IN A QUIET corner of Wiltshire College & University Centre’s Lackham campus a small team is cultivating a reputation as one of the UK’s foremost rose conservationists.
Since 2019 lecturer Victoria Fiander and her team have worked with horticulture apprentices to build a collection of 135 rare rose varieties in the college’s walled garden. It has brought the college to the attention of experts at the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) and renowned grower David Austin.
“They love our story here and are very interested in what we are doing,” said Victoria. “When I first arrived here we had 32 different rose cultivars (varieties), some of them dating from the 1800s but we’ve worked with collectors all over the country to build that up to 135 and the students have played a big part in that.”
The collection is becoming a vital repository of varieties that are in danger of falling out of circulation. Ten per cent of the collection is now out of circulation – no longer available for sale. “It’s so important to maintain this collection, if what we have in British gardens just dies, that rose is forgotten, it’s lost,” said Victoria.
“One of our loveliest roses is a German, Grusel Zubrin, and it’s out of circulation, you can’t buy it anywhere,” said Victoria. “The one we have is beautiful, it’s like a wedding bouquet and there is not one sign of pest and disease on it. A rose company called Trevor White is interested in working with us to bring it back into circulation.”
The college is working with conservation charity Plant Heritage to locate a further 29 varieties that are known to be at risk. The RHS will provide travel bursaries to cover staff and student costs.
Once located, there is a painstaking process to bring the plants back to a prepared bed in Lackham’s historic walled garden. “We take a hardwood cutting, usually in October when the plant is in dormancy,” said Victoria. “We’ll get two cuttings from a stem by cutting it at a leaf node, where all the hormones are. We put that in the ground and hope that it will generate the roots to make another plant.”
Every rose is geo-mapped and labelled with a QR code that reveals its heritage. The plants are also digitally recorded via an herbarium – a high resolution digital cross-section of a dried plant specimen that accurately records its exact colour. These are stored at the RHS’ Wisley HQ among a collection of hundreds of thousands of specimens dating back to Charles Darwin.
The students carry out every stage of the propagation, planting and recording under Victoria’s supervision. “They get the hands-on experience of propagating and my motto is that as a good instructor, don’t do for yourself what your students can do for you,” said Victoria.
“They might only remember five per cent of we tell them but they’ll retain 70 per cent of what they do. We want to provide a good education and a great learning journey for our students and doing this botanical study is the best way.
“Before you can care for any plant you need to know the science, its physical structure. What does every part of that plant do? You are looking at every part of that plant and then for the rest, it’s like building blocks.”
Her 35 apprentices come from as many different branches of horticulture, including one from Buckingham Palace and one from Highgrove. “It’s really nice because everything we do here goes back to the King,” said Victoria. “He’s really interested in his garden and he really has his finger on the pulse.”
Other apprentices are from grounds departments at local authorities – including Chippenham Town Council, sports clubs, universities and commercial growers. This coming year will see four arrive from Premiership Bournemouth FC.
The college’s growing reputation means the apprentices benefit from expert visitors from the RHS, David Austin and the likes of Wessex Water, as well as site visits, to demonstrate and teach many aspects of plant care.
“We are very fortunate to have a reputation as a centre of excellence,” said Victoria. “That reputation has been carved from the landscape and it means the students get the very best learning experience.”
