How we have supported the National Trust so far...
Blue Diamond Garden Centres have committed to giving a minimum of £1 million to the National Trust over three years, which is enabling the Trust to fund important plant conservation projects.
Blue Diamond Garden Centres and the National Trust entered into a long-term collaboration in August 2022.
Blue Diamond committed to giving £1 million pounds to the National Trust over three years, from the start of the collaboration, which is being used specifically by the Trust on projects in their gardens and parklands.
This makes Blue Diamond one of the largest financial contributors to the Trust’s Plant Conservation Program.
In the first year of our collaboration, (Aug 22 to July 23 inclusive), Blue Diamond contributed £160,000 to the Trust.
Plus, an additional contribution from Blue Diamond to the Trust of £15,705, from the proceeds of an auction of saplings, direct descendants of Newton’s apple tree.
In the second year of the collaboration (August 2023 to July 2024 inclusive), Blue Diamond contributed £350,000 to the Trust.
As Blue Diamond enters its third year of the collaboration, an additional £500,000 will be given by Blue Diamond to the Trust.
These financial contributions are helping the conservation charity fund important plant conservation and garden projects at properties such as:
Woolsthorpe Manor
Woolsthorpe Manor, in Lincolnshire, is Sir Isaac Newton’s family home and in September 2023, Blue Diamond auctioned 10 saplings propagated from the apple tree that inspired his theory of gravity.
The auction raised over £30,000, of which Blue Diamond donated £15,705 to the Trust to support the ongoing care of Woolsthorpe Manor.
Image credit: ©National Trust Images/Mike Selby
An additional £15,000 from Blue Diamond’s first year contributions to the Trust was also ringfenced for Woolsthorpe Manor.
This money has now been spent on a new fence to protect this historically significant tree. Work has also started on creating species-rich meadows, including seasonal bulbs.
Image credit: ©National Trust Images/Paul Harris
Woolsthorpe Manor will hugely benefit from the money given to it by Blue Diamond Garden Centres and will help the team at Woolsthorpe to progress with the garden management plan and care for this very special tree.We planted in October a selection of bulbs – wild daffodils, snow drops, snake head fritillaries and winter aconite, under the trees in the north orchard. We then placed some yellow rattle along one side as our little tester area. We can see if the seeds take and then harvest the seeds more easily if they take. If we find it doesn’t take, we will look to plant plug plants in the spring.We also used some bulbs towards the ticket office and planted winter cyclamen, so hopefully this should start to make the North orchard look as beautiful as the historic orchard.
Croft Castle
Croft Castle and Parkland, in Herefordshire, covers an area of 600 hectares and is renowned for its ancient, veteran and noble trees. Sweet Chestnuts are plentiful, particularly in the Spanish Chestnut Avenue. Hornbeam, Hawthorn, Beech, Yew and ancient oaks can also be found on the estate.
Such is the concentration of ancient trees, that this collection is of significance far beyond the British Isles - few other countries possess such large concentrations.
Given the importance of the woodland, maintaining it is an ongoing task. £30,000 given to the Trust by Blue Diamond will be used to support work such as re-establishing native trees in the parkland, reinstating the lost Oak Avenue and ensuring the health and longevity of trees, such as those in the Spanish Chestnut Avenue.
Image Credit: ©National Trust Images/James Dobson
Berrington Hall
At Berrington Hall in Herefordshire, home to ‘Capability’ Brown’s final landscape, £130,000 of Blue Diamond funds will be put toward creating a new flower garden to recapture the surprise and delight of the Georgian Pleasure Ground.
The Garden Project has been in planning for 10 years, incorporating archaeological research and specialist advice to fully understand the original designs of the gardens. It was revealed that original eighteenth-century design elements and desired early nineteenth-century influences got lost or hidden due to later changes in the garden's evolution. These findings, coupled with Brown's designs, have actively guided the National Trust as they embark on the creation of a new flower garden and visitor journey through the pleasure grounds.
Image credit: ©National Trust Images/Rupert Truman
A mix of more than 53,000 new flowering plants and bulbs, alongside exciting new wisteria ‘umbrellas’ and a restored Wisteria Walk, will add year-round interest and boost biodiversity. Realigned paths will allow visitors to explore the grounds, enjoy views as originally intended and help to bring back the spectacle, wonder and surprise that 18th and 19th century visitors would have once enjoyed here.
The funding received from Blue Diamond for this project will help visitors enjoy Berrington’s gardens for generations to come.
Image credit: ©National Trust Images/Rupert Truman
Wightwick Manor
Wightwick Manor near Wolverhampton will also benefit, with £30,000 of Blue Diamond funding enabling the renewal of the kitchen garden. Work will focus on improving accessibility through the garden to the newly restored Peach House, creating an extended period of interest, and increasing space for food production.
The team hopes the funding will inspire visitors to grow their own, by showcasing fruit and vegetable cultivation, propagation and seed sowing.
Image credit: ©National Trust Images/Annpurna Mellor
Benthall Hall
Benthall Hall in Shropshire will use £50,000 from Blue Diamond Garden Centres to rebuild a glasshouse to cultivate, display and engage visitors with tender plants collected by George Maw while living at the hall in the mid to late 19th century.
Maw collected plants for Charles Darwin and the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, and is best known for writing and illustrating A Monograph of the Genus Crocus, published in 1886.
Image credit: ©National Trust Images/James Dobson
Nostell Priory
Nostell in West Yorkshire will use funds from Blue Diamond to establish an Apothecary Garden inspired by 18th-century lady of the house Sabine Winn. Sabine took an active interest in apothecary and herbal remedies, even commissioning a beautiful apothecary counter from Thomas Chippendale.
Sabine had hoped to create her own apothecary garden and now, more than 200 years after her death, it can come to fruition, allowing visitors to explore some of the medicinal plants she knew, and their uses.
Through sales generated from the National Trust Collection by Blue Diamond, a minimum of 10% of the retail sales price per product will be given to the National Trust to help look after nature, beauty and history for everyone, for ever.
