and landscapes.

More especially nurserymen working in co-operation with plant collectors and overseas Botanical Gardens are helping to preserve rare species whose future in the wild is threatened by habitat destruction and timber logging.  These are not the irresponsible acts of a plant thief but the essential measures necessary for conservation of endangered species.

Burncoose works with individual plant collectors, international societies and botanists in helping fund and distribute seed of new and endangered species.  Over two thirds of the magnolia species are now considered to be endangered in the wild and yet many of these are now widely available to Burncoose customers.  Some of these are recent arrivals from collections by individuals working in Northern Burma and Northern Vietnam.

Burncoose has also been involved in work to re-establish a species of Chilean conifer which is now almost extinct in the wild but is widely grown in Cornwall and seeds prolifically.

Without plant nurseries like Burncoose the preservation of such plants in the wild would be very much more difficult.  This key role in conservation work is so often overlooked.

Rhododendron lindleyi grown from wild collected seed of it’s timber in furniture making
George Forrest - Plant Hunter - 1873-1932


Magnolia Nitida - now a Red List Endangered Spcies. First introduced by George Forrest