20 years on: HRH Prince of Wales returns to the Millennium Seed Bank and Wakehurst
His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales enjoyed a tour of the Millennium Seed Bank (MSB) and Wakehurst, Kew’s wild botanic garden, in West Sussex.
Release date: 10 July 2019
His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales today enjoyed a tour of the Millennium Seed Bank (MSB) to see the value and progress of work carried out at the seed bank and at Wakehurst, Kew’s wild botanic garden, in West Sussex.
In November 2000, The Prince of Wales opened the striking glass building when the aspiration was to bank 10% of the world’s wild seeds by 2010. Today, it represents the largest wild seed conservation project in the world, with 2.25 billion seeds from 190 countries currently stored.
Inside the MSB, His Royal Highness, who has been Patron of RBG Kew since 2016, visited the Surviving or Thriving exhibition, based on the State of the Worlds Plants and Fungi reports. The Prince also visited the underground seed vault where he learnt more about the processes involved in freezing seeds and the Crop Wild Relatives project in particular.
The visit progressed outside to the nursery and propagation area, where Ed Ikin, Head of Landscape and Horticulture at Wakehurst, explained how Kew’s science and the horticulture teams work together to propagate species for the future.
Local school children (from St. Peter’s Primary in Ardingly) who were in the Children’s Heritage Garden at the time, were excited to see His Royal Highness as they took part in a lesson organised by Wakehurst’s Schools Programme.
The visit ended at Wakehurst’s stunning Coronation Meadow, created in response to a request by His Royal Highness for wild meadows to be planted in celebration of the 60th anniversary of The Queen’s Coronation.
As the tour concluded His Royal Highness was presented with a gift of Widdringtonia whytei, a tree is also known as the Mulanje cedar or Mulanje cypress. It is native to Malawi and has become endangered as a result of over-harvesting and an increase of wildfires.
Tony Sweeney, Director of Wakehurst, said: “It was a great honour and pleasure to welcome His Royal Highness to the Millennium Seed Bank and Wakehurst today. We were extremely proud to show some of the amazing work being achieved by science and horticulture teams whose work in the laboratories and nurseries is being translated into the botanic gardens and woodlands around us. This is something we hope everyone can enjoy for years to come.”
Notes for Editors
For more information please contact:
Sandra Howard, Communications and Content Manager on 01444 894336 / s.howard@kew.org Or pr@kew.org 0208 332 5605/2
Wakehurst, Kew’s Wild Botanic Garden in the Sussex High Weald is one of the most beautiful and significant botanic gardens in the country. It is home to Kew’s Millennium Seed Bank, which houses and protects seed from the world’s most substantial and diverse collection of threatened and useful wild plants, and leads the MSB Partnership, a crucially important global science-based conservation programme which is the largest of its kind in the world. The estate includes a contemporary botanic garden, where ornamental plantings and exotic tree and shrub collections of international importance sit within native woodland. Wakehurst’s natural assets associated with its countryside location renders it complementary to Kew’s West London site, with different growing conditions, and a real emphasis on wild plant collections. Coupled with the Millennium Seed Bank, Wakehurst offers an inspiring, immersive, and educational day out for the whole family, and serves as a vital contribution to UK and global plant conservation.
Kew receives just under half of its funding from Government through the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) and research councils. Further funding needed to support Kew’s vital work comes from donors, membership and commercial activity including ticket sales.
Please note that Wakehurst is referred to just as Wakehurst, not Wakehurst Place. It is not a National Trust property.