6°C
We were incredibly proud that our own Linda Eggins won the prestigious Brickell Award 2025 at RHS Hampton Court Palace Garden Festival for her enduring passion and outstanding dedication for the Aucuba japonica.
Linda is an international authority on the evergreen shrubs – also known as the Spotted Laurel – which thrive in deep shade. She and her late husband started the Aucuba collection almost 50 years ago in 1976, initially in their Worcestershire garden before being carefully transferred to Winterbourne, following a house move in 2016. Here, visitors can admire cultivars planted out in the garden, and the collection itself is proudly displayed on University of Birmingham’s campus for the public to see.
Awarding Linda the prize – named after Plant Heritage’s founding member and Vice President Chris Brickell – the judges commended her dedicated research and conservation efforts over several decades.
In particular, they noted her important work to untangle the plant group’s complicated names and classifications, as well as her collaboration with others, including sharing her knowledge and plant material across the UK and internationally.
Through her passion for these plants and her storytelling, she has helped to persuade others to appreciate their diversity, as well as their interesting history. Linda has published several articles, reports and even a book (‘A Virgin for Eighty Years – Aucuba, An Overlooked Treasure’) in 2021, which tells the fascinating story of why the first plants brought back from Japan failed to produce their trademark berries. She did a month-long tour of Japan to see native Aucuba japonica growing in the wild, how they are propagated, grown and developed in nurseries, and used in public spaces and gardens. She is now considered an international authority on all things Aucuba.
Plant Heritage’s judges praised her ongoing passion and relentless pursuit for more knowledge, which has hugely contributed to the wider understanding of this genus. Every year, Linda collects propagated material as required, keeps an inventory of back-up plants and has even donated specimens to prestigious botanical gardens worldwide, including Birmingham Botanical Gardens and Glasshouses, The Harold Hillier Arboretum, Bodenham Arboretum and The Raulston Arboretum in the USA.
Gwen Hines, CEO at Plant Heritage, said: ‘Linda has dedicated many years of her life to understanding, growing and caring for Aucuba japonica and telling their story, which is inspiring. Her passion shines through and her important contributions to plant conservation make her a worthy winner for our Brickell Award 2025.’
Linda Eggins said: ‘It’s an honour to be awarded the Brickell Award by Plant Heritage. I certainly didn’t think when my late husband and I started the collection in 1976 in our back garden, that I’d be awarded at RHS Hampton Court Palace Garden Festival for my contribution to the genus. I can hardly believe it.’
More ‘Missing Collections’ launched, adding to charity’s campaign which began at RHS Chelsea. In a bid to save even more plants groups, Plant Heritage will add a further four plant groups to its Missing Collections 2025 list. The search for passionate gardeners to adopt one of the pollinator-friendly plant groups on this list continues, in the hope that visitors will be inspired to start a National Plant Collection or support the charity’s conservation work in other ways. By supporting Plant Heritage’s work, members of the public can play a vital role in protecting the UK’s plant diversity – and become part of Plant Heritage’s lively network of gardeners united by their passion for conserving, cultivating and exchanging plants to keep them safe for the future. Since the campaign began in 2016, several new Collections have been started, including hollyhocks (Alcea), sea holly (Eryngium) and spiderwort (Tradescantia).
