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Annual Report and Financial 31 Statements for the year ended October 2025

PLANT HERITAGE

Table of Contents

Table of Contents.............................................................................................................................. 1 Patron, Presidents and Trustees of the Charity ................................................................................ 2 Annual General Meeting 2026.......................................................................................................... 3 Chairman’s Review............................................................................................................................ 4 About Plant Heritage......................................................................................................................... 5 Trustees Report................................................................................................................................. 6 Our Conservation Strategy................................................................................................................ 7 Progress during 2024/25....................................................................................................................... 8 Objective 1: Increasing the number of cultivated plants conserved ................................................ 8 Objective 2: Develop and maintain good standards of curation .................................................... 14 Objective 3: Inform and engage others with our conservation work............................................. 17 Objective 4: Engage with global thinking on issues around plant conservation ............................ 20 Membership.................................................................................................................................... 23 Flower Shows .................................................................................................................................. 27 Media and communications ........................................................................................................... 30 Harnessing digital tools................................................................................................................... 31 Fundraising Activities .......................................................................................................................... 32 Structure, Governance and Management .......................................................................................... 34 Board Committees and Working Groups........................................................................................ 36 Business Plan 2026.......................................................................................................................... 37 Treasurer’s Financial Review............................................................................................................... 37 Statement of Trustees’ Responsibilities.......................................................................................... 39 Statement of Disclosure of Information to Independent Examiner ............................................... 39 Independent Examiner’s Report……………………………………………………………………………………………………..40 Statement of Financial Activities…………………………………………………………………………………………………….41 Balance Sheet…………………………..…………………………………………………………………………………………………….43 Notes to the Accounts……………..………………………………………………………………………………………………….…44

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PLANT HERITAGE Annual Report and Financial 31 Statements for the year ended October 2025

Patron, Presidents and Trustees of the Charity

Patron, Presidents and Trustees of the Charity
Patron HM The King Charles III
President Alan Titchmarsh CBE
Vice-Presidents Elizabeth Banks CBE
Sarah Bray
Christopher Brickell CBE
Jamie Compton
David Knot
Roy Lancaster CBE
Michael Marriot
Sir Roy Strong
Trustees Sir R Newton (Chairman)
Mr J Marshall (Vice Chairman)
Mr G Morgan (Treasurer)
Ms E Crawforth
Dr C Farrer
Ms S Flatman
Mr J Humphreys
Ms J Jahromi
Ms K Kapoor
Mr D Mathers
Mrs D Weight
Charity Number 1004009/SC041785
Company Number 2222953
Independent Examiner Frances Wilde FCCA DChA
Warner Wilde, Chartered Certfed Accountants
4 Marigold Drive, Bisley, Surrey, GU24 9SF
Plant Heritage Ofce First Floor Ofces, Stone Pine, Wisley, Woking, Surrey, GU23 6QD

The Trustees are grateful to Lady Corinna Hamilton who served as Vice President until her death in July 2025.

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Annual General Meeting 2026

Through this document, the Plant Heritage Board of Trustees present their annual report and accounts for the year ended 31 October 2025, prepared in accordance with our governing document and the laws and regulations that apply to our work.

All Plant Heritage members are invited to our 2026 Annual General Meeting on 23 April to meet the trustees and ask questions on past performance and future plans. This will be a virtual event, so that our members based across the UK can attend. Members have received a written notification, and this event can be booked via our website (plantheritage.org.uk/events).

Questions about anything contained in this report or the accompanying financial statements should be addressed to the Chair of the Board at chairman@plantheritage.org.uk

Questions can also be sent via the Plant Heritage office by emailing info@plantheritage.org.uk or posted to First Floor Offices, Stone Pine, Wisley, Woking, Surrey, GU23 6QD, or by phoning the office on 01483 447540.

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Annual Report and Financial 31 Statements for the year ended October 2025

PLANT HERITAGE

Chairman’s Review

Reading this Annual Report, no one could fail to be struck by the breadth, depth and variety of Plant Heritage’s work, with the National Plant Collections at the heart.

We should be proud that this year we reached a new milestone, with around 100,000 plants kept safe in our conservation schemes – edging towards one-third of all cultivated plants in the UK, according to the RHS’s new State of Gardening report. We are equally proud that around 40% of the 742 National Collections we achieved by the end of 2025 are held by individuals, as volunteers. It has been part of Plant Heritage’s ethos from the very beginning that all of us can make a difference doing what we love.

National Collection, become a Plant Guardian or support our work in other ways that our mission has caught the attention of the wider public. It is also welcome to see older Collections successfully passed on to the next generation, who will ensure that years of dedication and knowledge is carried forwards.

Of course, Plant Heritage is not just about plants. It is also about the people behind the plants. Our success depends on the collective interest and support of every member and volunteer. This year, there has been a planned change of the guard in several quarters. The progress we are making today builds on the hard work and strategic leadership by Cecilia Bufton, my predecessor as chair for the past eight years. Also Jim Marshall, who has been involved with Plant Heritage from its earliest days and will step down as vice chairman at the end of April after eight years. Both were ably assisted by Gill Groombridge, who did just about everything “in the office” and out and about, for 18 years. Clare Hogan, editor of the Plant Heritage Journal for the past 10 years has also done a fantastic job. To each of them, I wish to pay tribute and say an inadequate but heartfelt thank you.

It is difficult to pull out highlights from such a busy and impactful year. This Annual Report also cannot do everything and everyone justice. For me personally, some of the most memorable moments have been the Members’ Day at Thenford Gardens and Arboretum, the seminar for our volunteer National Collection coordinators at the National Memorial Arboretum, and the autumn plant fair at Helmingham Hall in Suffolk celebrating 25 years of our successful partnership that attracts thousands of people. Above all, I have hugely enjoyed meeting members and National Collection holders all over the country, from the north of Scotland to the tip of Cornwall, whose passion and interest is infectious and an inspiration!

now and into the future. On behalf of the Board of Trustees, I would like to say thank you to you all.

Sir Roderick Newton Plant Heritage Chairman, March 2026

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About Plant Heritage

Plant Heritage was founded nearly 50 years ago to protect the diversity of garden plants grown across the UK. Those who attended the conference in 1978 that led to the charity’s creation recognised that we risk losing thousands of unique plant varieties that bring joy and represent an important historical and future resource. More than half the named cultivars grown in the UK in the past are no longer for sale. This mission is even more urgent today, as we face up to climate change, the loss of global biodiversity and an increasingly urban society.

With our thousands of members and through our flagship conservation schemes - the National Plant Collections® and Plant Guardians® - we are safeguarding nearly 100,000 plants for the future, from tiny orchids to enormous oak trees. Anyone who has an interest, passion or expertise in a plant or a group of plants, whether amateur or professional, can get involved. National Collection holders come from all walks of life and live across the length and breadth of the UK. They curate and cultivate their own collection, and this becomes part of our unique living library.

members of our Board and committees are also volunteers. Information about the plants in our conservation schemes is stored securely in our award-winning system Persephone. The Threatened Plants Programme underpins our conservation work. It is an ongoing research initiative that identifies cultivated plants that are not widely available commercially, to help inform conservation efforts. As a charity, Plant Heritage is funded through membership subscriptions, donations from individuals (including legacies), companies, charitable trusts and sponsorship, as well as fundraising activities like our volunteer-run Seed Shop. It truly is a team effort, protecting plant diversity for our common good.

From top left clockwise: National Collection Holders David Simpson ( Tradescantia Andersoniana Group & Tradescantia virginiana cultivars), Margaret Stone (Pulmonaria cultivars, Symphyotrichum (Aster) novae-angliae ; and Geranium sanguineum, macrorrhizum & × cantabrigiense ); and David Carver ( Hyacinthella ). Picture on right: Plant Heritage CEO Gwen Hines, standing in the National Collection of Erica (heathers) at RHS Wisley garden.

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Trustees Report

Plant Heritage is led by the Board of Directors who are the charity’s Trustees. This report from the Trustees summarises the charity’s achievements in the past financial year (FY2024/25 ending 31 October 2025). The financial statements have been prepared in accordance with the accounting policies set out in note 1 to the financial statements and comply with the charity's governing document, the Companies Act 2006, FRS 102 "The Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland" and the Charities SORP" Accounting and Reporting by Charities: Statement of Recommended Practice applicable to charities preparing their accounts in accordance with the Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (FRS 102)".

Plant Heritage’s charitable objects as set out in our Articles of Association and Memorandum of Understanding are:

We aim to meet these charitable aims by:

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Our Conservation Strategy

Our five-year Conservation Strategy helps us to keep to the highest conservation standards and is delivered by working with National Plant Collection holders, Plant Guardians, our volunteers, members, partners and supporters. This strategy was refreshed in 2025, including to embed a stronger focus on sustainability, working in partnership with other organisations who share our objectives and to strengthen the emphasis on ensuring the continuity of the National Collections into the future. The four objectives in our 2025-2030 strategy are:

Why our work matters more than ever

The UK’s cultivated flora is incredibly rich, resulting from our history as well as development and care over centuries by dedicated gardeners and breeders. Nobody knows exactly how many different garden plants there are in the UK. The Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) has estimated that there are around 308,000 different cultivated plants and around 73,000 species (RHS State of Gardening Report 2025). These plants are a valuable historical and future resource, whether for their beauty, or having edible, medicinal or other useful properties. Each plant has a unique genetic code making it impossible to replace if lost. Protecting a diverse range of plants is good for biodiversity and increases our resilience to shocks, like extreme weather and pests and diseases.

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Progress during 2024/25

Objective 1: Increasing the number of cultivated plants conserved

National Plant Collections

® A National Plant Collection is a registered and documented collection of a group of plants. Collection holders are individuals or organisations who undertake to conserve these plants by growing them and recording information about them. Many share plant material with others, and some do research into their plants. Each National Collection has a defined botanical scope either taxonomically, such as all the Penstemon cultivars, or by their shared history such as plants collected by Harold Comber. They might otherwise have a geographic link, such as Northwest English apple cultivars.

National Plant Collections are made available for people to view, either by appointment, on special open days or as part of a garden open to the public. Together, they represent a huge resource for gardeners, nursery owners, garden designers, plant breeders and those interested in historical gardens and landscapes. Having these plants as part of a registered conservation scheme ensures that they will be a resource for generations to come.

The National Plant Collections scheme is overseen by the Plant Collections Committee, a sub-committee of the Board, whose members are independent advisers, experts in taxonomy, horticulture, botany and the horticultural trade and area group volunteers. The committee rigorously assesses new applications for scope and coverage and also considers guidance for Collection Holders on cross-cutting issues such as plant health. National Collections are categorised as horticultural, reference or historical collections, depending on their scope and focus. They are mostly held on one site but can also be dispersed, which is increasingly useful (along with duplicate Collections) to protect important plants when crises hit e.g. storms or disease outbreaks. There are now 15 dispersed Collections, four held by Plant Heritage local groups. 10 Collections are held by people under 35. There are 54 fruit, vegetable or herb Collections, including a new heritage apple Collection looked after by Gloucestershire Orchard Trust and a Camellia sinensis remarkable new Collection of grown for tea production that thrives at Tregothnan Estate in Cornwall. Over 10,000 of the plants in National Collections can be grown as houseplants.

