Advice for buying Dionysias in London

[Michal Hoppel]

Hello to all,

My friend works in Londod now and is going to come back to Poland in the beginning of April. He is very keen enthusiast of rock plants.
He's promised me to buy some rock plants for me in London before his departure.

The sort of plants difficult to obtain in my part of Europe are cultivars od Dionysia,
that's why I'd like to ask you for advice:
Where could he buy for me interesting Dionysia hybrids in London or nearby?

Many thanks in advance,
Best wishes from Poznan/Poland - today we have -18C without snow cover
and Dionysia afghanica is in full bloom for 2 weeks

[Dionysia]

Hello Michal
Good to hear that there are enthusiasts in Poland. Although there are no nurseries in the London area which sell Dionysias, there are two Alpine Garden Society shows within reasonable travelling distance in March. The first is the Early Spring Show in Harlow on the 3rd March and the second is the Kent Show in Gillingham on the 17th March. Aberconwy Nursery from North Wales have sale tables at both shows and have the following in their list. There may be others in limited numbers and some listed may have sold out. Their plants are of excellent quality, most of them are propagated from material from enthusiasts like me. Full details of the show are on the AGS site under the 'Out and About' tab. Listed plants are 'Annielle', archibaldii JCA3010, archibaldii 'Tora', aretioides 'Bevere', aretioides 'Mary Randall', 'Charleson Emma', 'Charleson Gem', 'Charleson Moonglow', Charleson Petite', 'Charleson Thomas', 'Corona', curviflora ENF93/3, curviflora JRDA2, curviflora SLIZE268, 'Eric Watson' Ewesley Kappa', 'Ewesley Theta', 'Ganymede', gaubae DZ I 00-34-1, 'Geist', 'Harlekin', janthina JCA2806, janthina SLIZE265, 'Judith Bramley', khuzistanica JLMS02-69/GS, lurorum, 'Lycaena', 'Menuett', 'Monika', 'Pascal', revoluta ssp. canescens SLIZE240, rhaptodes DZ I 01-04-2, tapetodes 'Brimstone', tapetodes compact pin, tapetodes 'Peter Edwards', termeana JLMS02-34/PMR1, 'Tess', 'Yellowstone'. Also listed is 'Adora' but this is generally considered to be an invalid name for an odora x tapetodes hybrid which somebody misheard in the past and which has been perpetuated. Prices vary between £4 and £8. If you would like additional details about any of these please reply on the thread as I have extensive collection and hybrid records courtesy of Michael Kammerlander.
Finally I see you are from Poznan. Are you aware that my team, Manchester City has adopted the Poznan 'backs to the pitch' celebrations during matches?!!
Paul Ranson   

[Michal Hoppel]

Paul, many thanks for this information.
I'll send it to my friend, I guess that the show itself (and also plant sale) is worth of visiting. Regarding list of Dionysias - it is very interesting, I think I'm able to find descriptions.

I still hope that maybe there is at least one Dionysia-enthusiast in London who have some surplus hybrids, maybe not a nursery in a literal sense.

As far as Euro 2012 is concerned - honestly: I'm not aware of that. I consiter that time in June as best for spending a lot of time on my garden and continue building my tufa-wall, as days are very long. My family is busy looking at football in TV so I have a lot of time just for myself and my plants.
Anyway - I'm sure that Poznan is very good place for celebrations with good pubs and very friendly people. It is reasonably not big town with only 600.000 residents.

[Jiri Papousek]

Hi Michal,
you are so lucky to be ahead with your tufa wall. I just managed to prepare first part of my wall during mild December. It will be 12 m and covered by roof, but we know how time consuming is fixing tufa stones....But if I imagine happy dionysias cushions there, it is not so hard work.
I was really pleased to here from Vojtech that you will have lecture in our Conference in 2013.
I am visiting Petrh show in April, if you wish I can buy some dionysias there for you?

[karel_t]

Jiri,
there is a good deal of work from the time I saw that a couple years ago  .

[Michal Hoppel]

Hi Michal,
you are so lucky to be ahead with your tufa wall. I just managed to prepare first part of my wall during mild December. It will be 12 m and covered by roof, but we know how time consuming is fixing tufa stones....But if I imagine happy dionysias cushions there, it is not so hard work.
I was really pleased to here from Vojtech that you will have lecture in our Conference in 2013.
I am visiting Petrh show in April, if you wish I can buy some dionysias there for you?

It's quite long construction, will be very impressive. Next challenge is to get enough tufa stones to cover the wall - now it's my problem.
The Conference 2013 - Yes, I will. I'm looking forward to meet many people there that I know only from e-mails and discussion forums.
In terms of Dionysias - good news for me! - I'll send you email with more details
Thanks

[Maggi Young]

 Just thinking there seems to be "no news" on the Dionysia front here.... but our friends in the VRV Forum have a 2012 thread..... http://www.vrvforum.be/forum/index.php?topic=634.0

[Michal Hoppel]

Many thanks Maggi, very interesting, only the language a bit difficult for me 
My friend has visited the show in Harlow on Saturday and bought some plants for himself and for me.

I have one more question about London and the vicinity - What are interesting alpine nurseries in this area?