Rebuilding a nursery - Copton Ash

[Maggi Young]

There are quite a few videos posted on You Tube from nurseryfolks at  the Great Dixter Plant Fair

There are videos from Peter Korn  (shown below) and also from  Binny Plants, Edulis Plants, Evolution Plants, Crug Farm  Old Court to name just a few - a dozen in all from the autumn fair this month - list is here
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLdBciiF5O5DM_vo9cs7XXU2il2ikbjjfv
Be aware that there is the ringing of a bell and a very loud shout of "Roll Up Roll Up" announcement at the beginning of the videos


Peter's video


See the links for other Gt. Dixter videos here : https://www.youtube.com/user/GreatDixterGarden

[johnralphcarpenter]

It was an excellent event; I was there on Sunday but forgot to take any pictures!

[Brian Ellis]

What was especially nice was that alpine nurseries and growers were represented as well. So opposite our stand was the German alpine specialists Staudengärtnerei Peters.
 (see www.alpine-peters.de).

Get thee behind me Tim Ingram!  Having seen this I looked at their website and, on Saturday ordered their selection of mixed hybrids.  They have arrived this morning (Friday), beautifully packed and a very nice selection so I am well pleased:
Cho Chang - a white flower
Crazy - which is green
Dendera - Rose
Itoe - Large flowered rose
Moe - a cream/white double
Well worth the carriage as you can see, the hay which they were packed in smelt beautiful!

Seriously though, thanks Tim

[Maggi Young]

Oh dear, Brian, we can resist everything except temptation, eh?

That's an impressively speedy delivery of nice sized plants.

[Brian Ellis]

Oh dear, Brian, we can resist everything except temptation, eh?

That's an impressively speedy delivery of nice sized plants.

Yep, I decided the cost of going down to Dixter (which wasn't at a time that I could have gone) was worth spending on some plants and postage!  I was very impressed with the delivery and the state of the plants on arrival - mindful of another thread which pointed out some bad packaging.

[johnralphcarpenter]

I've had hellebores from them which were equally good - plants and packaging.

[Tim Ingram]

That is so nice to know Brian and Ralph. The Saturday was quite wet and they were in a shady spot and I don't think sold so many plants. Sunday was a lot better. It's quite an exercise bringing so many plants over from Germany and I would very much like to learn more about the nursery as one of the relatively few that specialise in alpines in Europe.

[Maggi Young]

Hope you have a good day that the Best of Faversham market tomorrow, Tim 

[Tim Ingram]

Not such a busy day at the market down town, and after all Faversham is not Great Dixter! (but it's a lot closer). Autumn is never such a time for alpines but we should work on getting a little more in flower just to show gardeners that there is still a lot going on in the garden in the autumn - so next year more cyclamen, woodland saxifrages, crocus, colchicums and gentians! Actually it is nice to meet that relatively small but knowledgeable group of people who do know a lot about plants, and my wife mentioned one person who looked at the notice board we put up (and the picture of the rock bank at the entrance to the town in the spring) and said that she and others had been planting up various overgrown corners in the town with annuals. Rather more important things were happening later in the afternoon with the crowning of 'Miss Faversham'!

Back in the garden the big autumn clear-up is underway under the apple rows for the snowdrops next February. We don't have many very early forms apart from G. reginae-olgae, but it would be fun to surprise people in town with these in autumn.

[Tim Ingram]

These rows of dwarf apples (there are five altogether) have become a big project in the garden over the past few years. underplanting with woodland perennials, ferns, and snowdrops and small narcissi. By now they need quite of work to clear for next February and I usually do some pruning of the apples to open the trees up and give them a general tidy up (summer pruning would be best but there is never enough time). This is a significant part of the garden when we open through the spring, and the idea is to show visitors what a large of range of woodland plants there are which give interest right through from February well into the summer - plus providing seed and propagating material. When well weeded and after the lawn is cut there is a good feeling of progress.

The first row (on the left in the second picture) has a groundcover of brunnera, Viola odorata, with aquilegias, astrantias and various other plants mixed in, and all the top growth is cut back and cleared away for the bulbs next year. This is a complete carpet of snowdrops in February, and growing these with quite strong perennials in this way hopefully reduces the risk of narcissus fly when they die down in the summer.

[Tim Ingram]

The first two rows are quite heavily planted and our main aim will be to introduce more bulbs, especially narcissi. The snakeshead fritillary self-sows nicely so gradually seed of this is being spread amongst the trees. The third row is steadily being planted up and we will try several of the woodland saxifrages from the Peters nursery here, along with (in this picture) a good form of Gentiana septemfida (Nymans) that came from Manns nursery. Weeding is a problem when there is not a good cover of plants and we have mulched heavily with grass cuttings (of which there is no shortage!). In time the more problematical 'weeds' become plants like aquilegias and the brunnera, as well as purple leaved cow parsley, which can self-seed very freely, but give a great meadow-like flowering in the summer (a bit more care with dead-heading required!).

The enjoyable aspect of these areas is slowly introducing more choice and special plants like Roscoea 'Red Gurkha' and a good form of Clematis heracleifolia, 'Cassandra'. The Persicaria sp. (ex Cally Gardens) has been excellent throughout the autumn and so far not spread as vigorously as other species are liable to. Our relatively dry summers limit growing many of the later flowering woodlanders, but we will certainly aim to try more roscoeas if these look to establish well.

There are two more rows of apples to go - just presently planted at one end - and these will be projects for the next couple of years as the collection of snowdrops continues to grow steadily!

[Maggi Young]

a good form of Clematis heracleifolia, 'Cassandra'

What a pretty blue - and a great flower form - seems to have ambitions to be a hyacinth!

[Tim Ingram]

The bottom corner of the garden, just beyond these apple rows, has been cleared - all the hellebore leaves cut away - and heavily mulched. A range of choice snowdrops that came from the Myddelton House sale in late January have been planted here, along with several witch hazels and corylopsis, and a group of erythronium cultivars from Hartside Nursery (at the Summer Event at Dunblane), so it will be exciting to see this area grow out next spring. It has the feel of woodland but also several more exotic trees such as Azara microphylla which scents the whole area in early spring. Above it the weeds still grow and still a lot more winter work is necessary, with the prospect of renewed plantings next year.

[David Lyttle]

Hi Tim,

Your combination of apples and other shrubs seems to work very well for underplanting with bulbs and other woodland plants. Evergreen NZ natives do not work in this respect as they create too much shade and tend to dry the ground out too much. I planted a specimen of Pittosporum eugenioides in my woodland bed but it has had a detrimental effect on the trilliums and rhododenrons underneath it.

[Tim Ingram]

Hi David,

I first got fascinated by woodland plantings like this on visiting Knightshayes Court over in the south-west many years ago. There the woodland plants are grown beneath large trees of oaks and pines and mixed in with rhododendrons. The rainfall is probably twice what we get in Kent. But even in dry Essex in Beth Chatto's garden there are wonderful mixes of woodlanders which has encouraged us to work more on them. They also seem very appropriate in smaller gardens under deep rooting and small trees, so the aim of underplanting the apples is to convince visitors how much more you can make of such places in a garden.

I see what you mean about the NZ vegetation. We have an area of the garden that is devoted to these and southern hemisphere plants (or at least was until a couple of hard winters took their toll) and they are quite difficult to underplant (although nettles are doing very well at the moment ) At Wakehurst Place, which has a big collection of such plants on quite acid sandy soil they use heathers and mostly small shrubs and relatively few perennials. This is a part of our garden we want to redevelop over the winter and next year so must think more about a long term sustainable planting.