Societies & Associations
The Gardens Trust is a UK national charity dedicated to the research and conservation of designed landscapes and to campaigning on their behalf. The Gardens Trust, as the statutory consultee in England for registered parks and gardens, plays a key conservation role, and more widely supports the County and Country Gardens Trusts in protecting and conserving our landscape heritage. The Gardens Trust was formed in 2015 from the merger of the Garden History Society (GHS) and the Association of Gardens Trusts (AGT).
The Gardens Trust brings together people from many backgrounds united by a love and concern for historic parks, gardens and designed landscapes and an interest in the factors that shaped them: the history of our garden heritage, the discovery and introduction of plants, garden archaeology and the relation of park and garden design to architecture, art, literature and society.
The Woodland Trust is country’s largest woodland conservation charity with over 500,000 members and supporters and more than 1,000 sites, covering over 26,000 hectares, all over the UK.
We’re standing up for woods and trees. We protect and campaign, plant trees, and restore ancient woodland for the benefit of wildlife and people.
To realise our vision, over the next 10 years, we will be strengthening the role of trees and woods in our landscapes and communities and rekindling our love of them.
Find out all about our strategy for the future, ‘Join us on the journey to 2025’ (PDF, 2.4MB)
Why trees need us
Just 13% of the UK is covered with trees. That’s low compared to the average European country that has 37%.
Since the 1930s, more than half the UK’s ancient woodland we had has been destroyed. This rich, complex habitat dates back to medieval times and once swept in vast swathes across our countryside; today it covers just 2% of the UK. And we stand to lose even more as airports, roads and railways expand, houses are built and diseases attack.
The effects are devastating: 60% of our animal and plant species have declined in the past 50 years. Many are now endangered; some face extinction.
Over the years, we’ve identified woods under threat and fought to save them, campaigning alongside local communities or raising funds to buy them ourselves. We’ve also acquired land ripe with potential and created beautiful new woodland close to people’s homes.
We now own more than 1,000 wildlife-rich native woods across the UK. Many are ancient woods and Sites of Special Scientific Interest.
All are open and free to enjoy.
Ireland is blessed with a mild and temperate climate, making it a plantsman’s joy and allowing gardeners to grow a wide variety of plants and shrubs from all over the world, to exist side by side. It is the envy of their colleagues from many countries. The Dublin Garden Group (DGG) consists of Ireland’s most distinguished private gardens in the greater Dublin area – some of them world famous and others secret gems, whose discovery has been the highlight of many a Garden Tour.
The owners of these private gardens, most of which are not open to the public, would like to welcome groups to share their enthusiasm for and knowledge of their plants and designs, at the time to see them at their best.
Eastling Gardeners Club is an horticultural society for the village of Eastling nr Faversham in Kent. The club usually meets four times a year including the New Year’s Party!
It invites a wide variety of experienced speakers, covering a suitable range of topics. The talks are followed by wine and homemade nibbles, at which members can exchange views. There is also a yearly outing. New members are welcome. The cost of annual membership is £6, which covers entrance to all the meetings. Non-members are £3 per meeting. The club meets in Eastling Village Hall on Thursdays, 7.30 p.m. start.
Marlborough Gardening Association, Wiltshire, UK – one of the town’s most active voluntary organisations with over 150 members.
We’re a friendly group of gardeners and horticultural enthusiasts which meets monthly for talks on garden topics at Christchurch Wesley Hall, Oxford Street, Marlborough. We also publish a monthly newsletter and organise events and visits for members.
Our annual programme is packed with interest for active and armchair gardeners alike. Each year the Association arranges a series of talks, a lunch, visits to gardens and nurseries, and a plant sale in Marlborough Town Hall.
New members are always welcome. To join us please complete the Membership Form or come along to a monthly meeting. The annual subscription is £ 7.50.
Members receive the monthly newsletter, free entry to the Monthly Gardening Talks, a 10% discount on gardening sundries at T.H. White and special rates on Events and Visits.
The Alpine Garden Society was founded in 1929 with the aim of promoting an interest in all aspects of alpine plants, rock gardening and rock garden plants, in fact any small hardy plants and bulbs, their cultivation in rock gardens and plant conservation in their natural habitats. We are one of the largest specialist garden societies in the world. Our membership includes amateur gardeners, plant enthusiasts, professional growers, botanists, naturalists, photographers and artists, as well as those who are just beginning to discover the fascination of alpines.
Whatever your interest in alpine and rock garden plants we believe our Society has something to offer everyone.
Formed in 1938 with the object of furthering interest in cultivation of the Fuchsia.
The Heather Society covers every aspect of this world, from the wild heathers of European heaths and moorlands to the rare and unusual splendours of South African or “Cape” heaths, from everyday cultivation, including choosing, growing and propagating hardy heathers, to scientific studies and nomenclature.
It now has members throughout the United Kingdom and Ireland as well as elsewhere in Europe, and in Africa, the Americas, Australasia and the Far East. Members receive an informative yearbook, as well as three newsy Bulletins which contain a diary of events to keep members in touch with Society activities and new developments. It organizes regional groups, visits to heather gardens, an annual week-end gathering and the occasional field-trip, and provides free advice to members on heather-garden design or any problems they may have.
UK based society promoting the growing of Australian and New Zealand plants. The Australasian Plant Society started more than 20 years ago with a small group of individuals meeting to discuss growing Australian plants in the Northern Hemisphere. After two years, it was decided to start a formal society, and so the Australian Plant Society was formed.
The British Cactus & Succulent Society promotes the study, conservation, propagation and cultivation of cacti. Discover the beauty of cacti and other succulents with the BCSS! Whether you are an expert grower or a novice – or are just thinking of starting up the hobby – the Society will guide you all the way. With over 80 branches throughout the UK meeting monthly you will have the opportunity to meet other enthusiasts and to learn more about growing these amazing plants.