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Photos above (clockwise from left): Plants from the new National Collection of plants raised by and associated with Pershore College ( Pelargonium ‘Pershore Princess’ (cc M Stone); Penstemon 'Comberton'; Cotoneaster frigidus 'Pershore Coral' ; Penstemon 'Pershore Pink Lady'; Cotoneaster salicifolius ‘Avonbank’ (cc M Stone); and Ceanothus 'Pershore Zanzibar' (cc J Egan-Wyer)

Today there are National Plant Collections everywhere from windowsills to back gardens, greenhouses, parks, allotments, public gardens, plant nurseries and zoo gardens, even a pub and a prison. Their accreditation shows that anyone with a passion for plants can take an active role in plant conservation. There are still some important groups of garden plants that are not represented in Collections. Through our annual Missing Collections campaign, we encourage more people to consider becoming a National Collection Holder (see below).

At the end of 2025, there were 742 fully accredited National Plant Collections (727 at end 2024), including 41 new collections approved during 2025 (all horticultural Collections unless stated):

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Four of these are past National Collections that have been reaccredited in their new homes ( Lathyrus, Crassula, Salvia rosmarinus and Dierama), which is a fantastic way to ensure the hard work of National Collection holders continues. One existing National Collection of Orchids was awarded scientific status - Oncidium , held by The Mathers Foundation in Sussex.

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Historical collections describe well one of the main purposes of the organization: to conserve our plant heritage in gardens across the UK and Ireland. There were eight historical National Collections approved in 2025, from Herstmonceux Castle’s waterlilies (immortalised in the paintings of Claude Monet), to Philadelphus from Lemoine nurseries in France, Iris bred during the early 20th century and Pelargoniums Camellia bred in the 1930s, to historic apple cultivars from Hertfordshire and Gloucestershire and rare associated with Worth Park in Sussex.

During the year, the Plant Collections Committee considered and accepted 56 proposed Collections (the first stage of the application process) which will come forwards for accreditation when they are ready. Some Collections come forwards quickly, others take a little more time. As at the end of 2025, there were 138 proposed Collections, working towards a full application.

There were 23 National Collections withdrawn during 2025, and three more are in a transitional status (meaning they are under review or being relocated). Collections can be withdrawn for various reasons. Sometimes plants suffer badly from pests and diseases and cannot be saved. Sometimes Collection Holders need or want to step back from this work, which is done on a voluntary basis. Changing weather patterns due to climate change mean that some plants are no longer growing well in their previous locations, so may be moved elsewhere in the country. Our stronger focus on succession is helping to make sure these Collections continue wherever possible. If we cannot achieve this, we focus on safeguarding the rarest plants from a Collection e.g. through the Plant Guardian scheme. Of those withdrawn during 2025:

Plant Guardians

Plant Heritage encourages members to take an active role in conservation by becoming Plant Guardians®. This allows individuals to care for one or more rare or unusual plants without the responsibility of maintaining a full National Plant Collection. Some members already grow a special plant, and we can check whether it is considered rare; others take on an eligible plant through our annual Plant Exchange or grow plants as backup for a National Plant Collection.

All Plant Guardian plants are recorded in Persephone, our plant database, so we can keep track of them. We encourage Plant Guardians to propagate the plants they care for and share them with other members through the Plant Exchange, local propagation groups, or plant sales. Through the scheme, rare plants are grown in multiple locations as an insurance against loss.

The scheme has continued to grow since its launch in 2013. There are now over 2,900 Plant Guardian plants recorded (up from 2,674 in 2024). Of these, over 900 cultivars are assessed by our Threatened Plants Programme as ‘Threatened in cultivation’ (see below), and more than 600 are species that are

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Guardians for National Collection holders, demonstrating the important conservation role that our Plant Guardians play. During the year, we published seven Plant Heritage conservation blog posts highlighting Plant Guardians, Collection Holders, and the stories behind the plants they conserve. These features were also shared across our social media channels to reach a wider audience.

We now have around 200 Plant Heritage members taking part in the scheme. The regions with the highest number of Plant Guardians are North East, Surrey, Kent, Hampshire, Sussex, and Yorkshire. The regions with the greatest number of plant registrations are Gloucestershire, South Wales, Surrey, Kent, Dumfries & Galloway, and Shropshire. While several Plant Societies already record their members’ plants through the scheme, this year we were pleased to welcome our first garden club participating as a group, along with another society beginning to focus on conserving their rarest plants.

We continued to expand the online catalogue of Plant Guardian plants on our website, originally developed with support from the National Heritage Lottery Fund (2022–23). Powered by Persephone, the catalogue provides a short description, an image, and highlights whether a plant is Threatened in cultivation (see below). Because many of these plants are not widely available commercially, compiling accurate information and photos takes time. By November 2025, more than 650 Plant Guardian plants had been added, and our aim is eventually to publish details about every plant in the scheme so they can be recognised and appreciated by a much wider audience.

Threatened Plants Programme

Through our Threatened Plants Programme (TPP), Plant Heritage conservation staff track the history, availability and locations of named cultivars e.g. Pelargonium ‘Sussex Delight’ to work out how rare they are. This information is used to help prioritise conservation work by us and our partners, including National Collection Holders, the RHS, the National Trust for Scotland and specialist societies. Plant Guardians can see if a plant has been assessed as threatened by looking at the digital plant records in our Persephone system.

At the end of 2025, the TPP had assessed over 135,000 named cultivars that we have evidence have been grown in the UK or Ireland. These are checked against plant records from thousands of locations. More than half (nearly 79,000) are no longer reliably available commercially, which we call Threatened in cultivation. This high percentage underlines how many of our amazing garden plants could be at risk of disappearing. Threatened plants are further categorised as follows: Vulnerable in cultivation (three or more sites); Endangered in cultivation (grown in only one or two locations); or Critical in cultivation (not yet found alive). The TPP was started in 2009 and we are adding new data all the time. We are delighted when we find something is not as rare as we feared. We recently located the grapevine 'Duchess of Buccleuch' for the National Trust for Scotland, who thought they would need to go to Australia to source it.

The National Plant Collections are an important way to protect these plants: in a past sample analysis of 23,230 different cultivars held in 326 National Collections, 7,967 met the threshold for being categorised as ‘threatened’. Since National Collections are for groups of plants, not all plants in a Collection will be rare but many will be, and others can quickly become rare if they go out of fashion. Plants rated as Threatened in cultivation are eligible for the Plant Guardian scheme. This is a good way to safeguard individual rare plants where there is not a National Collection.

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PLANT HERITAGE Annual Report and Financial 31 Statements for the year ended October 2025

As well as threat status, we have collated important and fascinating information about these plants, including trade names, synonyms, Plant Breeders’ Rights (PBR), awards, first and last dates listed in the RHS Plant Finder (1987 onwards), first and last dates grown (1562 onwards), whether they have been part of a National Plant Collection (past, present and proposed) or the Plant Guardian scheme, or recorded in our annual Plant Exchanges, Threatened Plant of the Year competition, or accessioned at botanic and historic gardens. We also hold information from International Cultivar Registration Authorities, referees, archived files and online sources. Over 7,600 of the plants in the Threatened Plants Programme database at the end of 2025 were not in the RHS’s Find a Plant database.

Threatened Heathers

In September 2025 we brought heather experts together in Perth, Scotland, to focus on the risks to this much-loved plant. Speakers included Dr Brenda Leese, Alistair Chalmers, Eli Sutton, Dr Tom Lowdon, and Barbara Macdonald, covering National Collections held in several gardens and Plant Guardians.

Photo above: Participants at our 2025 Heather Study Day in Perth, Scotland

The Threatened Plants Programme (TPP) has tracked 1,591 named heather cultivars and for 513 of these we currently have no known location. TPP Programme Manager Kalani Seymour and Michael David Pirie, Associate Professor in Botany at the University Museum of Bergen in Norway, discussed threatened heathers and highlighted examples. This prompted participants to search for rare cultivars like ‘Pink Cloud’ and ‘Scatterley’ at Riverside Park. Eight cultivars that we feared were missing have been found so far. These events foster collaboration, knowledge exchange and networking, helping participants contribute to the conservation of rare and historic heathers while celebrating the joy of in-person engagement and shared passion for plants.

Plant Exchange

The best way to save rare plants is to propagate and share them. Through our annual Plant Exchange, Plant Heritage members propagate and share hard to find plants with other members. By distributing plants around the country, we can re-establish plants in danger of being lost and give members the chance to get hold of something special. We encourage members who receive plants from

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the Plant Exchange to propagate them and pass them on again, to help secure their future. We also encourage registration of these plants in our Plant Guardian scheme so we can keep track of them.

The Plant Exchange for 2025 was held as part of our members’ day at Thenford Garden and Arboretum in Banbury on 7 June. Nearly 1,000 plants (700 different taxa) were swapped (600 in 2024). Several members brought extra plants to swap on the day. The 2026 Plant Exchange will be held as part of the annual Plant Heritage members’ get together, this time hosted by our Suffolk Group. We are grateful to our volunteer Plant Exchange coordinators who make this possible, and to all those who provided or collected plants for safekeeping.

Photo above: Members and our conservation team taking part in the 2025 Plant Exchange

Objective 2: Develop and maintain good standards of curation

We ask National Collection holders to demonstrate best practice curation standards for their collections, including identifying, labelling, recording and cultivating their plants, and sharing this knowledge with visitors. We also encourage National Collection holders to adopt sustainable practices.

National Collection Coordinators

National Collection holders are supported by our conservation team and our network of volunteer collection coordinators who mentor and advise people who are interested in starting a National Plant Collection, support new Collection holders, visit Collections to report back on progress and act as the local point of contact for queries. They also act as the link between Collection Holders, the local group, and the central conservation team. In 2025, we were delighted to welcome 10 new coordinators – some with handovers from their predecessors, others taking on areas that have not had a coordinator for a

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while.

Collection coordinators keep in touch with each other and with the conservation team to share lessons and findings, including at regional meetings. This year coordinators from the Northern region (including Scotland, Ireland and North England) had their catch up at Thorp Perrow Arboretum. In November 2025, we held our second national symposium at the National Memorial Arboretum on 4 November (which has National Collections of Hamamelis and Amelanchier ). This day of talks and workshops brought together Plant Heritage staff and trustees, Collection coordinators and speakers including Paul Johnson (Grounds and Landscape manager at the Arboretum), Cat Sobolewska (Animal and Plant Health Agency - APHA), Roderick Newton (Plant Heritage Chairman) and Clare Hogan ( Journal Editor). We shared knowledge and suggestions for the future on topics ranging from plant health and biosecurity to sustainability, effective record keeping and collecting and communicating stories from Collection holders. Participants also agreed that we should make more of the potential of the Plant Guardian scheme to save rare plants and improve collaborative working through digital communications.

Three people who attended the 2025 symposium were inspired to become collection coordinators and started their role in early 2026 (making 44 Collection coordinators). We are grateful to the Worshipful Company of Gardeners for supporting this symposium.

Plant Records with Persephone

Plant records are an essential element of maintaining good standards of curation. National Collection Holders can choose to keep their plant records in their own «) Persephoneby Plant Heritage system, or opt for Persephone, the award-winning online records system developed especially for Plant Heritage. The central team uses Persephone, and we continue to work towards a fully comprehensive, searchable and accessible database of all the plants in the National Collections.

All Plant Guardian plants are recorded in Persephone, as well as plants swapped through the Plant Exchange, along with three-quarters (566) of accredited Collections and 110 proposed Collections. We are adding all new National Collections and encouraging those whose Collections pre-date the system to add their information to it. Where National Collections are held in institutions that use other horticultural databases, they are asked to send a regular output of key data. These records are then managed, on their behalf, by Plant Heritage. We are also continuing to increase the number of collections recorded using Persephone by providing support and training. During the year, the Persephone team responded to many user support requests via email and provided nearly 130 one to one training sessions (online), plus 22 group sessions online and two face to face workshops.

