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Garden Plant Conservation Association of Australia Inc. Garden Plant Conservation Association of Australia Inc. (GPCAA) is a national non-profit incorporated association established in Melbourne, Australia in 1986. The Association’s aims and objectives encompass the conservation of Australia’s garden plant diversity through the registration of plant collections of related groupings on a National Plant Collections Register.

GPCAA is a membership organisation with key supporters including the Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne. Through its membership and registered National Plant Collection holders, GPCAA works towards ensuring the preservation of the greatest diversity of garden plants suitable for Australian growing conditions and an expanded pool of garden plant genetic material being available to Australian gardens.

GPCAA registered National Plant Collection Holders voluntarily accept the responsibility of documenting, developing through propagation, sourcing and maintaining a manageable and representative range of their chosen plant grouping. Their efforts help preserve plants that would otherwise be lost to horticulture from the effects of climate change on our plant biodiversity and other events.

Plant collections include Australian endemic species including Eremophila, Hakea and Telopea ; introduced plant groupings such as Camellia,  Cornus and Crocus; and historically significant Australian cultivars, such as Alister Clark roses.

Registered plant collections often include plants with both an Australian and global conservation status.

Private, commercial, corporate and institutional plant collections are held in an Australian wide range of soil and climatic regions. With a passion for and appreciation of their chosen plant grouping, collection holders come from amateur and professional backgrounds, sometimes with a horticultural and botanic background and sometimes not. They all have a desire to discover, learn, understand, record and share in the conservation of their chosen plants through their propagation. Plants remain in cultivation today as a result of the dedication and efforts of collection holders.

Private collection holders have included botanists, business owners, commercial nurserymen, cooks, home gardeners , horticulturalists, landscapers and specialist growers. Public collection holders have included organisations such as agricultural colleges, botanic gardens (for example, Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne, Ballarat Botanic Gardens and Geelong Botanic Gardens ); caretakers of Australian properties of cultural or environmental significance, councils in charge of public spaces (for example, Karwarra Australian Plant Garden) and communal gardens, gardening clubs, horticultural societies  (for example Ferny Creek Horticultural Society), local and state government parks and gardens, schools, scientific institutions and universities. External links