Eddington House Nursery – Rare Plant Fair 2019

Before we even get to the weekend’s fair, rewind to Friday.

Whilst I usually try to travel home on Thursday evenings, I’d stayed in London the extra day and the OH had picked me up from the pier at around 8.40pm.  On being reunited, I immediately started ranting about my (lack of) preparation for the St Helens Secret Gardens event I’m (supposed to be) organising – not to mention concerns about my own garden being a complete disgrace.

The OH said he thought ‘publicity was key’ and had a cunning plan – he wondered if the lovely people at Eddington House Nursery would put up a poster for ‘my’ Secret Gardens event at their weekend Rare Plant Fair.  Genius!

Consequently, I persuaded him to stop off on the way home so I could ask.  Bearing in mind by this stage it was 9pm and I was wandering round the back of their property, it’s hardly surprising they thought I was up to no good.  Happily, once they’d recognised me, they agreed to put up a poster, so all I had to do was create one(!)

Fast forward an hour, I’d eaten a tasty dinner, designed, printed and laminated two posters and was on my was back to the nursery.  By this stage it was after 10pm, but they were still there to receive the goods, bless them.

Hardly surprising, therefore, that I definitely wanted to support the event.  I visited on Saturday, and had the great pleasure of listening to Anne Swithinbank speak and also had a good chat with Derry Watkins at her plant stand (she was speaking today, but I sadly didn’t have time to return).

As ever, the nursery was looking immaculate (I love the new display of succulents in wine cases see picture, top).  This time I only bought a couple of Salvias from Derry but have my eye on some other items from the nursery itself, and intend to return when it’s less busy.

Thanks guys, you’re the tops!

Petersham Nurseries – birthday treat #1!

I thought I’d posted about Petersham Nurseries before, but can’t see that I did.  It holds a rather special place in my heart – partly because it’s right next to the church where the OH and I (and my parents!) were married, and secondly I love its ‘accidental’ success.

My understanding is that the old, rather uninspiring nursery was bought by the owners of Petersham House (which is adjacent to it) as they were concerned it would be sold for development.  Fast forward twenty (?) years, and not only is it now a thriving foodie and lifestyle destination, but an off shoot has recently opened in Covent Garden.

As life continues to get in the way of blogging, the visit actually took place on Sunday 10th June when we went for lunch in the tea house.  The only purchase I succumbed to was a white passion flower – I think it’s Constance Elliot – but inspiration (especially for container planting) was everywhere – and free!

Thanks Petersham.  We’ll be back!

 

 

 

 

 

Eddington House Nursery – a local beacon

The move to our current house in 2010 prompted a new route for the school run.  The route took us round a sharp bend around St Helens church (which, for reasons I’m afraid I don’t know, isn’t in the village at all).

The bend ensured that I had to slow down, which gave ample opportunity to admire the planting on the opposite side of the road.  Always changing and always interesting, I remember thinking that there must be a darn clever gardener living there.

Fast forward five years and that clever gardener, Ian Chadwick, now has a well established nursery, Eddington House Nursery, on the site.  

Today I visited for the Isle of Wight Rare Plant Fair which Ian hosts annually.  Sadly I missed the talk by Bob Brown from Cotswold Garden Flowers, but did catch an interesting talk by Chris Chadwell on ‘Paradise on Earth, the beautiful flowers of Kashmir’.  Lucky chap to have seen those beautiful Himalayan poppies in the wild.

Meanwhile the nursery was looking absolutely immaculate.

Over the years Ian has developed not only numerous interests including salvias, herbaceous perennials and now plants for shade too, but has also expanded the growing and showing areas and planted up interesting beds to display many of his plants.

I, of course, succumbed, this time to rather diminutive beauties – Trifolium repens ‘William’ for the MCB and also Origanum rotundifolium ‘Kent Beauty’ for pots.

Oh and Nick from White Cottage Daylilies (who I wrote about here and here), was there with, selling amongst other things, some beautiful succulents, so I bought a couple for the OH.

Thanks Ian for great event, and thanks too for choosing to site your nursery within such close proximity to Duver Diary!

Dahlia delights at Gilberts

My lovely chat with one of the Hillier’s staff trying to identify a rogue dahlia mentioned in my Sir Harold Hillier Garden revisited post, led to us leaving Hilliers to visit Gilberts Nursery, just the other side of Romsey.  Gilberts have a ‘dahlia field’ open from August to October, where they grow 400 dahlias which they supply as tubers and cuttings.  It was an amazing sight and a fabulous opportunity to see so many dahlias in one place.

Whilst catalogues and websites do a great job of showing the actual blooms, seeing them growing as plants – how tall, how bushy and how many blooms – was a completely different experience.  It not only made me want to buy dozens of dahlias, but rather tempted me to open a dahlia field on the Isle of Wight!

Here are a random selection of the ones that appealed to me

Barry Williams

GI Joe

Hapet Vinette

Crazy Legs

Athalie

Piper’s Pink

Coccinea

Danjo doc

Little Sally

Mels Orange Marmalade

Dark Spirit

Karma Naomi

Karma Chocolate

Black Narcissus

So, whilst I didn’t identify the mystery dahlia (on the right), I did discover the similarly shaped Coccinea (left) as well many others to tempt me.

Thanks Gilberts, it was an education.