Key information about plants recorded in Persephone is shared with the Plant Heritage conservation team and our volunteer National Collection coordinators to facilitate management of the scheme. Users may also grant viewing access or various levels of edit access to plant enthusiasts around the world, enabling global exchange of information. The Persephone team supports best practice in plant curation by advising National Collection Holders on accessioning and labelling plants.

Persephone is also used to manage The Wish List - records for hard-to-find plants that Collection Holders are seeking (formerly known as ‘Desiderata’). Persephone users can record information about

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these plants. This scheme is being relaunched in February 2026. We share the list of plants people are looking for with all Persephone users, and via our website and social media to get the public involved in tracking them down.

We make Persephone available to large/open gardens to record the plants in their gardens. The scheme has attracted a growing number of subscribers, some in very well-known open gardens & arboretums around the UK. More than 25,000 accessions have been recorded by one garden alone. Use of Persephone by external organisations brings a sustainable income to the project and extends Plant Heritage’s conservation reach by helping other organisations to record their plants well, including many rare plants.

Persephone is also available to Plant Heritage members who can record up to 1,000 plants in their private garden by taking out a ‘Membership Plus’ subscription. Members with particular plant interests may use Persephone to share their records with each other. Most current member users have indicated that they will be willing to share their records with us to support plant conservation projects.

Persephone is owned by Plant Heritage, and we have continued to develop it to meet our needs. In 2025 we invested in efficiency improvements, including the ability to check the conservation status of a whole National Collection in one go, instead of plant by plant, against the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN’s) Red List of threatened species; and to check plant nomenclature for a whole National Collection against Kew Garden’s Plants of the World Online (POWO) database. The Persephone project is overseen by the Persephone Working Group (PWG) and delivered by a team of volunteers and staff working together. The Board would like to thank Doug Smith who stood down as chairman of the PWG in October 2025 for his leadership from the early days of Persephone, working closely with Penny and David Ross who continue to provide invaluable support as volunteers.

Financial Support to National Collection Holders

Plant Heritage provides bursaries to Collection holders and others to support their conservation work. During FY2024/25, we provided bursary support of just over £9,500 through the central office and local groups.

Our main bursary scheme, the Plant Heritage National Collection holder bursary, provides grants of £100 - £500 to promote, support and improve the National Plant Collections. In 2025, bursaries were awarded for projects including:

Our changing climate, including more extreme weather and new pests and diseases, is making the job of

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collection holders tougher. Therefore, we are encouraging Collection Holders to adopt sustainable practices and we can provide support for this through our bursaries. We have also used bursary funds to help cover travel costs for National Collection holders and volunteers to attend workshops and events, including the national seminar for Collection Coordinators in Staffordshire.

Plant Heritage local groups in Devon and Cornwall, Norfolk, Sussex, Hampshire, Dumfries and Galloway provided bursaries to National Collection holders for a range of needs including labelling and signage, irrigation, phytosanitary standards and research (in the UK and overseas) including climate adaptation research. The Norfolk group’s annual Jan Paulger award to encourage gardening in schools was awarded in 2025 to North Elmham school to develop a calm sensory garden.

Objective 3: Inform and engage others with our conservation work

public support for plant conservation and for our work.

Directory of National Plant Collections

Any member of the public can easily access information about the National Plant Collections from our website, which is regularly updated. We also publish an annual National Collections Directory, which is issued free to members and available to buy if members of the public would prefer to use that instead of our website. This lists all the National Collections by A to Z and by county, along with open days each month.

The Journal

Our Plant Heritage Journal highlights the conservation work of National Collection Holders and Plant Guardians and is widely respected for the quality of its articles. This twice-yearly publication is provided free to all members. The aim is to educate and inform people, and to encourage them to take part in conservation by becoming a Plant Guardian or a National Collection Holder, or to get involved with our Plant Exchange. The Spring 2025 edition highlighted the importance of planning ahead to ensure the continuity of National Plant Collections, and the Autumn 2025 edition showcased Collections well-suited to cut flowers, given the growing interest in sustainable flower farming. The trustees would like to thank Clare Hogan who has edited the Journal for the past 10 years and will be handing over after the Spring 2026 edition.

Missing Collections Campaign

The Missing Collections campaign, first launched in 2016, encourages people with a passion for plants to bring together a National Plant Collection of their own and join the Plant Heritage community in growing, sharing and saving plants. In recent years, the Missing Collections campaign has helped us to secure new collections for Aeonium, Alcea, Baptisia, Colocasia, Eryngium, Ginkgo , Thalictrum, Tradescantia and Verbena.

As part of our commitment to environmental sustainability, our 2025 campaign highlighted pollinator-friendly plant groups: A rbutus, Argyranthemum, Armeria, Campanula, Erysimum, Festuca, Ligularia,

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Osteospermum, Pittosporum, Silene, Trollius, Verbascum, Vinca and Zantedeschia . We also emphasised the importance of historical National Collections, highlighting the opportunity to bring together historical National Collections of plants associated with women gardeners e.g. Valerie Finnis, Margery Fish and Gertrude Jekyll.

To publicise the campaign, we gave interviews on numerous local radio stations, contributed to articles in magazines and used our social media and website. We also highlighted the campaign in our displays at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show and Hampton Court Palace Garden Festival, especially to explain the variety within each plant group to the public. This proved to be a good way to explain our work to the public. We were delighted to welcome a new National Collection of Agastache in 2025, which was profiled as a missing collection in 2024. The Plant Collections Committee has also accepted a proposed Arbutus . collection of

Green Plaque Scheme

National Plant Collections are accessible to visitors whether by appointment, through specific open days, or business open days. We are grateful to all our Collection Holders for their continued commitment to make this possible. A growing number of National Collection Holders now display our distinctive Plant Heritage green plaques, highlighting that a National Plant Collection is held in their garden. We encourage our members and the public to visit the Collections to see for themselves the conservation efforts being made and to enjoy the wide range of plants being conserved. Details of open days are updated regularly on our website.

Threatened Plant of the Year

Our Threatened Plant of the Year competition draws public attention to this important issue, by giving anyone the chance to enter a rare or unusual cultivated plant that is not currently available commercially and has been grown or sold in the UK or Ireland at least 10 years ago. It continues to attract significant media attention as well as public entries.

Shortlisted plants were showcased as part of our educational display at the RHS Hampton Court Palace Garden Festival in July. The judges’ winner was Delphinium elatum ‘Alice Artindale’, bred by William Artindale and Son in 1936 and named after William’s daughter-in-law. Earning an Award of Merit in 1936 and again 1945, it has a strong spike of azure blue and mauve double flowers and boasts an unusual layer of sepals rarely seen today. It was entered by Home Farm Plants in Hertfordshire which specialises in Delphiniums. The public’s choice was Tetrapanax papyrifer 'Di Sue Shan', a lesser-known cultivar of this exotic architectural woody shrub, known as the ‘rice paper plant’. It was collected at Dasyueshan, Taiwan, and named after Diane Doughty and nursery partner Sue Wynn-Jones. It is now grown at English Heritage’s Walmer Castle in Kent which was awarded a National Collection of Tetrapanax in June 2025.

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Photo above: Delphinium elatum ‘Alice Artindale’ and Tetrapanax papyrifer 'Di Sue Shan' alongside other shortlisted entries on display at the RHS Hampton Court Palace show

The other 10 plants shortlisted were: Aeonium ‘Pen-du’; Agapanthus inapertus subspecies pendulus 'All Gold'; Camellia japonica 'Baronne Leguay'; Narcissus 'Fletching'; Penstemon 'Ridgeway Red'; Primula 'Julius Caesar'; Rosa ‘Eden Rose’; Rosa ‘Lorenzo Pahissa’; Salvia microphylla ‘Rodbaston Red’; Tradescantia ‘Danielle’. We would like to thank everyone who entered a plant in the competition and congratulate everyone whose plant was shortlisted.

Brickell Award

The Brickell Award recognises excellence in cultivated plant conservation. Named after Plant Heritage’s founding member and current Vice President Chris Brickell, it was launched for the 25th anniversary in 2023 and celebrates the extensive and ongoing commitment, passion and research of National Plant Collection Holders. The independent judging panel are horticultural and conservation experts.

The 2025 Brickell Award was won by Linda Eggins, renowned Aucuba japonica expert and National Plant Collection Holder, and presented by Matt Pottage, Head of Horticulture and Landscape Strategy for the Royal Parks. The judges commended Linda for her dedicated research and conservation efforts over several decades. In particular, they noted her important work to untangle the plant group’s complicated names and classifications, as well as her collaboration with others, including sharing her knowledge and plant material across the UK and internationally. Through her passion for these plants and her storytelling, she has helped to persuade others to appreciate their diversity, as well as their interesting history. The Collection is curated at Winterbourne House and Garden in Birmingham.

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Photo above left to right: Plant Heritage board chair Cecilia Bufton, Linda Eggins, Matt Pottage and Dan Cartwright (head gardener of Winterbourne House and Garden).

Objective 4: Engage with global thinking on issues around plant conservation

Plant Heritage’s work contributes to the global biodiversity target for 2030, as set out in the Kunming-Montreal 2022 agreement : ‘To maintain and restore the genetic diversity within and between populations of native, wild and domesticated species to maintain their adaptive potential, including through in situ and ex situ conservation.’ The National 4 ex situ Plant Collections are an example of (off site) conservation of domesticated species (cultivated plants), although some Collections also For Life on Earth include species. Around 33,000 of the plants held in the National Plant Collections originated in the wild and some are now critically endangered in their natural habitats due to climate change and habitat destruction. Having cultivated plants as part of a registered conservation scheme ensures that they will be a resource for generations to come.

Scientific Collections

National Collections can be useful for scientific research as a source of live plants and genetic material for specific investigations. Many of our National Collection Holders have become experts in their field, and many share their expertise with others, including through the RHS Expert Groups. 20 National Plant Collections now hold scientific status. To achieve this, the Collection holder must demonstrate active involvement in maintaining and enhancing the taxonomic status of their plant group, in cooperation with other collections and authorities, as well as a sound knowledge of other collections (held nationally and internationally) in their genus or group and regular communication with them. They must also be able to demonstrate how they have shared their knowledge and plant material for the good of conservation and the genus concerned, including through publication. Those applying for scientific status are matched with a mentor to support them through this process.

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Embedding sustainability

Recognising the growing threat from climate change and loss of biodiversity, we have stepped up our focus on environmental sustainability.

This was a key theme at the 2024 National Collection Holders’ Conference in November 2024, kindly hosted by Kew Royal Botanic Gardens which has 10 National Collections across the Kew and Wakehurst site. The Conference was well attended, with 130 participants including two Plant Heritage Vice Presidents: Sarah Bray and Michael Marriott. We had keynote presentations from Simon Toomer, Kew Curator of Living Collections, Lucy Hart, Head Gardener at Fulham Palace House and Garden and James Armitage, Editor of the RHS Plant Review. We also had short talks from several National Collection holders: Catrina Fenton from Garden Organic on 'Calendula: a diverse and exciting venture for seed conservation’; Chris Bird and Liz Smith of Sparsholt College on 'DNA the Apple Way’; and Bethan Collerton from Birmingham Botanical Gardens, 'Caring for Cyclamen in a Changing Climate'. We finished with an engaging panel discussion. We are grateful to the Stanley Smith UK Horticultural Trust for supporting the event.

