The College has ambitious plans to plant another 100 trees this year, to reach the milestone of having 1000 trees planted in its large 42 acre site. The College currently has around 900 trees planted, varied species of native UK trees and many coming from Asia and the Americas. 

Our current aim is to raise enough to have planted 1,000 trees, which would be fitting during the College’s 60th anniversary celebrations- this will cost £12,000. Donors to the tree fund will have their names noted in the tree inventory.  Trees will be numbered and planted by year, so donors in this anniversary year will be able to identify which tree/s they contributed to. We will also list donors in the Churchill Review, unless they prefer to remain anonymous.

We are delighted to have joined forces with our alumna Xiaotian Fu (G06), who will kindly match all donations to the gardens fund 1:1 up to £10,000 being reached– the matching is available until 28 February 2021.

To make a gift to this cause please use this link:https://thinkforward.chu.cam.ac.uk/giving/

Xioatian Fu (G06)

Xiaotian is a great patron of the garden, having named a new garden at 72 Storey’s Way which was officially opened in May 2019.  Xiaotian was recognised by Churchill College for her work in encouraging young people to engage in the life of their communities and their nation as well as encouraging excellence in education through her voluntary work and philanthropic major gift support.

Having achieved great success as a journalist with Phoenix Television, including her role as host of the programme “Talk with World Leaders,” Xiaotian Fu is giving back to Churchill College to help future generations of students with the gift of this garden environment added to her existing financial support for students. It is very rare for a former student to make a major gift so soon after his or her graduation and from so far away; we are grateful to Xiaotian Fu for her gift to the College and investment in education and excellence.

Recently Xioatian presented the international Emmy awards in New York (November 2020).

Tree planting plan at Churchill

The College has a fantastic tree collection which totals 900 trees covering 60 genus and well over 200 different species / cultivars. It has set an ambitious target of growing over 1000 trees on site.  These extra trees will bring new habitats for the wildlife and be visually appealing, with flowers, fruit, foliage and bark, trees often also evoke fond childhood memories. Trees give us shade in the summer and help to cool places down, they produce oxygen and they also help with climate change by soaking up carbon.

To mark this campaign we will plant a Cedrus deodora ‘Aurea’ on Arbor Day (12th March). This will be planted near a Cedrus deodora planted by Sir Hermon Bondi and a group of 3 Acer cappidocicum’s planted by Lord Alec Broers and Lady Broers both past Masters of the College.

The College completed the first year of tree planting in October 2020 and we have set the goal of reaching our 1000+ target by November 2022. To achieve this we intend to plant 50 trees per year normally in October / November.  The trees chosen will strengthen our tree diversity and give so much pleasure to residents and visitors alike.

Thank you for your support of this fund to enrich the diversity of trees in our gardens.