The National Garden Scheme Annual Regional Meeting for Wales & The Marches was held at Garthmyl Hall on Thursday March 7th. Over fifty County volunteers assembled in the ballroom to be welcomed by Susan Paynton, Regional Chairman Wales & The Marches, who announced a total of 354 gardens due to open throughout Wales in 2024, with 67 of these being new to The National Garden Scheme. Rupert Tyler, Chairman, expressed his pride at the outstanding achievements made by the NGS in 2023, with much to look forward to in 2024.
George Plumptre, Chief Executive National Garden Scheme, was delighted to announce the total donations in 2023 amounted to over £3.4 million from some 3,500 garden openings throughout the UK. This year we mark a forty-year continuous partnership with Macmillan Cancer Support with donations of over £20million in that time. National Garden Scheme funding in 2023 supported 270 inpatients at the new Y Bwythyn NGS Macmillan Specialist Palliative Care Unit in Glamorgan, provided the equivalent of nearly 17,500 hours of Marie Curie nursing, supported 2,500 Queen’s Nurses and provided specialist care for 7,000 people living with Parkinson’s. £260,000 was also used to support community gardens from over 500 applications last year.
The Chairman and Chief Executive were thrilled to announce that eight times RHS gold medal winner, Tom Stuart Smith, has graciously agreed to design a show garden for the National Garden Scheme at this year’s RHS Chelsea Flower Show. Project Giving Back is very generously funding the garden at no cost to The National Garden Scheme. Following the show, the garden will be relocated to a new Maggie’s Centre at Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge. The theme of the garden will be Joy – Water – Trees and it will provide a wonderful talking point for visitors to the NGS stand at Chelsea. The new Emma Bridgewater mug and ‘Bring Me Sunshine’ David Austen rose will also be available at the show and online at ngs.org.uk. £5 will be donated to the NGS from all sales of both the mug and rose.
The familiar yellow National Garden Scheme Garden Visitor’s Handbook 2024 is out now, with county leaflets available at nurseries, garden centres and all major supermarkets and visitor centres. If you enjoy meeting people and helping to promote our gardens & would like to join the local Powys team as a volunteer please get in touch with Susan Paynton at susan.paynton@ngs.org.uk
Visit: ngs.org.uk
