Rare birch !

Well this is really exciting! Beleive it or not, these tiny plants are a very rare birch tree from Georgia in the Caucasus mountains. (Look it up, you heathens!).

Dad was out in Georgia last year looking for them, and he brought back seed to germinate.
Well, now it has germinated and as you can see the little fellahs are just getting going. At this point they can be teased out of the compost and put into individual pots to grow bigger. It is a very delicate operation but Dad has a lot of experience at this.
Because these trees are rare, they will be carefully grown into bigger plants that we will give to other collections and botanic gardens around the UK.
If you want to know more about this important bit of conservation work we are involved with see here.