Scottish Rock Garden Club Forum
Seedy Subjects! => Grow From Seed => Topic started by: P. Kohn on June 28, 2018, 07:45:56 AM
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Does anyone know what is happening to the Silverhills Seeds business ? The website is unchanged and gives no indication of whether the employees have found any way of continuing after the awful tragedy of Rod and Rachel's murder. Presumably there is an enormous seed collection which could still be distributed even if no more collection was undertaken ?
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https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-44488332 (https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-44488332)
i don't think the seeds stock will be distributed, a really sad story.
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RE: Silverhill Seeds Future... I emailed them in May, to express my condolences at the tragic loss of Rodney and Rachel, and also to comment that many plantspeople around the world were worried about what was to become of the business. Ondine sent me a reply, thanking me for the thoughts and message. Here is a quote from her:
"The business is carrying on, it might end up being slightly smaller, but we are carrying on. The final outcome will only be known once the investigation is finalised, meanwhile we are trading.
I have worked for Rachel for 20 years and am a horticulturist, I will not be able to collect seeds myself as I will need to keep the office going (only ever Rachel and I in the office), but I have help and seed collectors out there who are willing to collect for us."
So, Silverhill continues to function, please do not refrain from sending them your business.
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That is good news Gordon, in the face of such horror and tragedy. One can only hope they are able to recover from the ghastly events of the preceding months. If we can support them with orders and kindly messages, maybe they will be able to rise above their calamity and carry on to a successful outcome for the future.
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Good news indeed Gordon and thank you for letting us know. I did wonder because something appeared in the 'new species' part of their website a week or two back after it had been empty for months.
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Gordon,
Thanks so much for relaying this information. Great news that they are planning to keep going.
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Pretty good new indeed.
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Please see this post re a memorial for Rod and Rachel Saunders:
http://www.srgc.net/forum/index.php?topic=16118.msg394205#msg394205 (http://www.srgc.net/forum/index.php?topic=16118.msg394205#msg394205)
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The Board of the Pacific Bulb Society has authorized the public availability of the Memorial issue of their publication The Bulb Garden for Rachel and Rod Saunders.
You can go here to view it.
https://www.pacificbulbsociety.org/tbg/v16n2.pdf (https://www.pacificbulbsociety.org/tbg/v16n2.pdf)
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Thank you, I enjoyed reading it Arnold. It brought back memories of a colour filled extravaganza of a talk by Rod and Rachel at a SRGC Discussion weekend some years ago.
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I ought to have made post here earlier about the August issue of IRG e-magazine which included a tribute to the Saunders :-[
http://www.srgc.org.uk/logs/logdir/2018Aug301535657804IRG104-August2018.pdf (http://www.srgc.org.uk/logs/logdir/2018Aug301535657804IRG104-August2018.pdf)
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A reminder that Silverhills Seeds continue in business ....
http://www.silverhillseeds.co.za/Newsletter.asp (http://www.silverhillseeds.co.za/Newsletter.asp)
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I had intended posting this same link. Ondine is carrying on the business which is great news for us as it gives us access to new species for the large bed dedicated to South African Plants and to the memory of Rod and Rachel Saunders which we have recently created in Sheffield Botanic Gardens. Planting only began in May (having spent much of the winter preparing the bed) but already we have around 170 species in the ground. Too many to list but if anyone has succeeded with lesser known South Africans in the UK we still have spaces to fill. We would welcome ideas. We are only planting species.
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Ondine at Silverhill seeds, aware of the reservations of some people to order from them given all the new regulations, has put in place a system to make it easy for UK growers to get seed from them with all the relevant regulations being met. She pools orders from the UK, sends them in one parcel, with a single covering phytosanitary certificate, by courier to her son who lives in Aberdeen, who then sends the individual orders out in the UK post. She makes a charge to each person over and above the cost of the seeds to cover the internal UK postage and a share of the cost of the phyto and the courier. So please do keep on ordering from them and help to keep the business thriving.
Paul
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Thanks Paul. Likewise for EU customers, although that may have to change after 1 January.
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I received this today:
We have a brand new website that will be going live soon by the end of the month and then it will be updated.
Regards
Pat
The Silverhill Team
We will be closing the office from the 22nd December and re-opening on the 4th of January.
We will have access to emails, so we will answer your emails as often as we can.
We will be sending orders from the 6th January again as we do not know what things will be like over this period.
NEWSFLASH
Find out more about the Saunders Field Guide to Gladiolus here: http://saundersgladiolusguide.com/
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and a second message, after I wrote that I had posted their letter to the forum:
My son will be returning home (Inverness) mid-April, so I could send parcels in his luggage - I do know it is a while away, but postage is certainly becoming a problem worldwide.
Many Thanks
Ondine
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Some seed I ordered from Silverhill on 09/11/2020 arrived safely this morning and fortuitously I have a day off to sow it.
Has anyone tried growing Dilastris? And if not, why not? It looks gorgeous!
(http://www.plantsystematics.org/imgs/meredith/r/Haemodoraceae_Dilatris_corymbosa_41177.html)
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Gail, I had no idea it even existed until you raised the issue! Let us know how you do with it.
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I didn't know either.
very pretty, what is its hardiness?
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I didn't know either.
very pretty, what is its hardiness?
Ask me again in 5 years, I may have had chance to experiment...