Some National Collection Holders and members have been leading the way on environmentally sustainable practices for decades. We want to learn from them and share their knowledge through talks and workshops (see below). Plants play an important role in mitigating, adapting to and building resilience to climate change. By making sure plants do not disappear and encouraging people to grow a diverse range, we are making a positive contribution to environmental sustainability. We also want to ensure that we are minimising our waste, reducing our carbon emissions and encouraging members to adopt sustainable growing practices if they have not already done so. Our sustainability statement is published on our website, along with our statement on peat in horticulture.

Biosecurity Plans

In view of the rising risks from pests and diseases, we have introduced the concept of biosecurity plans for National Collections to keep the plants safe and protect the hard work done by our Collection holders. Many already have a plan and our aim is to learn from them, as well as external advice. We are grateful to Andrew Gaunt (National Collection holder for Hedychium and a Plant Health and Seeds Inspector at the Animal and Plant Health Agency APHA) and Lucy Carson-Taylor (Plant Health

Engagement Manager at APHA) for their work to develop a template and guidance notes for these plans. At this stage they are voluntary but we have recommended them to all Collection holders and our aim is to roll them out full over the next few years. They provide an easy-to-use template to identify and manage risks. Plans can be generic or formulated to suit specific collections or plant groups. We will continue to update them (e.g. adding information about invasive plants in February 2026). The plan also includes a list of useful websites, contacts and other schemes including information about local APHA inspectors.

Talks and Workshops

workshops for National Plant Collection Holders and Plant Heritage members and partners on topics related to plant conservation, including:

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We have also shared guidance with our members about plant health , plant passports and the need to tackle the rise in plant poaching , in line with the global Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITIES). Through our members and network of partners, we can draw on material from organisations like DEFRA’s Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA), Botanic Gardens Conservation International (BGCI) and Kew Royal Botanic Gardens.

Collaborating with colleagues

From the beginning, Plant Heritage has worked in partnership with world leading organisations including the RHS, the National Trust, the National Trust for Scotland and the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew, Edinburgh and in Wales. These organisations are all members of Plant Heritage, many provide experts for our committees, and they host some of the larger or more complex National Collections.

In October, we joined the RHS to launch their new State of Gardening report which highlights the importance of gardening for the UK economy, for people and for wildlife. The report is a collaborative effort drawing on research by several partners including Plant Heritage and our Threatened Plants Programme. A key message is that cultivated plants matter, not just wild plants. This report also underlines that wealth of wildlife supported by the UK’s gardens, which should be recognised more clearly in UK government policies and regulations relating to biodiversity net gain (BNG). Plant Heritage CEO Gwen Hines took part in a panel discussion at the press launch and Kalani Seymour, Threatened Plants Programme manager, joined the RHS and others for the parliamentary launch.

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Director of Science and Collections and others at the Parliamentary launch of the report.

We are proud to be members of the Future of National Gardens’ Group established in 2023. We are working collaboratively with other members of the sustainability working group to develop a Climate Assessment Tool for cultivated plants grown in UK cultivated landscapes. This project builds on an existing tool developed by the Climate Change Alliance of Botanic Gardens (CCABG) and Botanic Gardens Conservation International (BGCI) which focused on trees. The enhanced tool will provide guidance on the likely suitability of plants to the predicted future climate scenarios of a selected location. This will be invaluable in helping us planning for the future of National Collections particularly at risk due to current and future climate challenges. Emerging results from this work will be presented at the National Collection holder conference in November 2026.

We continue to participate in the UK Plant Genetic Resource (UKPGR) group alongside all other gene banks. This serves as the technical forum to discuss plant genetic resources issues, technical matters, the development of integrated programmes and provide policy advice for government departments (the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) provides the secretariat). The primary concern for UKPGR is food production and we have facilitated the addition of data from apple collections to be listed in the European inventory of plant genetic resources (EURISCO), which aims to make the European plant genetic resources data available everywhere in the world. During 2025, we worked with other members of the UKPGR to counter proposals to stop tracking the diversity of cultivated plants in UK government national biodiversity reporting to international agreements such as the Convention on Biological Diversity. We continue to work with the RHS and other members of the Future of National Gardens Group to argue that cultivated plants and gardens should be given greater recognition when Biodiversity Net Gain is measured. It cannot be right that a car park and a new garden are scored the same.

Membership

Members make a vital contribution to Plant Heritage’s work. All members support our conservation work through their paid subscriptions, and many are directly involved in our conservation schemes.

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Hundreds of members generously volunteer their time and expertise across the country. We thank all our members for their ongoing support.

smallest reduction in five years (1.1%), in line with our objective to stabilise then re-grow our membership. Around 20% are joint members. Our under 35/student members increased by 50% to 104. More members are also taking out a ‘membership plus’ to access our Persephone system (up by 59% this year). We welcomed our second gold corporate member (Sheen Botanical Labels) and aim to increase the number of organisational and corporate members in the year ahead. We can claim Gift Aid on 65% of memberships, and 70% are paid by Direct Debit which helps to reduce our administrative costs. We ran a ‘12 months for 9’ discount on new memberships from 1 April – 31 October as usual. The Board has since agreed to replace this with a discount of £10 on new individual and joint memberships that will run all year.

Five honorary memberships were agreed by the Board of Trustees to recognise those who have made an outstanding contribution over many years: Cecilia Bufton, Gill Groombridge, Catherine Penny, Katherine ‘Tattie’ Thompson and Maggie Thorpe.

Membership survey

86% of those who responded said they would recommend Plant Heritage to a friend, which is very encouraging. 42% were long-term members (10 years or more), with one-third recruited within the last three years. 72% of members said they took an active part in conservation activities, including Plant Guardians (22%), National Collections (27%) and collecting seed (12%). Others were happy to support plant conservation by being a member. Whilst people said they valued their local group – and asked for even more events spread across the UK - there was also an appetite for more online events from all ages. The Membership and Supporters committee (MSC) and Board of Trustees reviewed the findings and have agreed to develop a membership strategy during 2026 to grow and diversify our membership, whilst making sure our current members feel valued and supported.

Members’ Day 2025

The 2025 Member Day and Plant Exchange took place on 7 June at Thenford Gardens and Arboretum near Banbury, Oxfordshire. Thenford has a National Plant Collection of Galanthus (snowdrops) as well as many other informal collections of plants and trees. It was a stunning venue, and we had fantastic talks by John Grimshaw about the Trees and Shrubs online project; Emma Thick who looks after Thenford's National Collection did a demonstration of bulb twin-scaling; and trustee Sally Flatman, who highlighted the importance of capturing the stories behind the plants, which she tells through her podcast 'Our Plant Stories'. We were privileged to have Lord Michael Heseltine with us to explain the history of the gardens developed by him and his family over the past 50 years. We also held our Plant Exchange. The evening before, we had dinner and a great talk by Tamsin Westhorpe about changes in the world of horticulture and her family garden at Stockton Bury.

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Photos above (clockwise from top left): Tamsin Westhorpe, John Grimshaw, Lord Heseltine, members catching up, Sally Flatman and Emma Thick.

Volunteers

Whether at local or national level, volunteers are at the heart of our work. From organising or contributing to local group activities, to propagating plants for plant fairs, coordinating local National Collections or the Plant Exchange, helping people to record plants on Persephone, and a whole range of tasks volunteers help us with in the central office. The support our volunteers so generously give and the knowledge and skills they share are sincerely appreciated.

Plant Heritage’s volunteer-run seed shop was a great success in 2025 raising over £13,000 (£9,000 in 2024) from donations and encouraging more people to grow plants from seed, or to try growing a new plant. Thank you to everyone who donated seed for our shop, as well as those who sorted and packed it and took part in our seed shop at shows.

In May, a delegation of Plant Heritage volunteers attended the Buckingham Palace garden party (see Morus below). This garden hosts a National Collection of (Mulberry) and some interesting ferns. We are delighted to be launching four new awards to recognise the hard work of our volunteers in 2026, thanks to the generosity of the Marsh Trust (one conservation award and three volunteer of the year awards).

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Photo above (left to right): Helen Moorcraft, Julia Cogan, Roz Cooper, Andy Bufton, Cecilia Bufton, Faith Williams, Margaret Reed, Julian Reed, Carole Whittaker and Pete Whittaker.

Local groups

Our network of local groups across the UK support National Collection holders in their area and organise activities that promote plant conservation for local members and visitors like talks, garden visits, propagation workshops and plant fairs. Groups raise funds to support their events, as well as to support the charity’s wider conservation work. We are grateful to the volunteers who dedicate their time and skills to leading these groups and taking part in their activities.

th anniversary of their popular plant fair held in partnership with Helmingham Hall in September, with displays by National Collection holders from the area and Clare Matterson (RHS Director General) as guest of honour. Lady Tollemache kindly gave a tour of the Hall’s stunning garden to trustees and local group chairs from the wider region. Large plant fairs were also held at venues including Longstock Nurseries (Hampshire), Abbotsbury Gardens (Dorset), RHS Bridgewater (Northwest Group), Hethersett (Norfolk), RHS Rosemoor (Devon and Cornwall Group) and Ushaw House in Durham (North East group).

We were delighted to launch a new group in Mid Wales/South Shropshire this year, led by James Morris. Several existing groups have exciting plans for more activities in their area in the future including Essex, London and Staffordshire. Amongst the many special events put on by local groups was a day learning about Reginald Farrer’s Rhododendron in Clapham, Yorkshire organised by the North West group with Trevor Nicholson, Andrew Jarman and Philip Farrer, and the Sussex Group’s tour of William Robinson’s garden at Gravetye Manor with head garden Tom Coward.

We continue to offer regular online and hybrid events, as well as in-person events, especially for members in areas without an active local group and to engage the wider public about our work. We have increased the frequency of our newsletter (now monthly), to go with our printed publications (two Journal editions of the and the National Collections Directory). Unlike some other plant charities, our members can attend events in any region, not just those in their local area.

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Two affiliated groups - the Manx Plant and Garden Conservation Society in the Isle of Man and Plant Heritage Guernsey - share the same objectives as Plant Heritage and generously support our work. Plant Heritage Guernsey’s National Collection of Nerines has its roots in the very early days of the Guernsey Branch of the National Council for the Conservation of Plants and Gardens (Plant Heritage’s former name), when it was decided to establish a living collection of the island’s national flower. In October 2025, the group celebrated the 25th Nerine Festival with a fantastic display.

The Irish Garden Plants Society (IGPS) has a National Collection, accredited in 2021, of plants with an Irish connection, either bred or discovered in Ireland, introduced by an Irish person, or linked to an Irish garden or gardener. This shared Collection is held in the gardens of around 75 their members as well as several public gardens across Ireland.

Plant Heritage and the Wiltshire Gardens Trust have a historic relationship, dating back to the earliest days of both charities, including through John D’Arcy who was a founder member of both, and we have complementary aims and activities. We are grateful to the Trust for their continued support.

Flower Shows

Plant Heritage put on displays at several shows during 2025 to inspire and educate the public about the importance of plant conservation and the work of the charity. These shows also help to inspire more people to get involved as National Collection holders or Plant Guardians, to become members and raise funds to support our work. Thank you to all the Collection holders who took part, to everyone who helped with our display during the build and during the week, and to those who donated plants and seeds. We are grateful to the Shanly Foundation who funded our displays at Chelsea and Hampton Court and the RHS for their support.

