Good news on fernery funding

Plans to develop the quarry area of the Fossil Grove as a magnificent Victorian fernery took a great step forward last month.
Bill Peebles, Deacon of the Incorporation of Gardeners met with the Friends of Victoria Park to present a cheque for £2300 for their fernery fund. Members of the Gardeners Guild had met with the Friends group at the Fossil Grove in November and were impressed with efforts being made to improve this area of the park which had become quite run down.
Bill Peebles explains: “The parks are very important to the city and when we visited this project we were keen to help. I used to love visiting the Fossil Grove as a boy - it was magnificent back then. It’s very sad when our parks are not maintained the way they used to be. We wish the Friends of Victoria Park every success with the fernery.”
Cathie Russell, Secretary of the Friends of Victoria Park said: “This is fantastic news and came as a great surprise. It comes only a few weeks after the Glasgow West Area Partnership awarded us £3000 which has enabled us to order plants for planting early Summer. We are hoping the funds from the Incorporation will allow us to do more planting this Autumn or in Spring next year. The redevelopment of the fernery will take up to ten years or so and all the work is being undertaken by volunteers. The plantinq scheme is being drawn up by landscape architect Richard East and the fernery is also supported by the British Pteridological Society.
Work scheduled to take place on the fernery in Spring 2020 has had to be cancelled because of the Coronavirus lock down but we will reassess what can be done if restrictions are eased.
Please note the photo above showing Cathie Russell, Secretary of The Friends with Bill Peebles, Landscape Architect Richard East and Friends Vice Chairperson Elizabeth Brown was taken early in March before the current restrictions,