Pounds for Piers!
One of our horticulture team, Piers Lunt has been selected for a prestigious seed-collecting expedition to Tasmania.
The aim of the exciting three-week challenge is to collect seed for our Woods of the World project here at the Garden. It is hoped the Slate Beds and the Boulder Garden will also benefit.
Piers will join other experts from the National Trust, National Botanic Gardens of Ireland and the Royal Tasmanian Botanical Gardens but he needs your help.
He has to raise £2,000 to finance his Tasmanian trip, and we’re hoping you can help.
Please give what you can but, in true crowd-funding fashion, there are a number of rewards on offer for our most generous givers:
£50 = 2 free tickets to the Garden
£100 = 4 free tickets and a special ‘Woods of the World’ tour with Piers
£250 = 2 family tickets, tour with Piers, exclusive afternoon tea in the Great Glasshouse and your name featured on the plant label of a Tasmanian specimen
If you can help, please contact Membership Manager Jane Down on 01558 667118 or jane.down@gardenofwales.org.uk
You can give by taking a look at our JustGiving page, or by texting NBGW17 followed by a space followed by the amount you want to donate (£1, £2, £3, £4, £5 or £10) to 70070
Piers Lunt
Piers is 32 years old and lives with his young family in Drefach Felindre. He was born in Reading, Berkshire. He grew up in a town house with a long, narrow garden, where he would often help his mother tend to her plants. Little did he know that all the plant names he learned would form the foundation of a horticultural career, after an eight-year hiatus pretending to be a rock star.
At the age of 22, he joined a small garden maintenance firm in Bristol and spent six years learning a range of horticultural skills. Alongside day-to-day practical work he gained both RHS Levels 2 and 3 qualifications, which enabled him to enrol in the Historic and Botanic Gardens’ Bursary Scheme, spending a year at the National Botanic Garden of Wales. At the end of the scheme, he convinced Botanic Garden bosses to give him a permanent contract as a horticulturist. He is currently taking responsibility for the development of the Woods of the World arboretum.