RHS Chelsea Flower Show, May

Our first Plant Heritage zone in the Great Pavilion at Chelsea was a big success, attracting a fantastic response from the public, royalty, celebrities and MPs, as well as lots of media attention especially for the press call with our President Alan Titchmarsh and coverage on Gardeners’ World TV. Website traffic also doubled that week. The National Collections on display were:

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Photo above: National Collection holders and the Plant Heritage team with our President Alan Titchmarsh CBE at Chelsea press day

On the central display (which won a silver medal), we showcased plants provided by more National Geum Heuchera and x Heucherella – Vicki and Collection holders: – Maria Heffer and Sue Martin; Richard Fox, Plantagogo; Streptocarpus – Dibleys' Nurseries; Camassia – Hare Spring Cottage Plants; and Baptisia – Daniel Simbrey. More nurseries who have National Collections did their own displays in the Grand Pavilion, and the Wildlife Trust garden by Zoe Claymore (which won the People's Choice award) included trees and rare ferns from two National Collections, so Plant Heritage really was everywhere. We were also delighted to partner with Frank P Matthews Trees and host their striking new ornamental tree Prunus 'Crystal Falls'® on our stand, which was shortlisted for the 'Plant of the Year 2025' award.

RHS Hampton Court Palace Garden Festival, July

We had our biggest Plant Heritage zone yet at Hampton Court, with 13 National Collections on display, plus five more groups of plants on our central display ( Dahlia, Solenostemon - previously known as Coleus, Astilbe, Penstemon and Mandevilla ) and a display of plants from our Missing Collections campaign 2025.

The winners of the best display in the Plant Heritage zone were Dibleys Nurseries with Petrocosmea, Streptocarpus and Saintpaulia (gold medal) . Three National Collection holders exhibited for the first time: Jess Dighton of Botanica Plant Collections Ltd with Santolina (silver gilt medal); Simon Poole of Mintopia with his collection of Mentha (silver-gilt medal); and Jenny Prosser of Devon with Liatris, which she exhibited alongside artworks (silver medal). Mellie Lewis exhibited her collection of Aeonium (silver gilt medal) . Jonathan Hogarth exhibited his collection of Hosta (silver gilt medal). Barry Clarke showed his National Collections of Asclepias & Gomphocarpus, Calycanthus and Roscoea (silver medal), along with Cornus from the National Collection held at Sir Harold Hillier Gardens. Another 12 nurseries who

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hold National Collections put on their own displays.

Photo above (clockwise left to right): National Collection holders Jess Dighton, Paul and Gareth Dibley, Mellie Lewis, Simon Poole, Jenny Prosser, Barry Clarke and Jonathan Hogarth.

We also ran our popular Seed Shop and a display of plants shortlisted for Threatened Plant of the Year – inviting the public to choose their favourite. Emma Crawforth (trustee and horticultural editor for Gardener’s World magazine) announced the judges’ winner on press day. The Brickell Award winner 2025 was announced by Matt Pottage, Head of Horticulture and Landscape Strategy for the Royal Parks.

Harrogate and Wentworth Woodhouse Shows

The Yorkshire Group put on three fantastic displays of plants in National Collections as well as plants from Missing Collections during 2025: the spring and autumn Harrogate shows plus the new RHS flower show at Wentworth Woodhouse in July, taking home a silver-gilt medal at each event.

Show plans for 2026

Plant Heritage will be returning to the RHS Chelsea Flower Show in May with a Plant Heritage zone in the Great Pavilion as well as our first ever show garden in the All About Plants category. The Plant Heritage Missing Collector garden is being designed by the Planting Design Collective and sponsored by Project Giving Back, with additional support from Shanly Foundation.

We will also have a Plant Heritage zone at the new RHS Badminton Flower Show in July (replacing the RHS Hampton Court Palace Garden Festival for 2026). The Plant Heritage Norfolk Group will be taking part in the new RHS Flower Show at Sandringham in July, and the Yorkshire Group will be doing displays for the Harrogate shows in April and September.

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Media and communications

Across all media, we are making progress against our objective to raise the profile of Plant Heritage, using stories about plants and the people behind the plants. Our Communications Working Group provides oversight and advice to support these efforts.

Our social media presence continues to grow, especially through Instagram (8,000 followers, up from 6,000 last year) and Facebook (over 7,000 followers), which are our two priority channels.

In the 12 months to 31 October 2025, we generated a new record of 453 media items (253 in 2024, 158 in 2023) including:

display

We used the Garden Press Event in February to highlight stories for the year ahead to journalists. The highest profile piece was our Daffodil Diaries collaboration with the RHS which was covered extensively by national and local radio and BBC Breakfast as well as magazines and online articles. Our RHS Chelsea Flower show display also attracted significant coverage, with lots of famous faces sitting on our green bench including Alan Titchmarsh and Monty Don (who was filmed talking about our missing collections campaign for Gardeners’ World TV).

The missing collections campaign and our threatened plant of the year competition were also picked up by local radio and the RHS gardening podcast. We achieved numerous articles about National Collections and Collection holders during the year, especially in gardening and lifestyle magazines. For 2026, we are targeting more podcasts and more national newspapers, rather than just a higher volume of articles, especially via our Chelsea garden.

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Harnessing digital tools

As a small team, we aim to harness digital tools to streamline our work, whilst paying careful attention to data protection and cybersecurity, and making sure our services remain accessible for all.

Our website is a key tool for us to share information about our work and resources for Collection holders. One of the most popular parts of our website is the National Plant Collections search facility. People also use the website to join or renew their membership and to search for information about local groups and upcoming events. Some people will always prefer to contact us by phone or email, and we will continue to offer this option. Website traffic doubled during the RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2025, showing that increased publicity helps to drive people to learn about our work.

Using the designated reserve for IT investments approved by the Board of Trustees, we have prioritized investments to develop our plant records system Persephone further (see above) as well as our website, our core IT systems and to replace outdated equipment including desktops. We did a major update of the website software (Umbraco) and swapped to a new Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system (Donorfy) to manage our membership scheme efficiently whilst also enabling us to gear up wider fundraising and marketing. This has already automated some processes and made bookings and online payments more secure. In late 2025 we achieved CyberEssentials certification (which also gives us a level of free cybersecurity insurance). We are building a members’ area for the website that will go live in the first half of 2026 and is made possible by the new IT system.

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Fundraising Activities

Donations, Sponsorships and Grants

We would like to thank all our members, donors, sponsors and advertisers for their generous support.

We would also like to acknowledge the donations from National Collection Holder open days, whether individual open days or through the National Garden Scheme or Scotland’s Garden Scheme, all individual donations from Members, Friends and supporters.

We gratefully acknowledge grants and donations from the following charitable trusts and foundations, which help to support our core conservation work as well as the Threatened Plants Programme, National Collection Holder and membership workshops, the Plant Guardians scheme and our Persephone development work:

We have also made use of funds kindly transferred to Plant Heritage by the Heather Society when it closed for our Heather Day in Scotland and related research.

Income from legacies and in memoriam

We received generous legacies from Alfred G Mardle, Harriet Gash, Veronica J Tosh and Valerie H Cummings this year that have helped us to invest in the future of the charity, including by refreshing our IT systems and recruiting a new Plant Records Officer. It is always a pleasure when family members and friends share more about their loved ones who have kindly supported us in this way.

We are also grateful to the Harkness Rose Company for their support from the ‘Rosemary Day’ rose in memory of Rosemary Day, former Trustee of Plant Heritage. We wish to thank those that gave donations in memoriam too.

Corporate members and supporters

We are grateful for the continued support of our Gold Corporate Members in 2025:

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We are also grateful for the continued support of our Bronze Corporate supporters in FY24/25:

Thank you to Marshalls Gardens who kindly donated a portion of the proceeds from the sale of the Persica Rose SEE YOU® In Rosé, following its launch at the RHS Hampton Court Garden Festival 2024 by Daniel Myhill, the National Collection Holder of Persica Roses. We would also like to thank Johnsons Seeds and Melcourt Industries Ltd for their additional support.

Transfers from Groups

We are very grateful for the generosity and creativity of our Plant Heritage groups who continue to support National Collection holders and Plant Heritage members.

The charity recognises the commitment and hard work put in by the members of the groups who fundraise throughout the year and generously pass funds on to support the core work of the charity. In all, groups transferred £58,689 (2024: £52,985) to the central office to help fund the charity’s national work. Groups raised a total of £114,076 during the year (2024: £111,250), with the biggest amount raised through plant fairs.

Affiliated Groups and Related Parties

Plant Heritage is grateful to Plant Heritage Guernsey, the Manx Plant and Garden Conservation Society and the Wiltshire Gardens Trust for their generous donations towards our conservation work.

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Structure, Governance and Management

Plant Heritage is a company limited by guarantee and is governed by its Memorandum and Articles of Association, adopted on 2 February 1988, amended in April 2004, April 2010 and July 2018.

Directors and Trustees

The Board of Trustees are responsible for the overall governance of the charity. The Trustees are also the Directors of the Limited Company. Trustees are appointed by the Board and confirmed by the membership at the Annual General Meeting (AGM).

At each AGM, one-third of the directors retire from office by rotation (those who have been longest in office since their last reappointment retire first). Directors retiring by rotation can seek reappointment provided they have served less than eight years in total (consecutive or otherwise) since the first AGM at which they were confirmed, as specified in the Articles of Association. With effect from December 2024, new Directors are appointed by the board for an initial term of three years, renewable for a second term of three years. On an exceptional basis, new trustees may serve up to eight years.

Sir Roderick Newton Chairman with efect from 15 September 2025. Appointed as a
trustee 4 December 2024
Mr James Marshall Vice-Chairman. Appointed 18 April 2018, re-appointed 2 May
2020, reappointed 28 April 2022. Retring afer the AGM on 23
April 2026 at the end of his 8year term.
Mr Gareth Morgan Treasurer. Appointed 10 July 2020 (8 year term), reappointed 24
April 2024
Ms Emma Crawforth Appointed 26 July 2018, re-appointed 17 April 2021, reappointed
24 April 2024. Will be retringin July2026 afer 8years.
Dr Claire Farrer
Appointed 4 December 2024
Ms SallyFlatman Appointed 4 December 2024
Ms Jasmine Jahromi Appointed 4 December 2024
Ms Kavita Kapoor Appointed 14 September 2022(8year term)
Mr John Humphreys Appointed 4 December 2024
Mr David Mathers Appointed 4 December 2024
Mrs Della Weight Appointed 4 December 2024
Trustees who have resigned
Mrs Cecilia Bufon
Ms Sally Nex		 Chairman untl 14 Sept. Appointed 5 Oct 2017, re-appointed 4
May 2019, 28 April 2022. Resigned with efect 10 March 2026.
Resigned as a trustee in December 2024 at end of her term
Mrs Catherine Penny Resigned as a trustee in December 2024 at end of her term

The Board met formally on four occasions to discuss the management of the charity. Information about trustees is published on our website.

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Governance changes

There were no major governance changes this year. The Board and Executive Committees (Finance and Fundraising, Governance and People) have done a thorough review of the charity’s policies and have updated several of these, as well as adding a new policy on Prevention of Sexual Harassment and national Governance guidelines.

Risk Management

Plant Heritage Trustees have considered the major risks to which the charity is exposed and review these at least annually through a documented risk register, and in line with the charity’s Risk Policy and Appetite Statement and the Board Reserved Matters and Scheme of Delegation. Trustees are satisfied that established procedures are sufficient to manage and mitigate those risks.

Plant Heritage conserves garden plants, in line with its charitable objects. Trustees have paid due regard to the Charity Commission guidance on public benefit in deciding how to pursue our objectives. Our Conservation Strategy details how we carry out our work and how we engage with the public.

