rhs show

The Royal Horticultural Society has sold one of its London conference centres for £18 million
to Westminster School, who will use Lawrence Hall as a sports hall.

The RHS plans to raise a further £9 million for a five years programme to redevelop its estate.

The £18 million has come from granting a 999 year lease of the Lawrence Hall and Conference Centre.

The RHS now plans to develop RHS Lindley Library & Hall, its horticultural science facilities, to build an inner city schools garden and to create RHS regional centres at RHS gardens or partner colleges and gardens. The first two centres are planned to open during 2012. It will also spend more on online, build two teaching rooms and a restaurant at RHS Wisley and develop RHS Hyde Hall.

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US Department of Agriculture is to reinstate the Annual Floriculture Report, along with several others that had been slated for elimination because of budget cuts. The agency’s decision came after Congress directed the National Agriculture Statistics Service in mid-November to reconsider ending the surveys, as part of USDA’s budget. The Society of American Florists campaigned to reinstate the report and Ball Horticultural said the survey of more than 10,000 commercial operations in 15 states was important to save.