KentGardener's Galanthus Blog 2013

[Alan_b]

I got terrible withdrawal symptoms and, despite the very cold weather, I had to spend the whole weekend outside looking at snowdrops in order to compensate.

[chasw]

Great to be back again 

[Ding Dong]

Hurray!! All is well with the world again!!!

[KentGardener]

Ah, that's better. 

I did miss SRGC with my morning cuppa and found myself spending money on ebay instead!

[KentGardener]

Yesterday I had a visit from Steve Owen.  The plan was to have a cuppa and quick look at my garden and then for us to drive down to Canterbury for the Goodnestone Park Snowdrop Day organised by the Hardy Plant Society.  Steve had seen signs on the way to me saying that the A2 was closed so we left my house 30 mins earlier than we intended.  We didn't encounter the said roadworks so, even despite the light snow that was falling, made very good time and found ourselves a few miles from our destination before 10am - the event opened at 11am.  Luckily for us we spotted a 'cafe open' sign and decided to pop in for a cuppa and a bacon roll.  We seated ourselves on the table right next to a log burning stove and once we saw the menu the bacon rolls turned into a full English fry up each.   

After our hearty breakfast we arrived at Goodnestone 20 mins ahead of the opening time but found we were allowed to pay our entrance and wander in.  There was a nice selection of plants for sale (but 2 of the nurseries I hoped might be there with some Kent snowdrops were not).  The most popular stall seemed to be that of Penny Dawson (Twelve Nunns Nursery) selling a wide range of colourful Hellebore hybrids.  Penny was also giving a lecture on Hellebores later in the day.  I did not intend to buy anything but succumbed to one of the Hellbores.  I was also tempted by another stall with hardy orchids but the prices of them helped me to resist.

1 - General view of the stalls by the House.

2 - one of the stalls on the lawn showing the light sprinkling of snow that had fallen.

3 - Hellebore selection.

4 - A clever use for broken pots.

5 - Colour.

[KentGardener]

After some shopping we wandered round the garden.  I was glad to see that the plantings of snowdrops were starting to look more natural (when I first saw them in 2009 a lot looked newly planted and a bit too regular for my liking).  There are not any 'specials' in the ground that I could spot - but lots of single nivalis and a few clumps of double nivalis too.

1 - A view down the main avenue with the house in the distance

2 - A drift of nivalis

3 - Entering the walled garden

4 - The central view in the walled garden with the distant church used to great effect.

5 - Some winter colour

[KentGardener]

After our shopping and wandering round the garden we were feeling rather frozen so headed for the tea room.  There was a lovely selection of home made nibbles on hand.  I opted for a thick slab of fruit cake and Steve chose 2 warm cheese scones with butter all washed down with warming mugs of tea.

In the room next to the tea room a small display of Snowdrops, Hellebores and Daphnes had been arranged.

1 & 2 - Snowdrop and Hellebore displays

3 - Another Trym seedling

[KentGardener]

Finally what I described when I saw them as Harry Potter trees!

1 - The first tree that caught my eye

2 - Same tree with Steve for scale

3 - Imagine growing up as a lad here with this beast to climb

4 - Lovely orange colour to this Magnolia

It was then the 60 minute drive back to my house for some warming home cooked stew before saying a goodbye to my chauffeur of the day.

[JacquelineJ]

Seems like a worthwhile day out!

I love your pictures John, especially the Monster tree, awesome!  and also the clever use of the broken terracotta, me thinks should I purposely break a pot or just wait for it to happen!

[Maggi Young]

That tree is much bigger than I imagined from the first photo .

Lots to see and do there, John, but it looks really cold. I think you and Steve did well to get a good hot breakfast inside you - looks like the stall holders needed something similar to heat them up, poor souls!

[Tim Ingram]

It was a freezing cold day at Goodnestone, and it's quite an exposed spot anyway! Great to see the day through John's eye's; it has been held for 11 or 12 years and in good weather has attracted very large numbers of gardeners, though not  many galanthophiles it has to be said - Kentish gardeners still have to be educated into the delights of these plants. The owner of the garden, Margaret Fitzwalter, has been a good friend to garden groups in Kent for many years, and a fine gardener in her own right. The hellebores from Twelve Nunns were outstanding - the nursery is run by Penny Dawson, who gave the talk, and the plants grown by Harvington Hellebores, a wholesale nursery owned by her parents. Interestingly they also specialise in other choice woodland perennials such as erythroniums, roscoea and trilliums. Their interests in hellebores date back many years, with connections to Helen Ballard, Elizabeth Strangman and John Massey. There were other very interesting plants - Annie Godfrey of 'Daisy Roots' nursery (whose garden was featured in The Garden in August) had nice pots of Helleborus x ericsmithii 'Winter Sunshine' (and named for the under-appreciated Eric Smith, who worked with Jim Archibald at the Plantsman nursery and is nicely profiled by Roy Lancaster in this month's The Garden), and the super North American woodlander Synthyris stellata, which I have always wanted to grow since seeing it at Washfield many years ago. Liam Mackenzie (Madrona Nursery), a nursery colleague in Kent, who grows one of the finest ranges of woody plants in the country, had the irresistable Mahonia eurybracteata 'Soft Caress'. The orchid nursery John refers to is 'Alphabet Orchids', who are new to me, a young couple who have recently moved from London and are growing some really special plants, both hardy and greenhouse orchids. Will be interesting to visit them on their open days in March and June.

It may have been a cold day, and a time of year when most gardeners prefer to do their gardening sitting by the fire with a good magazine, but those of us out on Sunday warmed each others spirits, and there were some very good plants to be had, which so many others will have missed out on.

[Tim Ingram]

These are some of the plants mentioned.

 Helleborus   Harvington Hybrids'.jpg
    'Harvington Hybrids':2.jpg
    'Harvington Hybrids':3.jpg
    Helleborus x ericsmithii.jpg
    Mahonia eurybracteata.jpg

[Maggi Young]

I think I recall seeing that Mahonia covered in frosty rime in an old page of John Grimshaw's blog- I'm sure he was doubtful at that time that it would survive  that freeze- I wonder if it did and if the plant would stand any chance up here in Scotland?

[Ding Dong]

What beautifully arranged displays of snowdrops and Hellebores.  I'm loving the great detail of the food eaten that day . It looked very cold though!

[steve owen]

For several years now I have been looking for a good double yellow hellebore - at Goodnestone  lo and behold three stalls had just that plant!