Plant Heritage has a small team of professional staff, equivalent to slightly over 6 full-time staff. The team as at 1 January 2026 is:

Gwen Hines Chief Executve
Saul Walker Partnership and Events manager (joined 5 Jan 2026)
Claire Ader Membership Team
Julia Cogan Membership Team
Liz Edwards
Alison Foster
Lucy Pitman		 Conservaton Adviser
Plant Records Ofcer (joined April 2025)
Conservaton Adviser
Kalani Seymour Threatened Plants Programme Manager
Mimi Wong Finance Ofcer

The Board of Trustees wish to thank all the members of staff for their expertise, loyalty, resourcefulness and commitment to the work of Plant Heritage. The Trustees also wish to thank Gill Groombridge, former Business Manager, who left Plant Heritage in August 2025 after 18 years, and Julia Cogan who is retiring at the end of March 2026.

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Board Committees and Working Groups

(as of 1 January 2026)

Finance & Fundraising Committee Conservation Committee Meetings four times a year Meetings three times a year Margaret Hughes (Chair) Jim Marshall (Chair) Philip Wilson (Vice Chair) Emma Crawforth (Vice Chair) Cecilia Bufton Paul Bartlett Alison Crook Helen Moorcraft Gareth Morgan Claire Farrer Roderick Newton Catrina Fenton Della Weight Andrew Gaunt Sir Roderick Newton Membership & Supporters Committee Paul Rees Meetings three times a year Tim Upson John Humphreys (Chair) Frances Williams Claire Farrer Rosie Yeomans Jasmine Jahromi Penny Ross Plant Collections Committee Governance & People Committee Meetings four times a year Meetings four times a year Tim Upson (Chair) Elizabeth Smith (Chair) Jonathan Webster (Vice-Chair) Cecilia Bufton Matthew Biggs Kristopher Harper Allison Chris Bird Margaret Headen Chris Clennett Jim Marshall Dawn Edwards Roderick Newton Gary Firth Kevin Hobbs Persephone Working Group David Mathers Madeleine Tinson Meetings three times a year David Mathers (Chair) Chris Trimmer Barry Clarke Rosie Yeomans Liz Edwards Alison Foster Communications Working Group Gwen Hines Meetings three times a year Alex New Emma Crawforth (chair) David Ross Paul Dibley Penny Ross Sally Flatman Gwen Hines Beth Otway Saul Walker Journal Editor

36

PLANT HERITAGE

Annual Report and Financial 31 Statements for the year ended October 2025

Business Plan 2026

Conserving the diversity of garden plants for the future

Engaging more people in our work

Organisational Effectiveness

Treasurer’s Financial Review

2025 was a year when Plant Heritage planned to utilise some of its reserves to invest in its strategic plans for the future. Overall income was £451,348 (£405,188 in 2024) and expenditure was £522,433 (£461,922 in 2024). Whilst this results in a deficit of £71,085 (met by drawing down on the charity’s reserves), this was planned and the year has been a success in pushing forward our strategic priorities.

Incoming resources

Total income from legacies and donations in 2025 was £156,705 (£101,039 in 2024). This included continuing successful funding applications from trusts and foundations (£61,061 up from £42,753 in 2024). Without these funds, we would have had to scale back our conservation activities. Income from charitable and trading activities (including shows and events) held up well at £270,724 (£274,413 in 2024). Income from investments reduced slightly due to interest rate reductions but was still good at £23,919 (£29,736 in 2024).

37

PLANT HERITAGE

Annual Report and Financial 31 Statements for the year ended October 2025

Resources expended

Plant Heritage spent a total of £522,433 (2024: £461,922) on charitable activities, fundraising and governance in 2025. Charitable expenditure, including on plant conservation, was £506,070 (2024: £454,556). The cost of generating funds was £16,363 (2024: £7,366).

development of our digital plant recording system Persephone. The total value of intangible fixed assets at the end of the year was £52,977 (£65,800 in 2024). The Trustees regularly review the value of intangible fixed assets as well as other fixed assets to the business. Income through subscriptions to Persephone has increased to £10,720, which helps to offset the charity’s own costs of using this system. Our website is also a key way through which we recruit and retain memberships however, with the speed of technological change, the Trustees have adjusted the useful economic life of website costs to 5 years (from 8 years) which is now in line with best practice.

Reserves policy

fluctuations in legacy donations and resources raised from trusts/foundations and grants. In 2024, the Trustees determined that – in the light of this possible volatility - the policy should be to maintain unrestricted free funds at a level equivalent to nine months’ general operating costs, including salaries. The Trustees consider that reserves at this level will ensure that, in the event of a significant drop in funding, they will be able to continue the charity’s current activities while consideration is given to ways in which additional funds may be raised. This level of reserves has been maintained throughout the year. The charity’s budget for 2025/26 forecasts operating costs of £354,402, therefore our minimum target for unrestricted free funds is £265,802. Looking ahead, the trustees have agreed to review this approach in time for the FY2026/27 budget, with a view to adopting a more sophisticated risk-based approach.

As of 31 October 2025, the charity had £573,132 in the general fund (2024: £582,266). Deducting the net book value of intangible and tangible fixed assets (£57,797), the level of free reserves in the general fund is £515,335 (2024: £512,669).

2-3 years as we continue to draw down on them to fund our strategic plans. At the same time, as the charity’s work expands, the target for reserves will increase. We envisage that, within 24-36 months, our actual free reserves will be closer to our new target level. Legacy funding, in particular, fluctuates significantly. Therefore, the trustees feel that maintaining a level of reserves higher than target in the short-term provides additional financial security as the charity grows and develops.

purposes. The bulk of these are funds held by groups. £50,000 was set aside at the beginning of FY24/25 for investments in our IT infrastructure. At 31 October 2025, a balance of £14,458 remains following investment during the year on a new Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system, upgrades to our website, replacement of old laptops/desktops and further development of our plant recording system Persephone.

38

PLANT HERITAGE

Annual Report and Financial 31 Statements for the year ended October 2025

Going Concern

growth strategy and invested some of our reserves into the charity’s business. Given this, we consider our operations to be sustainable in the short, medium and long-term and that there is an optimistic outlook with no material uncertainty. Whilst some of our key income streams, particularly legacy income, can be volatile, Plant Heritage has accumulated reserves that would enable us to respond to a sudden downturn in revenue. The charity has met its free reserves target and has also put aside designated funds. The charity also carefully manages its working capital position and maintains a healthy cash position.

Statement of Trustees’ Responsibilities

true and fair view of the state of affairs of the charity and of the surplus or deficit for that period. In preparing these financial statements, the Trustees have in their opinion:

The Trustees have been responsible for keeping proper accounting records which disclose, with reasonable accuracy at any time, the financial position of the charity and which have enabled them to ensure that the financial statements comply with the Companies Act 2006. They have also been

responsible for the safeguarding of the assets of the charity and for taking reasonable steps for the prevention and detection of fraud and other irregularities.

Statement of Disclosure of Information to Independent Examiner

So far as the Trustees are aware, there is no relevant information of which the Charity’s Independent Examiner has not been informed.

Approved by the Board of Trustees on 19 March 2026 and signed on their behalf by:

Trustee and Chairman Sir Roderick Newton

Trustee and Treasurer Mr Gareth Morgan

39

PLANT HERITAGE

INDEPENDENT EXAMINER'S REPORT TO THE TRUSTEES OF PLANT HERITAGE

I report to the trustees on my examination of the financial statements of Plant Heritage (the charity) for the year ended 31 October 2025.

Responsibilities and basis of report

As the trustees of the charity (and also its directors for the purposes of company law), you are responsible for the preparation of the financial statements in accordance with the requirements of the Companies Act 2006.

Having satisfied myself that the accounts of the charity are not required to be audited under Part 16 of the 2006 Act and are eligible for independent examination, I report in respect of my examination of the charity’s accounts carried out under section 44 (1) ( c) of the 2005 Act and section 145 of the Charities Act 2011 (the 2011 Act). In carrying out my examination I have followed the requirements of Regulation 11 of the Charities Accounts (Scotland) Regulations 2006 (as amended) and all the applicable Directions given by the Charity Commission under section 145(5)(b) of the 2011 Act.

Independent examiner's statement

Since the charity is required by company law to prepare its accounts on an accruals basis and is registered as a charity in Scotland your examiner must be a member of a body listed in Regulation 11(2) of the Charities Accounts (Scotland) Regulations 2006 (as amended). I confirm that I am qualified to undertake the examination because I am a member of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants, which is one of the listed bodies.

I have completed my examination. I confirm that no matters have come to my attention in connection with the examination giving me cause to believe that in any material respect:

I have no concerns and have come across no other matters in connection with the examination to which attention should be drawn in this report in order to enable a proper understanding of the financial statements to be reached.

Frances Wilde FCCA DChA

Warner Wilde Limited Chartered Certified Accountants 4 Marigold Drive Bisley Surrey GU24 9SF Date: ............................

PLANT HERITAGE

STATEMENT OF FINANCIAL ACTIVITIES INCLUDING INCOME AND EXPENDITURE ACCOUNT

FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 OCTOBER 2025

Current financial year
Unrestricted
funds
general
2025
£
Unrestricted
funds
designated
2025
£
Restricted
funds
2025
£
Notes
Income from:
Donations and legacies
3
114,634
3,071
39,000
Charitable activities
4
149,675
99,199
-
Other trading activities
5
10,681
11,169
-
Investments
6
23,282
637
-
Total income
298,272
114,076
39,000
Expenditure on:
Raising funds
Fundraising and publicity
7
16,363
-
-
Charitable activities
Memberships and Shows
8
92,155
-
15,567
Educational Activities
8
79,787
73,870
7,762
Plant Conservation
8
211,039
6,832
19,058
Total charitable expenditure
382,981
80,702
42,387
Total expenditure
399,344
80,702
42,387
Net income/(expenditure)
(101,072)
33,374
(3,387)
Transfers between funds
91,938
(91,938)
-
Net movement in funds
11
(9,134)
(58,564)
(3,387)
Reconciliation of funds:
Fund balances at 1 November 2024
582,266
189,430
23,420
Fund balances at 31 October 2025
573,132
130,866
20,033		 Total
2025
£
156,705
248,874
21,850
23,919
451,348
16,363
107,722
161,419
236,929
506,070
522,433
(71,085)
-
(71,085)
795,116
724,031		 Total
2024
£
101,039
255,082
19,331
29,736
405,188
7,366
78,764
149,479
226,313
454,556
461,922
(56,734)
-
(56,734)
851,850
795,116

The statement of financial activities includes all gains and losses recognised in the year. All income and expenditure derive from continuing activities.

