Robbie is one of a new generation of innovative horticulturalists blending the spheres of gardening and conservation. He is the driving force behind ‘FossilPlants’; a BGCI (Botanic Gardens Conservation International) accredited botanic garden, conservation research nursery and horticulture consultancy practice, in North Wales. At FossilPlants a wide range of early lineages of plants alongside internationally important collections of irises, Proteaceae and Ericaceae are maintained for conservation, scientific research and education purposes. He is instigative in conservation projects in and around Snowdonia and North West Wales, working in partnership with Bangor University’s Treborth Botanic Garden, the National Trust, Natural resources Wales, Gwynedd County Council and others. These projects include a water meadow restoration project, the conservation of the Critically Endangered Menai Strait whitebeam, the in-situ management of Wales’ second largest population of a threatened orchid species and the ex-situ conservation of many other threatened native Welsh plant species including the wild Welsh leek. Internationally, Robbie has worked with government agencies and institutions in South Africa to collect globally threatened plant species for ex-situ conservation initiatives and developed cultivation protocols that have assisted in the conservation of other southern hemisphere plants.
He has held positions in practical conservation NGOs such as the RSPB and he currently sits on the Nagoya Protocol working group of the RHS and Defra (UK Government). Robbie wrote for the Guardian newspaper for nearly 5 years, bringing horticulture science to gardening in new and different ways, and has published in the journals of the Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh, The Royal Horticultural Society and as part of the Royal Botanic Garden, Kew’s ‘State of the World’s Plants and Fungi Report 2020. Robbie’s work towards changing the public perception of plants has led to him giving keynote addresses at both national and international congresses and symposiums.
Robbie has voluntarily assisted, through lectures, field courses and one to one advice, in the education of students from institutions across the UK and abroad, including under-graduate students at Bangor University as part of their welcome week and throughout their studies.
He recently finished a master’s degree in conservation science at the Durrell Institute (University of Kent). He is the chair of the Australasian Plant Society, a member of the International Dendrological Society and a Fellow of the Linnean Society of London.
Robbie brings with him a wealth of expertise with the conservation NGO sector, a horticultural and field-focused perspective to the study of natural history and an open minded and broad-viewed approach to the study of conservation and horticulture.