March 2007

[TC]

John,

Sorry, I thought the location would come up with my name.  It was taken about 1 mile from my house in Ayr.  The park is just a small area near the centre of town and totally underused - thankfully. The crocus have flowered and self seeded until they have covered most of the grassy area.  I have included a shot of the area from Google Earth.  It might be a good idea if other forum contributors included such information when sending in shots taken on location.

Tom Cameron

Ayr on the Clyde Coast, West of Scotland

[David Nicholson]

..........I had this plant a long time ago from Percy Picton a real plantsman who knew a thing or two about plants and always seemed to have the best forms...............

Ian, there is a Picton Garden at Colwall, just outside Ledbury, that specialises in Michelmus Daisies and is really a sight to see in late September, would this be connected at all with your Percy Picton?

[Maggi Young]

Franz, I was unaware that the leaves of Iris cretensis were so very narrow. Thanks for the detail.

[Anthony Darby]

Aha. I'm growing the wide leaved form. I can grow Lesley's for her, if the offer is still on Ian?

[Lesley Cox]

There is I. unguicularis (formerly stylosa) and I. u. ssp cretensis as Franz says but there is also I cretica which in effect is a wider-leaved form of cretensis. The 3 used to be recognised as distinct species but I believe nowadays the botanists have had their wicked way with them and the two cretensis and cretica, are sometimes merged as ssp of unguicularis. But they are recognisably different from unguicularis and from each other.

[KentGardener]

Hi Tom

thanks for the further info.  If you want your location details to appear automatically go to 'Profile' and then 'Forum Profile Information' - you can key various things in here that will then be attached to all your posts.

regards

John

[Martin Baxendale]

..........I had this plant a long time ago from Percy Picton a real plantsman who knew a thing or two about plants and always seemed to have the best forms...............

Ian, there is a Picton Garden at Colwall, just outside Ledbury, that specialises in Michelmus Daisies and is really a sight to see in late September, would this be connected at all with your Percy Picton?

That's Percy Picton's nursery, run now (I believe, unless it's changed hands) by Percy Picton's son. They always specialised in Michaelmas Daisies, although Percy Picton had a bit of a love-hate relationship with them (they were his bread-and-butter but he much preferred his alpines and smaller perennials, especially hellebores - Helen Ballard's famous hellebore garden and nursery was just down the road). He had a wicked sense of humour and time spent talking to him in his nursery potting shed was always both informative and a good laugh. I really used to enjoy visiting him and Helen and Phillip Ballard back in the seventies and eighties (oops! showing my age!)

[Mark Griffiths]

Hi I knew Percy also, I was also there as a teenager in the 70s. Oddly my history teacher, John Hill (now does the garden at the AGS centre?) started me off unintentionally down the Alpine path. The school had Rural Science and a greenhouse, I was interested in cacti and then I saw some Pleiones and species Cyclamen there. I didn't know they were John's and i didn't realise he was interested in Alpines. I moved school a year later and met John when I visited my first real alpine nursery, Picton's where John was helping out a bit.
Two comments I rmember from Percy. On Farrer's claims "his sparrows where vultures" On nursery management "sometimes I get people saying, but percy! there are greenfly on that plant !" "I always say ..well pick 'em off then, pick em orf!" 

And now the plants, some primula allionii. Cultivars Crystal, Anne, Anna Griffith, and Mary Berry.

[Martin Baxendale]

I remember my mother once telling me how when she was buying some hellebores from Percy Picton he invited her to choose them herself from his rows of newly-flowering seedlings. When she'd gone through the lot (hundreds of them) lifting flowers to look for good speckling and colour, etc. and carefully picked out what she thought were the very best two or three, Percy came along, examined them, said "yep, those're really good'ns. I'll keep them for seed." And my mum had to start all over again, looking for the two or three next-best seedlings to buy! Percy had a nack for getting visitors to inadvertently help out. In the potting shed (roll-up always dangling from one side of his mouth) he'd start asking you to pass him pots, labels and stuff, then it'd be "put a bit of compost in those for me" and soon you'd find you were helping pot-up, clean pots, etc. as he chatted. On one visit he shoved a large plastic pot into my hand as I looked through his hellebore seedling patch, asking if I'd mind pulling out a few weeds as I went along 'cos they were getting a bit overgrown.

[Jim_in_mi]

Again, a bit delayed compared to many others on the forum, the weather just broke here, went from 30s F one day to 73F the next, which gave the Helleborus a push. I have appreciated all the other Helleborus pics on the forum, as I patiently awaited mine.  Here are some buds, waiting for the next burst of warmth.
The pink one is from the "Heritage" strain which I have had for around 8 years, and the other is an unlabelled seedling blooming for the first time.
Jim

[Mark Griffiths]

Ah, but Percy always used to give away lots of stuff too! (so did some of the other old timers but he was pretty extreme)

[ian mcenery]

David you are right to get the link between The Picton Garden and Percy and also the Michaelmas daises where they have the national collection.

Martin, yes as far as I know Paul Picton stills runs the nursery known as Old Court Nursery at Colwall nr Malvern. Percy did I believe purchase the nusery from Ernest Ballard for whom he worked as foreman. Prior to that he had worked his way up from garden boy to head gardener in some well known gardens. Percy was also a keen grower of Hellebores and almost anything so that is probably not suprising there is a connection to Helen Ballard. Although Percy was famous for the Daises it is not a thing which he particularly loved but he always had something desirable for me to spend my pennies on. I might also say many of these plants are still in my garden even they may be many generations down the line.

Mark, John Hill who I also know as a member of our AGS local group did work for Percy at weekends and is still as keen as ever

Maggi I will lift you a piece of the iris in the spring

Lesley if there are any seeds I will send them when ripe

[Maggi Young]

It is really good to hear all these memories of Percy Picton, they bring him so to life.

Ian, re the Iris, thank you very much indeed.

[Lesley Cox]

Thanks Ian, an offer which, if it comes to pass will be gratefully accepted.

I have a Percy Picton connection too, though more tenuous than that of you Brits. Apparently at one stage PP bred a small race of dwarf verbascums which I understand were known as Alstre or Alstree hybrids. I've sometimes read in AGS or other hort publications that these were beautiful but unfortunately extinct, i.e. no longer in cultivation. Happily I can say that this is incorrect because someone here in NZ imported at least one and it is still around today, though far from common. It seems to be long lived however and I've grown it for around 25 years. I manage to get a very few cuttings going each year but there is so little propagating material available because literally every tiny new growth that emerges from bare stems in spring, has its flowerbuds already developing. I've tried root cuttings without success and it never sets seed, although I've pollinated with other dwarf verbascums. I love it and am so grateful it has always stayed with me.

The height is around 20cms and a little wider when fully grown. Two pics follow.


 

[Maggi Young]

What a good colour that Verbascum is, Lesley. Neat growth , too. Great that it is so long-lived, albeit not as obliging at multiplying as one might wish!