PLANT HERITAGE

STATEMENT OF FINANCIAL ACTIVITIES (CONTINUED) INCLUDING INCOME AND EXPENDITURE ACCOUNT

FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 OCTOBER 2025

Prior financial year
Unrestricted
funds
general
2024
£
Unrestricted
funds
designated
2024
£
Restricted
funds
2024
£
Notes
Income from:
Donations and legacies
3
87,502
2,245
11,292
Charitable activities
4
150,057
105,025
-
Other trading activities
5
16,053
3,278
-
Investments
6
29,034
702
-
Total income
282,646
111,250
11,292
Expenditure on:
Raising funds
Fundraising and publicity
7
7,366
-
-
Memberships and Shows
8
76,059
2,705
-
Educational Activities
8
85,342
62,671
1,466
Plant Conservation
8
213,914
1,916
10,483
Total expenditure
382,681
67,292
11,949
Net income/(expenditure)
(100,035)
43,958
(657)
Transfers between funds
90,518
(90,518)
-
Net movement in funds
11
(9,517)
(46,560)
(657)
Reconciliation of funds:
Fund balances at 1 November 2023
591,783
235,990
24,077
Fund balances at 31 October 2024
582,266
189,430
23,420		 Total
2024
£
101,039
255,082
19,331
29,736
405,188
7,366
78,764
149,479
226,313
461,922
(56,734)
-
(56,734)
851,850
795,116

PLANT HERITAGE

BALANCE SHEET

AS AT 31 OCTOBER 2025

Notes
Fixed assets
Intangible assets
15
Tangible assets
16
Current assets
Debtors
17
Cash at bank and in hand
Creditors: amounts falling due within
18
one year
Net current assets
Total assets less current liabilities
Creditors: amounts falling due after
more than one year
Deferred income
20
Net assets
The funds of the charity
Restricted income funds
22
Unrestricted funds - general
24
Unrestricted funds - designated
23		 2025
£
42,992
657,724
700,716
(29,502)
4,980		 £
52,977
4,820
57,797
671,214
729,011
(4,980)
724,031
20,033
573,132
130,866
724,031		 2024
£
29,525
732,206
761,731
(32,725)
4,613		 £
65,800
4,923
70,723
729,006
799,729
(4,613)
795,116
23,420
582,266
189,430
795,116

The company is entitled to the exemption from the audit requirement contained in section 477 of the Companies Act 2006, for the year ended 31 October 2025.

The directors acknowledge their responsibilities for complying with the requirements of the Companies Act 2006 with respect to accounting records and the preparation of financial statements.

The members have not required the company to obtain an audit of its financial statements for the year in question in accordance with section 476.

These financial statements have been prepared in accordance with the provisions applicable to companies subject to the small companies regime.

The financial statements were approved by the trustees on .........................

.............................. Mr G Morgan Trustee

NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 OCTOBER 2025

PLANT HERITAGE

1 Accounting policies

Charity information

Plant Heritage is a private company limited by guarantee incorporated in England and Wales. The registered office is First floor offices, Stone Pine House, Wisley, Woking, Surrey, GU23 6QD.

1.1 Basis of preparation

The financial statements have been prepared in accordance with the charity's governing document, the Companies Act 2006, the Charities and Trustee Investment (Scotland) Act 2005, the Charities Accounts (Scotland) Regulations 2006 (as amended) and "Accounting and Reporting by Charities: Statement of Recommended Practice applicable to charities preparing their accounts in accordance with the Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (FRS 102) (effective 1 January 2019)". The charity is a Public Benefit Entity as defined by FRS 102.

The charity has taken advantage of the provisions in the SORP for charities applying FRS 102 Update Bulletin 1 not to prepare a Statement of Cash Flows.

The financial statements are prepared in sterling, which is the functional currency of the charity. Monetary amounts in these financial statements are rounded to the nearest £.

The financial statements have been prepared under the historical cost convention, [modified to include the revaluation of freehold properties and to include investment properties and certain financial instruments at fair value]. The principal accounting policies adopted are set out below.

1.2 Going concern

At the time of approving the financial statements, the trustees have a reasonable expectation that the charity has adequate resources to continue in operational existence for the foreseeable future. Thus the trustees continue to adopt the going concern basis of accounting in preparing the financial statements.

1.3 Charitable funds

Unrestricted funds are available for use at the discretion of the trustees in furtherance of their charitable objectives.

Restricted funds are subject to specific conditions by donors or grantors as to how they may be used. The purposes and uses of the restricted funds are set out in the notes to the financial statements.

Endowment funds are subject to specific conditions by donors that the capital must be maintained by the charity.

1.4 Income

Income is recognised when the charity is legally entitled to it after any performance conditions have been met, the amounts can be measured reliably, and it is probable that income will be received.

Cash donations are recognised on receipt. Other donations are recognised once the charity has been notified of the donation, unless performance conditions require deferral of the amount. Income tax recoverable in relation to donations received under Gift Aid or deeds of covenant is recognised at the time of the donation.

Legacies are recognised on receipt or otherwise if the charity has been notified of an impending distribution, the amount is known, and receipt is expected. If the amount is not known, the legacy is treated as a contingent asset.

PLANT HERITAGE

NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS (CONTINUED) FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 OCTOBER 2025

1 Accounting policies

(Continued)

1.5 Expenditure

A liability is recognised when either a constructive or legal obligation is identified. Central costs are apportioned between costs of generating funds and charitable activities on the basis of the specific activities of members of staff. Irrecoverable VAT is allocated to the same expenditure heading as the cost to which it relates. Basic financial liabilities are recognised at transaction cost.

1.6 Intangible fixed assets other than goodwill

Intangible assets acquired separately from a business are recognised at cost and are subsequently measured at cost less accumulated amortisation and accumulated impairment losses.

Intangible assets acquired on business combinations are recognised separately from goodwill at the acquisition date where it is probable that the expected future economic benefits that are attributable to the asset will flow to the entity and the fair value of the asset can be measured reliably; the intangible asset arises from contractual or other legal rights; and the intangible asset is separable from the entity.

Amortisation is recognised so as to write off the cost or valuation of assets less their residual values over their useful lives on the following bases:

Website 5 Years Straight Line Persephone intangibles 4 years straight line

1.7 Tangible fixed assets

Tangible fixed assets are initially measured at cost and subsequently measured at cost or valuation, net of depreciation and any impairment losses.

Depreciation is recognised so as to write off the cost or valuation of assets less their residual values over their useful lives on the following bases:

Plant and machinery 4 Years Straight Line Computers 4 Years Straight Line

The gain or loss arising on the disposal of an asset is determined as the difference between the sale proceeds and the carrying value of the asset, and is recognised in the statement of financial activities.

1.8 Impairment of fixed assets

At each reporting end date, the charity reviews the carrying amounts of its tangible and intangible assets to determine whether there is any indication that those assets have suffered an impairment loss. If any such indication exists, the recoverable amount of the asset is estimated in order to determine the extent of the impairment loss (if any).

1.9 Cash and cash equivalents

Cash and cash equivalents include cash in hand, deposits held at call with banks, other short-term liquid investments with original maturities of three months or less, and bank overdrafts. Bank overdrafts are shown within borrowings in current liabilities.

PLANT HERITAGE

NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS (CONTINUED) FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 OCTOBER 2025

1 Accounting policies

(Continued)

1.10 Financial instruments

The charity has elected to apply the provisions of Section 11 ‘Basic Financial Instruments’ and Section 12 ‘Other Financial Instruments Issues’ of FRS 102 to all of its financial instruments.

Financial instruments are recognised in the charity's balance sheet when the charity becomes party to the contractual provisions of the instrument.

Financial assets and liabilities are offset, with the net amounts presented in the financial statements, when there is a legally enforceable right to set off the recognised amounts and there is an intention to settle on a net basis or to realise the asset and settle the liability simultaneously.

Basic financial assets

Basic financial assets, which include debtors and cash and bank balances, are initially measured at transaction price including transaction costs and are subsequently carried at amortised cost using the effective interest method unless the arrangement constitutes a financing transaction, where the transaction is measured at the present value of the future receipts discounted at a market rate of interest. Financial assets classified as receivable within one year are not amortised.

Basic financial liabilities

Basic financial liabilities, including creditors and bank loans are initially recognised at transaction price unless the arrangement constitutes a financing transaction, where the debt instrument is measured at the present value of the future payments discounted at a market rate of interest. Financial liabilities classified as payable within one year are not amortised.

Debt instruments are subsequently carried at amortised cost, using the effective interest rate method.

Trade creditors are obligations to pay for goods or services that have been acquired in the ordinary course of operations from suppliers. Amounts payable are classified as current liabilities if payment is due within one year or less. If not, they are presented as non-current liabilities. Trade creditors are recognised initially at transaction price and subsequently measured at amortised cost using the effective interest method.

Derecognition of financial liabilities

Financial liabilities are derecognised when the charity’s contractual obligations expire or are discharged or cancelled.

1.11 Employee benefits

The cost of any unused holiday entitlement is recognised in the period in which the employee’s services are received.

Termination benefits are recognised immediately as an expense when the charity is demonstrably committed to terminate the employment of an employee or to provide termination benefits.

1.12 Retirement benefits

Payments to defined contribution retirement benefit schemes are charged as an expense as they fall due.

PLANT HERITAGE

NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS (CONTINUED) FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 OCTOBER 2025

2 Critical accounting estimates and judgements

In the application of the charity’s accounting policies, the trustees are required to make judgements, estimates and assumptions about the carrying amount of assets and liabilities that are not readily apparent from other sources. The estimates and associated assumptions are based on historical experience and other factors that are considered to be relevant. Actual results may differ from these estimates.

The estimates and underlying assumptions are reviewed on an ongoing basis. Revisions to accounting estimates are recognised in the period in which the estimate is revised where the revision affects only that period, or in the period of the revision and future periods where the revision affects both current and future periods.

PLANT HERITAGE

NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS (CONTINUED) FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 OCTOBER 2025

3 Income from donations and legacies

Unrestricted
Restricted
funds
2025
Unrestricted
funds
designated
2025
funds
general
2025
£
£
£
Donations and gifts
62,921
3,071
39,000
Legacies
51,713
-
-
Grants
-
-
-
114,634
3,071
39,000		 Total
Unrestricted
funds
Unrestricted
funds
designated
2024
Restricted
funds
general
2025
2024
2024
£
£
£
£
104,992
76,026
2,245
6,000
51,713
11,476
-
-
-
-
-
5,292
156,705
87,502
2,245
11,292		 Total
2024
£
84,271
11,476
5,292
101,039

PLANT HERITAGE

NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS (CONTINUED) FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 OCTOBER 2025

4 Income from charitable activities

Unrestricted
funds
Unrestricted
funds
designated
2025
£
Unrestricted
funds
designated
2025
£
Unrestricted
funds
designated
2025
£
general
2025
£
Memberships and Shows
Sales within charitable
activities
136,834
-
Educational Meetings and Events
held by Area Groups
Sales within charitable
activities
12,841
99,199
149,675
99,199
ome from other trading activities
Unrestricted
funds
general
2025
£
Advertising, publications,
sponsorship and trading
10,681
-
Fundraising events
-
11,169
Total other trading
activities
10,681
11,169
ome from investments
Unrestricted
funds
general
2025
£
Interest receivable
23,282
637		 Unrestricted
funds
designated
2024
£
Unrestricted
funds
designated
2024
£
Unrestricted
funds
designated
2024
£
Total
2025
£
Unrestricted
funds
general
2024
£
136,834
142,252
-
112,040
7,805
105,025
248,874
150,057
105,025
Total
2025
£
Unrestricted
funds
general
2024
£
10,681
16,053
-
11,169
-
3,278
21,850
16,053
3,278
Total
2025
Unrestricted
funds
general
2024
£
£
23,919
29,034
702



Total
2024
£
142,252
112,830
255,082
Total
2024
£
16,053
3,278
19,331
Total
2024
£
29,736

5 Income from other trading activities

6 Income from investments

PLANT HERITAGE

NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS (CONTINUED) FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 OCTOBER 2025

7 Expenditure on raising funds

Unrestricted Unrestricted
funds funds
2025 2024
£ £
Fundraising and publicity
Staging fundraising events 2,263 216
Other fundraising costs 14,100 7,150
16,363 7,366

PLANT HERITAGE

NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS (CONTINUED) FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 OCTOBER 2025

