英国 乡村花园协会 The Cottage Garden Society – 英国村舍花园保护平台

协会沿革与创立初衷

英国乡村花园协会（The Cottage Garden Society，简称 CGS）创立于 1982 年，由几位居住在北威尔士和柴郡的花友发起。当时村舍花园的传统植物在英国园艺界变得「不时髦」，硬质铺装和易维护的草坪渐渐取代了多年生草本与一年花草混栽的老式种植方式。几位发起人认为这种古老的种植风格值得保留下来，便成立了专门的小型协会。四十多年过去，协会现已在英国及海外拥有约两千名会员，下设超过三十个地区小组，总部由主席、司库、秘书等角色组成的小型委员会管理，每年召开三到四次会议，会议地点在英格兰中部的不同城市轮换。

会员规模与组织架构

协会目前的会员规模在两千人左右，覆盖英国本土以及欧洲、北美、亚洲、大洋洲的多个国家。新会员与续费会员可通过协会主页在线办理或下载表格邮寄申请；协会在 Contact Us 页面公开了联系邮箱与电话，方便成员咨询。作为英国皇家园艺学会（RHS）的 Affiliated Society，CGS 会员小组每年可组织最多五十五人免费参观 RHS 旗下五座示范花园中任意一座，分别是 Wisley、Hyde Hall、Bridgewater、Harlow Carr 与 Rosemoor，这一福利也写入了协会章程。

出版物与年度种子交换

协会每季度出版全彩会刊 The Cottage Gardener，由 Elaine Nichols 担任主编，内含会员投稿、园艺技巧、品种介绍与摄影作品选登；纸刊与数字版同步发行。每年夏末秋初，协会会向全体会员开放年度种子交换 Seed Exchange，由 Margaret Mason 担任种子经理统筹。会员可在十月底前向其寄送自采种子，并在次年初凭会员号索取目录中的品种；短寿命种子（如 Aethusa cynapium、Angelica sylvestris 等）单独编入 Short-viability List，UK 境内会员可优先申请。

地区小组与花展参与

协会在英国各地拥有超过三十个地区小组（Regional Groups），小到七人即成团、大到两百多人不等。绝大多数小组每月聚会，冬季以讲座为主，春夏以花园参观和植物销售为主。其中柴郡小组每月在 Sandbach 镇活动；德比郡北部小组每年五月在 Arkwright Mill 办植物销售会；科茨沃尔德小组则有自己的独立网站发布活动。协会每年在 RHS Malvern Show、Southport Flower Show、Gardeners’ World Live 等大型花展上设有展位，由志愿者轮流看护，2026 年 Southport Flower Show 上兰开夏与西北小组拿下金奖。

园艺理念与生态价值

协会的核心理念是把花园视作可以与野生动物共存的生态空间，而不只是装饰性的户外房间。会刊多次介绍如何通过种植传统多年生草本吸引瓢虫、捕食螨、青蛙与刺猬入园，从而控制蚜虫、蛞蝓等常见害虫，减少化学药剂的使用。协会每年向会员征集摄影作品，按花境、季节、野生动物等主题评选，2025/2026 年度比赛已于去年底截稿，2026 年的金奖作品为 Hazel Khurshid Akhtar 的「Bathed in Morning Sunshine」，银奖与铜奖分别由 Annia Dickson 和 Karen McIlwrath 获得。

Origins and Founding Purpose

The Cottage Garden Society (CGS) was founded in 1982 by a small group of gardeners based in North Wales and Cheshire. Cottage garden plants had fallen out of fashion, with hard landscaping and low-maintenance lawns displacing the mixed perennial-and-annual planting style that had long characterised British country gardens. The founders wanted to keep this old way of gardening alive, and over forty years later the Society has grown to around two thousand members in the United Kingdom and abroad, organised into more than thirty regional groups under a small committee chaired by a National Chair, with a Treasurer, Secretary and a handful of other officers. The committee meets three to four times each year, rotating between different cities in the English Midlands.

Membership and Structure

Membership currently stands at about two thousand and is open to amateurs and professionals alike. New and renewing members can join online through the Society’s website or by post using a downloadable form; the Contact Us page lists the relevant role email and a contact telephone for enquiries. As an Affiliated Society of the Royal Horticultural Society, CGS groups are entitled to one free annual group visit of up to fifty-five people to an RHS garden (Wisley, Hyde Hall, Bridgewater, Harlow Carr or Rosemoor). Members can also use the Society’s tie-up with the RHS Plant Finder to look up plants and source them from member nurseries.

Publications and Seed Exchange

The Society publishes The Cottage Gardener, a full-colour quarterly magazine edited by Elaine Nichols, which mixes member contributions, cultivation advice, plant portraits and selected photographs in print and digital form. Each year in late summer and autumn the CGS runs a Seed Exchange run by seed manager Margaret Mason: members can donate seed from their own gardens by the end of October, then order from a list distributed in the following months. A short-viability list covers species such as Aethusa cynapium, Angelica sylvestris ex ‘Vicar’s Mead’ and Clematis integrifolia that germinate best when sown fresh; UK members can apply for these directly.

Regional Groups and Flower Shows

More than thirty regional groups operate across the United Kingdom, ranging from as few as seven members to over two hundred. Most meet monthly, with talks through the winter and garden visits plus plant sales from spring to early autumn. The Cheshire group meets monthly in the market town of Sandbach; the North Derbyshire group hosts an annual plant sale at Arkwright Mill in May; the Cotswolds group runs its own website at cotswoldcgs.org.uk. The Society also takes stands at major flower shows including the RHS Malvern Spring Festival, the Southport Flower Show and Gardeners’ World Live; in August 2026 the Lancashire and North West Group won Gold at Southport with a stand built by member volunteers.

Garden Philosophy and Wildlife

The Cottage Garden Society frames the cottage garden as a living ecosystem rather than a decorative outdoor room. Articles in the quarterly magazine explain how traditional perennial and annual plantings can lure predators such as ladybirds, hoverflies, frogs, toads and hedgehogs into the garden, helping to keep aphids, slugs and other pests in check without resorting to chemical sprays. Each year members are invited to submit photographs to the Society’s Photographic Competition. The 2025/2026 round has now closed, with first prize going to Hazel Khurshid Akhtar for ‘Bathed in Morning Sunshine’, second to Annia Dickson for ‘Carolside Garden Earlston’, and third to Karen McIlwrath for ‘Where Time Lingers’. Winning images are printed in subsequent issues of the magazine and displayed on the website.

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