Bronze Award for University at Chelsea Flower Show
Wednesday, 26 May 2010
University stand at Chelsea Flower Show
'In order to ensure the security of the collection maintained in the field at Brogdale, we are establishing a back-up resource of cryopreserved cuttings'
The University's exhibit at this year's Chelsea Flower Show has won a Bronze Lindley Award in the Continuous learning section. The University's School of Biological Science teamed with the Department of Typography to produce an exhibit that explains how the University of Reading is helping to secure the world's supply of fruit by working at the National Fruit Collection in Brogdale, Kent.
"There is now a broad agreement that future climate change is likely to lead to challenging conditions for almost all crops," explained Dr Matthew Ordidge, Scientific Curator for the National Fruit Collection at Brogdale. "With our Show we aim to illustrate how the work at the University of Reading will help researchers, breeders and commercial growers tackle the challenges of maintaining sustainable fruit production in the future.
"Many people know the National Fruit Collection exists but perhaps do not recognise its status as a genetic resource. Brogdale houses varieties of both historic and current importance to the UK, including varieties thought to date back to the 1500's such as Autumn Pearmain. We look forward to welcoming visitors to our stand and explaining how we are helping safeguard those much loved varieties as well as other fruits' future."
"In order to ensure the security of the collection maintained in the field at Brogdale, we are establishing a back-up resource of cryopreserved cuttings," added Dr Andrew Wetten from the School of Biological Sciences "Buds must be collected in mid-winter in a dormant state which helps them survive the additional drying needed prior to long term storage in liquid nitrogen (at -196°C)."
The University is currently developing the National Fruit Collection website and database. The website will provide the public and researchers with easy to navigate access to information such as descriptions of the accessions at Brogdale and genetic analysis collated during the curational work. Commercial growers and the breeding/research community will benefit enormously from the database, allowing them access to descriptive data and genetic marker information for many of the accessions.
The Collections are situated at Brogdale Farm on the outskirts of Faversham, Kent, and are open to the public. Please visit www.brogdalecollections.co.uk for details on visiting the collections.