Rebuilding a nursery - Copton Ash

[astragalus]

A good reason to consider moving back home (I'm Southend born and bred) as my beloved bulbs would just thrive there, but then I would not be able to grow so many of the cool-growing alpines I've come to love and which grow so well here. Not sure I could live without my porophyllum Saxes or Primulas!

Sounds like a good reason to stay put!  You can grow the bulbs in a bulb or alpine house, but nothing
can approximate your cool growing conditions.  Think of the plants you would lose or would become a pallid shadow of themselves.

[Matt T]

Sounds like a good reason to stay put!  You can grow the bulbs in a bulb or alpine house, but nothing
can approximate your cool growing conditions.  Think of the plants you would lose or would become a pallid shadow of themselves.

True Anne, but I already keep my bulbs in a covered frame year-round and some of them are still pallid shadows.  I particularly struggle to get the likes of Narcissus cantabricus and Sternbergia to perform as there is just so little light in winter. We're on the same latitude as Maggi and Ian in Aberdeen on the east coast, but (on average) they have more sunny days than us. I should learn to only grow and be content with what suits my conditions but I just love the Mediterranean bulbs so much!

[astragalus]

I can certainly relate to that, Matt.  I long to grow the alpines that die if they dry out:  most of the kabschia saxes, campanulas, Himalayan gentians etc, etc, etc.  I've learned to love what will grow well here, after killing a large number of plants first.

[Tim Ingram]

Well we cleared the leyland hedge in the front garden last autumn and will be putting alpine troughs there. On the other side of the drive was an incredibly boring plant of forsythia planted when the house was built in the mid 1970's. We had a little help in the garden today (which makes all the difference) and so decided to remove this too. This a warm and protected spot, so what to plant eventually? I'm thinking a tenderish shrub such as pomegranate or melaleuca or maybe one needing summer heat to ripen the wood - Daphne genkwa? Would be a good spot also for one of the Californian lupins. Good to have a bit of help to open up new possibilities!

[Matt T]

Sternbergia would like just such a warm and protected spot...    Could be worth underplanting your shrub with a few if you still have the patience. If they're going to grow for anyone in the UK, it's you Tim.

[Robert]

I am bias.

I would select one of the Silver-Leaf bush Lupines, combined with other appropriate plants. It also looks like there is a bit of an over-hang on the roof that could help protect one from summer rain.

[Tim Ingram]

There is a small plant of Berberis fremontii here at the moment so a lupin would be good.

[Tim Ingram]

Autumn is seed collecting, cleaning and sowing time and these are some examples from a previous year (also on the Seed Photographs thread on the Forum). Because I have always propagated plants and grown a great variety on the nursery I think of seeds as the real heart of the garden from which plants you have lost can be regrown and so many interesting species from around the world can be raised for relatively little cost. Like the root systems of plants that are hidden underground, seeds don't catch the attention of gardeners as much as they should.

[Tim Ingram]

And...

[Tim Ingram]

And... (we must take pictures of the seed we are collecting this year, along with a scale, for the Forum).

[Lori S.]

Just a quick question about seed photography... I should (and will) do more of this but always have problems with the light.  How are you folks getting such well-lit, bright photos?

[Tim Ingram]

Lori - I did a bit of tweaking with the exposure on the computer, they were quite a bit darker (and in most cases adjusted for the flourescent light temperature). These were in our kitchen which is well lit anyway.

[Tim Ingram]

A very enjoyable and enthusiastic talk to the Kent HPS from Ben Potterton (Blacksmith Cottage Nursery) on late summer perennials - only I am a little cheesed off that it is the monkeys in his garden that everyone comes to see! along with all the birds, and not the plants Can't imagine what our Jack Russell would make of a monkey - and vice versa - but it would be interesting to watch (I think it wouldn't take long for them to become best friends).

His garden is much wetter than ours, over clay soil, and late perennials look to do really well, but snowdrop aficionados will know that the garden also has a large collection of galanthus. Nice to meet such an enthusiastic and knowledgeable plantsman and zoologist

[Maggi Young]

I thought that would be a good talk, Tim.  Ben seems to be a VERY busy fellow - would be super if  he would have time to venture north sometime.

[Brian Ellis]

You should ask him Maggi, he's always off somewhere and no doubt heads up to Scotland for red squirrels or something.  It's not the monkeys in the garden that take my eye but the retired pelicans which I find fascinating.