2023 Conference at Dumfries House

Thursday 12 October, 2023

Our 2023 conference took place at the beautiful Dumfries House in Ayrshire and we were delighted to welcome garden owners, volunteers and friends from all over Scotland. We had presentations from our Chairman, Dougal Philip and Chief Executive, Liz Stewart, celebrating the impact of funds raised by all of our garden openers and volunteers. We heard from our core beneficiaries, QNIS, Perennial and Maggie’s about the inspiring and important they do to support well being. We enjoyed a fantastic question time chaired by Lesley Watson, with our panellists George Anderson, Penny Wright and Melissa Simpson, Head of Gardens at Dumfries House and also heard from Melissa Simpson about the beautiful gardens at Dumfries House and enjoyed a garden tour.

We celebrated garden milestones, where gardens have opened for many years, and thanked wonderful people, Julia Young and Joan Johnson who were both awarded this year’s Diana Macnab award, for outstanding contribution to volunteering.

A wonderful way to celebrate our 2023 Garden Opening season and to say a huge thank you to everyone involved in opening gardens and raising funds for charity with Scotland’s Gardens Scheme.

Our sincere thanks to you all!

With sincere thanks to our sponsors:

Investec
Saffery
Mclaren’s Nurseries
Green Thumb
Gillespie Macandrew

and to our raffle contributors:

Alex Begg, Begg & Co, Binny Plants, Burgon & Ball, Diana Yates, Dougal Philip, Glenapp Castle, Helen Cross, Helen McMeekin, Kirsty Wilson (RBGE) and Jessica Taylor.

Please click through our conference gallery below.