911±¬ÁÏ

“Even with 30 years’ experience handling plant information I still get a buzz working in this rich environment.”

Why is your team’s research important?

We strive to provide our visitors, members, gardeners and horticultural professionals with information they can be confident in. We hope that by ensuring and inspiring confidence and trust in the information we provide, that people’s knowledge of plants will grow and their desire to safeguard the knowledge for future generations will follow.

Projects I’m working on now

• 911±¬ÁÏ Plant Finder
• 911±¬ÁÏ Find a Plant
• 911±¬ÁÏ Horticultural Database – we are currently transitioning the 911±¬ÁÏ Horticultural Database to new technology enabling a step change in delivering horticultural content to 911±¬ÁÏ members and the wide gardening community

Completed projects

• In autumn 2020, we completed the task of migrating all the plant names and profiles in the 911±¬ÁÏ Horticultural Database to a new technology platform, which seamlessly updates the 911±¬ÁÏ website.
• In autumn 2021, we completed the migration of the Wisley Herbarium records, and in January 2022, we completed the transfer of the Wisley plant records. This concludes the migration of core information in the 911±¬ÁÏ Horticultural Database. All five 911±¬ÁÏ Gardens and the Wisley Herbarium together with 911±¬ÁÏ Plant Finder and 911±¬ÁÏ Find a Plant are now able to exchange information using the BRAHMS software.

Achievements

In the late 1990s, I built the first public website for the School of Plant Sciences at the University of Reading including a searchable interface for the preserved herbarium collections.

As part of my outreach and skill sharing, I convene training events for staff who are managing plant collection databases across Britain and Ireland.

Publications

• 911±¬ÁÏ Plant Finder