Disappearing Nurseries

[Tim Ingram]

Our plans for rebuilding the nursery are quite closely linked to the local AGS Groups and the Shows held at Rainham in the Spring and Autumn. We are also going to open a group of our gardens via the NGS next spring. It seems like quite hard work, but anything worthwhile takes effort. What we don't have so effectively in the AGS is a proper balance between the 'Showing' and 'Growing' fraternities, and this makes it difficult to introduce new gardeners to these wonderful plants. The answer is to do what needs to be done until it works! So any aspiring nurserymen out there - go to it! Support will come from the people around you, whether moral or practical and difficult times can be overcome.

[fredg]

The Kevock site is offline, has been for a few days.
Are they still trading?

I only discovered this week I've been within a hundred yards of them many many times 

[Maggi Young]

I've emailed the Rankins to ask if they know what's up with the site, Fred.
It may be there has been a technical problem. They may be away and not able to deal with that meantime. I'll let you know when I hear anything.

[fredg]

Thank you Maggi

[Maggi Young]

Folks, the Kevock site was having problems, which have now been fixed: the site is working well now.
The Rankins themselves are away .... just got this report about the site from David in Nepal!

[Will Itsell]

Another one bites the dust .....

R.A Meredith have gone into liquidation.  Meredith took over the old Blooms of Bressingham site near Diss in Norfolk and were wholesale alpine growers (among other things) and the plants they sold through garden centres were still branded as Blooms.  20 staff are reported to have been made redundant and several of those had worked at the site for many years.  Will their knowledge and experience be lost to horticulture? 

Alan Bloom and Blooms of Bressingham have given us a huge heritage of garden plants.

I realise that to many this will mean nothing: wholesale growing is hardly 'high art' in the world of alpine cultivation, but where do most people start their love affair with alpines?  For many it will be by buying a few 'rockery plants' from a garden centre.

Many alpine nurseries seems to be struggling, wholesale and retail.  Perhaps it's just a result of fashion.  I was reading an old nursery catalogue recently and it stated something like, "alpines are second only to roses in popularity".    How times change.

[Anthony Darby]

Crumbs, I've been to Blooms, and Foggy Bottom several times. Is the whole thing gone, steam railways and all? Alan Bloom was an amazing character, driving that wee train on open days.

[Will Itsell]

I think Meredith only leased the nursery site and that has closed.  The gardens, steam railway etc. would surely be all be separate entities.  I was a student there in 1984 -85 and haven't been back since.

The nursery back then was huge - it really did have a train running through it with level crossings and everything, but more for the owner's pleasure than practical nursery transport.  Ah, the days when one really could make money from growing. 

[Tim Ingram]

There does seem a certain link between growing plants and a love of steam trains, as a particular Norfolk man from this forum would testify! I've come back to this topic because after a relatively mild winter, interrupted by a short very cold and snowy spell, there has been the opportunity to get on with our garden and nursery renovations, and the beautiful weather at present coincides with that wonderful time as seeds germinate and plants begin to grow away. We are progressing steadily with rebuilding the nursery, with seeds germinating and cuttings rooting and so a few examples are shown below. Much of running a specialist nursery has to do with finding and making a particular niche and the plants we have grown have always been dry loving species more suited to the south-east, and new and rarely grown plants. Inevitably these have a limited clientele and hence the importance of specialist plant societies like the AGS and SRGC which bring together gardeners who have the same fascination with the plant world. It is great reason for working hard at the local AGS events and Groups too.

So it is early days yet but we hope to really have the nursery up and running more efficiently by this time next spring, and by this time the shredder may see less action and the potting bench more! (The final picture of Eriogonum shows germination after the seed pots were placed in the fridge for 4 weeks after sowing. This allows more controlled cold treatment for certain seed when the required stratification treatment is reasonably well known, and helps when seed is available late or winter conditions are not cold enough. We are aiming to use this method more as results give us guidance).

[daveyp1970]

Tim thats a lovely fine grit could you tell me the name please?,is it just a standard grit?

[Brian Ellis]

I think Meredith only leased the nursery site and that has closed.  The gardens, steam railway etc. would surely be all be separate entities.  I was a student there in 1984 -85 and haven't been back since.

The nursery back then was huge - it really did have a train running through it with level crossings and everything, but more for the owner's pleasure than practical nursery transport.  Ah, the days when one really could make money from growing. 

Sorry to say I have only just seen this message - what was I doing I wonder?  The nursery site was separate from the gardens and steam museum.  Anyway as far as I know Jamie Blake is still running Bressingham Hall and the Dell Garden and Adrian Bloom is still living in Foggy Bottom.  Jamie is chair of our local Plant Heritage thank goodness

[David Nicholson]

Don't Wyevale operate the Garden Centre at Bressingham (in their own uninimitable style

[Luc Gilgemyn]

It all looks very promising Tim !

[David Nicholson]

Seconded. It's coming along a treat Tim.

[Tim Ingram]

Many thanks all - the grit is 'chick grit' from the local farm and pet suppliers. Very good for top-dressing seed pots because it is free of fines and uniform, but rather expensive for potting.