8 Charitable activities

Membership
and Shows
2025 £
Educational
Activities
2025
£
Plant
Conservation
2025
£
Staff costs
35,999
35,999
121,013
Depreciation and impairment
9,210
9,210
30,052
Other charitable expenditure
18,544
107,213
51,968
63,753
152,422
203,033
Grant funding of activities (see note 9)
-
-
4,539
Share of support costs (see note 10)
42,765
7,792
25,426
Share of governance costs (see note 10)
1,204
1,205
3,931
107,722
161,419
236,929
Analysis by fund
Unrestricted funds - general
92,155
79,787
211,039
Unrestricted funds - designated
-
73,870
6,832
Restricted funds
15,567
7,762
19,058
107,722
161,419
236,929		 Total
2025
£
Membership
and Shows
2024 £
Educational
Activities
2024
£
Plant
Conservation
2024
£
193,011
33,260
33,259
96,806
48,472
7,234
7,233
21,700
177,725
19,236
89,952
48,787
419,208
59,730
130,444
167,293
4,539
-
-
1,916
75,983
16,506
16,508
49,523
6,340
2,528
2,527
7,581
506,070
78,764
149,479
226,313
382,981
76,059
85,342
213,914
80,702
2,705
62,671
1,916
42,387
-
1,466
10,483
506,070
78,764
149,479
226,313		 Total
2024
£
163,325
36,167
157,975
357,467
1,916
82,537
12,636
454,556
375,315
67,292
11,949
454,556

PLANT HERITAGE

NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS (CONTINUED) FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 OCTOBER 2025

9 Grants payable

Plant Plant
Conservation Conservation
2025 2024
£ £
Grants to institutions:
Other 4,539 1,916
10 Support costs allocated to activities
2025 2024
£ £
Staff costs 34,973 40,385
Office costs 41,010 42,153
Governance costs 6,340 12,635
82,323 95,173
Analysed between:
Memberships and Shows 43,969 19,034
Educational Activities 8,997 19,035
Plant Conservation 29,357 57,104
82,323 95,173
2025 2024
Governance costs comprise: £ £
Independent examination fee 4,254 4,392
Legal and professional fees 581 8,104
Other governance costs 1,505 139
6,340 12,635
11
Net movement in funds		 2025 2024
£ £
The net movement in funds is stated after charging/(crediting):
Fees payable for the independent examination of the charity's financial
statements 4,254 4,392
Depreciation of owned tangible fixed assets 2,092 2,485
Amortisation of intangible assets 33,927 33,682

PLANT HERITAGE

NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS (CONTINUED) FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 OCTOBER 2025

12 Trustees

None of the trustees (or any persons connected with them) received any remuneration during the year.

4 of the trustees incurred reimbursed travel and governance expenses of £740 (2024: £19).

13 Employees

The average monthly number of employees during the year was:

Plant Conservation
Membership
Finance and admin
Total
Employment costs
Wages and salaries
Social security costs
Other pension costs
10 (2024: 8) part time employees equate to 6 (2024: 6) full time staff.
The number of employees whose annual remuneration was more than £60,000
is as follows:
£60,000 to £70,000
Remuneration of key management personnel
The remuneration of key management personnel was as follows:
Chief Executive, Business Manager and Conservation Manager roles.
Aggregate compensation		 2025
Number
3
2
1
6
2025
£
206,336
11,362
10,286
227,984
2025
Number
1
2025
£
105,926		 2024
Number
3
2
1
6
2024
£
184,682
9,873
9,155
203,710
2024
Number
-
2024
£
99,118

14 Taxation

The charity is exempt from taxation on its activities because all its income is applied for charitable purposes.

PLANT HERITAGE

NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS (CONTINUED) FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 OCTOBER 2025

15 Intangible fixed assets
Website
Persephone
intangibles
£
£
Cost
At 1 November 2024
63,534
112,827
Additions - internally developed
20,442
13,111
At 31 October 2025
83,976
125,938
Amortisation and impairment
At 1 November 2024
40,281
70,276
Amortisation charged for the year
22,179
24,201
At 31 October 2025
62,460
94,477
Carrying amount
At 31 October 2025
21,516
31,461
At 31 October 2024
23,249
42,551
16 Tangible fixed assets
Plant and
machinery
£
Computers
£
Cost
At 1 November 2024
2,909
18,300
Additions
-
1,989
At 31 October 2025
2,909
20,289
Depreciation and impairment
At 1 November 2024
1,471
14,815
Depreciation charged in the year
656
1,436
At 31 October 2025
2,127
16,251
Carrying amount
At 31 October 2025
782
4,038
At 31 October 2024
1,438
3,485		 Total
£
176,361
33,553
209,914
110,557
46,380
156,937
52,977
65,800
Total
£
21,209
1,989
23,198
16,286
2,092
18,378
4,820
4,923

PLANT HERITAGE

NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS (CONTINUED) FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 OCTOBER 2025

17 Debtors
Amounts falling due within one year:
Trade debtors
Other debtors
Prepayments and accrued income
Notes
Deferred income
20
Other creditors
Accruals
Notes
Deferred income
20
Other deferred income
Deferred income is included within:
Current liabilities
Non-current liabilities
18 Creditors: amounts falling due within one year
19 Creditors: amounts falling due after more than one year
20 Deferred income
Deferred income is included in the financial statements as follows:
Movements in the year:		 2025
£
8,352
24,024
10,616
42,992
2025
£
13,170
10,038
6,294
29,502
2025
£
4,980
2025
£
18,150
2025
£
13,170
4,980
18,150		 2024
£
7,131
18,467
3,927
29,525
2024
£
18,520
6,946
7,259
32,725
2024
£
4,613
2024
£
23,133
2024
£
18,520
4,613
23,133

PLANT HERITAGE

NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS (CONTINUED)

FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 OCTOBER 2025

20
Deferred income		 (Continued)
Deferred income at 1 November 2024 23,133 23,410
Released from previous periods (18,153) (16,097)
Resources deferred in the year 13,170 15,820
Deferred income at 31 October 2025 18,150 23,133
21 Retirement benefit schemes
2025 2024
Defined contribution schemes £ £
Charge to profit or loss in respect of defined contribution schemes 10,286 9,155

The charity operates a defined contribution pension scheme for all qualifying employees. The assets of the scheme are held separately from those of the charity in an independently administered fund.

PLANT HERITAGE

NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS (CONTINUED) FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 OCTOBER 2025

22 Restricted funds

The restricted funds of the charity comprise the unexpended balances of donations and grants held on trust subject to specific conditions by donors as to how they may be used.

Movement in funds Movement in funds Movement in funds Movement in funds
Balance at Incoming Resources Balance at 1 Incoming Resources Balance at
1 November Resources Expended November Resources Expended 31 October
2023 2024 2025
£ £ £ £ £ £ £
Shanly Foundation - - - - 5,000 (5,000) -
Stanley Smith (UK) Horticultural Trust - - - - 3,000 (3,000) -
Heritage Lottery 11,589 5,292 (6,544) 10,337 - (4,363) 5,974
RHS - Research - 2,500 (1,000) 1,500 - (500) 1,000
RHS - Workshops - 1,500 (466) 1,034 - (204) 830
The HDH Wills 1965 Charitable Trust - - - - 30,000 (25,000) 5,000
Alfred Williams Charitable Trust - - - - 1,000 - 1,000
Heather Society 6,500 - - 6,500 - (2,381) 4,119
Persephone 5,988 2,000 (3,939) 4,049 - (1,939) 2,110
24,077 11,292 (11,949) 23,420 39,000 (42,387) 20,033

PLANT HERITAGE

NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS (CONTINUED) FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 OCTOBER 2025

22 Restricted funds

(Continued)

Heritage Lottery - Funding for a Digital Volunteer Officer, saving and sharing digital plant heritage.

Persephone - Funding for the development and operation of an online horticultural database developed for recording plants in collections.

RHS Research - For research bursaries.

RHS Workshops - Assistance fund for those attending Plant Heritage workshops.

Heather Society - For the advancement of horticulture, in particular conservation, improvement and research into the growing of heaths, heathers and allied plants. The Stanley Smith (UK) Horticultural Trust - Funding the national collection holder's conference.

Shanly Foundation - Funding for displays at the RHS Chelsea Flower show and RHS Hampton Court Palace Garden Festival.

Alfred Williams Charitable Trust – grant for cataloguing and archiving Sarah Cook’s Historic Irises’ collection

The HDH Wills 1965 Charitable Trust – grant for supporting National Plant Collection

PLANT HERITAGE

NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS (CONTINUED) FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 OCTOBER 2025

23 Unrestricted funds - designated

These are unrestricted funds which are material to the charity's activities.

At 1 Incoming Resources Transfers At 31 October
November resources expended 2025
2024
£ £ £ £ £
Area Groups 139,430 114,076 (78,409) (58,689) 116,408
IT including CRM 50,000 - (2,293) (33,249) 14,458
189,430 114,076 (80,702) (91,938) 130,866
Previous year: At 1 Incoming Resources Transfers At 31 October
November resources expended 2024
2023
£ £ £ £ £
Area Groups 145,752 111,250 (64,587) (52,985) 139,430
Office Move 1,865 - (1,865) - -
CRM 28,373 - (840) 22,467 50,000
Risk Reserve 60,000 - - (60,000) -
235,990 111,250 (67,292) (90,518) 189,430

Area Groups

Area Groups carry out activities throughout the year in accordance with the charity's objectives whilst remaining sympathetic and relevant to each group as defined by its members and geographical location. The Designated Fund represents the income and expenditure from group activities and the value retained in bank accounts as at the period end.

Office Move

To fund the relocation costs associated with changing office.

IT including CRM

To fund upgrades to the website, Persephone developments and a new customer relationship management system.

Risk Reserve

For future operational shocks such as COVID.

PLANT HERITAGE

NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS (CONTINUED) FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 OCTOBER 2025

24 Unrestricted funds

The unrestricted funds of the charity comprise the unexpended balances of donations and grants which are not subject to specific conditions by donors and grantors as to how they may be used. These include designated funds which have been set aside out of unrestricted funds by the trustees for specific purposes.

At 1 Incoming Resources Transfers At 31 October
November resources expended 2025
2024
£ £ £ £ £
General funds 582,266 298,272 (399,344) 91,938 573,132
Previous year: At 1 Incoming Resources Transfers At 31 October
November resources expended 2024
2023
£ £ £ £ £
General funds 591,783 282,646 (382,681) 90,518 582,266

25 Analysis of net assets between funds

Unrestricted
funds
general
2025
Unrestricted
funds
designated
2025
Restricted
funds
2025
£
£
£
At 31 October 2025:
Intangible fixed assets
45,750
-
7,227
Tangible assets
4,249
-
571
Current assets/(liabilities)
528,113
130,866
12,235
Long term liabilities
(4,980)
-
-
573,132
130,866
20,033
Unrestricted
funds
general
2024
Unrestricted
funds
designated
2024
Restricted
funds
2024
£
£
£
At 31 October 2024:
Intangible fixed assets
64,674
-
1,126
Tangible assets
4,923
-
-
Current assets/(liabilities)
517,282
189,430
22,294
Long term liabilities
(4,613)
-
-
582,266
189,430
23,420		 Total
2025
£
52,977
4,820
671,214
(4,980)
724,031
Total
2024
£
65,800
4,923
729,006
(4,613)
795,116

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Please get in touch if you would like to know more: Email: info@plantheritage.org.uk

www.plantheritage.org.uk Or call us on 01483 447540

Address: First Floor Offices, Stonepine, Wisley Lane Wisley, Woking, GU23 6QD

All photos credited to Plant Heritage unless stated