Disappearing Nurseries

[ChrisB]

I use that too Tim.  Excellent for topping seed.  Sue tells me that I can get it enriched with lime now too, so I'm off to get some for my cyclamen after the Dunblane talk!

[daveyp1970]

Thank you Tim and ChrisB i am off to get some today it just what i am after.

[Gerry Webster]

Chris & Davey - you could just buy some 6mm limestone chippings from your local builders merchant. A good deal cheaper I daresay.

[daveyp1970]

Chris & Davey - you could just buy some 6mm limestone chippings from your local builders merchant. A good deal cheaper I daresay.

Gerry that's what i use at the moment but i really liked the look of that grit.

[Lesley Cox]

A word - or 3 - about my experience with Blooms of Bressingham or more particularly with the late, great Alan Bloom. I met him in 1993 and I think he was about 87 then and still doing a 12 hour day in his private area and the garden around the Hall. Roger and I stayed at Bressingham Hall for 3 days, it being a B and B at the time, and immediately before we came home to NZ.

During the preceeding 6 weeks we (I) had gathered up a large collection of plants, about 500 in all from many nurseries in the UK. I had all the necessary paperwork from my end and was able to import then but that was the last opportunity as the Hazardous Substances and New Organisms Act and the Biosecurity Act came into being about then.

Anyway, I'd collected up all these plants and we were carting them about in a large car, when we called at Bressingham, the last stop before joining an AGS tour to Greece, led by John Richards, in July of '93. I must have been totally out of it at that stage because I have no recollection of what I had planned to do with the plants while we were in Greece for 2 weeks. By great good fortune Alan Bloom himself met us and said "you can leave them here if you like and I'll look after them." Perhaps he recognised someone who was totally besotted by plants and was prepared to rescue me on that account. They included my Weldenia and many others of like quality.

Next day R and I drove to Heathrow and to Athens where we joined the AGS tour.

We returned for our B and B at Bressingham to find that Alan himself had watered and weeded and even repotted a few things and he made available to me, all his facilities to clean the plants as I had to bare-root everything, and to pack them. Then he phoned his own contacts in the UK equivilent of MAF at Cambridge and had someone come out to inspect everything and do the phyto certificate. He absolutely refused to let me pay for any part of this whole, 3 day process. I used his buildings, his water supply, his packing materials and his time and all given freely by such a generous man. I don't know what the phyto cost. I was simply given it and told everything was fine, yet hours of work were involved in inspecting so many plants.

I did have a quick look around the garden centre but by that stage all my plant buying was well and truly done. Roger was intrigued by the railway thing, light relief for him after so many plants over a total of 9 weeks.

As well, in the entrance hall at BH, there was a huge seascape by one David James, a member of the Royal Acadamy, and dated late in the 19th century. I was excited to see this as I have one myself, inherited from my mother and grandmother. Mine is the same size and frankly, difficult to hang, in my present house, but I love it dearly. It is signed and dated 1884. I had and have never seen another by the same artist so to see Alan's was a great thrill. He said his parents had given it to him on his return many years ago, from Canada, to replace another seascape which had been destroyed in a fire.

[Brian Ellis]

He was a great plantsman and a real character Lesley...and Bressingham Hall is still a B&B!

[ChrisB]

Great story Lesley, nice to hear it here....

[ronm]

Interestingly I am a believer that the time of the small specialist nursery is once again almost upon us. True it will be in a different form from those, so dearly beloved, of the past, but I am convinced that they will be as good, if not better. I'm sure there will be more than ever growers, willing to sell their passionately grown plants, and also pass on their experiences of said plants to customers across the globe. Disappearing nurseries? .. well yes in one sense, but to be replaced by more than ever... I hope so!

[David Nicholson]

G

You at a loss for words Chris-never?

[ChrisB]

Nah, I had put two up there and it wouldn't let me delete em so I just crossed out the words.  What I *meant* to say is that the chick grit is much much finer than the stuff you buy at garden centres and ideal for seeds as they can push through it easily.  I found out about it on a visit with HPS to Howick a number of years ago.  They, as you may know, do a lot of seed sowing, investing in expeditions as well as the owners own ones and grow loads of trees from seed.  Their young arboretum is the result of that.  And they use chick grit as the topping for their seed sowing.  I thought, if its good enough for them, its certainly good enough for me.  Got some and have never looked back.  Sue just went to the same place in Alnwick and bought some and says they do it with added lime, so I'll get a bag of both next visit.  Only problem is, its soooooooooooooooooo heavy to lift.....  Poor Harry.  Must go before he goes in for his op or I'll be lifting it myself....

[ChrisB]

And whilst I'm in this thread, that's quite an account Lesley, what a wonderful, wonderful man he was.  That doesn't happen very often I'm sure.

[Tim Ingram]

I missed out on the last few entries - Lesley's account of Alan Bloom is wonderful. One of my very favourite books is his 'Plantsman's Perspective' - he strikes me as someone, like John Aspinall who founded Port Lymphe and Howlett's wildlife parks and I suppose the incredible Tim Smit with the Eden Project, as a true visionary - someone who sees way beyond the ability of most of us, and sees it through.

So it's a bit down to earth to come back to 'disappearing nurseries' again, but like Ron I think there will have to be a return to more small scale specialist growers again just for our peace of mind! Gradually the greenhouses are filling up... and the seeds germinating.

[ronm]

Looks like your getting a nice set up there Tim,

[Will Itsell]

Glass could do with a clean 

Oh, it's shading 

All looks good.  One can tell a lot about a nursery (and the nurseryman/woman) from general tidiness. Good luck!

[Lesley Cox]

I hope you won't be visiting me any time soon then Will.

I can't remember where we were discussing the AGS Online show some weeks ago but for some reason I associate it with this thread. Maybe they were running at the same time. Perhaps you could redirect this Maggi, if you think it's worth it.

During the course of the discussion, Ray Drew who was involved with the Online show, suggested that anyone who wished could get in touch with him personally and he gave his email link for this purpose. I had the impression that he didn't like that the show was being discussed at all. I did email him and wrote of my concerns, mainly to do with the inclusion of a single photo used as an entry in several classes. I wrote clearly, calmly and very politely. I have had no reply or any acknowledgment.