New phone number

Please note that due to an administrative hoo-ha our mobile phone number has had to change.

It is now 07955744802

A Merry Yule and a Happy 2014 to all our friends and customers

Clematis urophylla ~ available now

Spiraea thunbergii

I get the impression that Spiraea is one of those groups, like Hypericum, that most keen gardeners tend to scoot past, and generally speaking I'd do likewise, but I've come to learn that almost every group has something choice to offer and it can be fun locating it.

Spiraea thunbergii is one such gem - hardly an obscurity (it has an AGM after all) but I hardly ever see it in gardens or nurseries. It is an exquisite shrub combining sprays of pure white flowers with the lightest and freshest of pale green leaves, all in a loose billowing (but not overly large) arching shrub up to about 4ft tall and across. Mine flowers surprisingly early in the year (March) and goes on into May. After that the foliage and form make a very pleasant contrast to darker heavier plants, and are never even slightly ugly.
Can be pruned quite hard after flowering if neccessary and I imagine it would make a good informal hedge.
Very easy to please on any soil in sun. Absolutely spiffing in every way.
3L pots ~ £9

Leucosceptrum stellipilum formosanum

Mauve pink bottle-brushes and large (to 6ins) fresh pale green foliage. A lush leafy herbaceous perennial related to Elscholtzia, Agastache and Rostrinucula, and with the same late flowering season - well into November if the weather allows.

Possibly best in sheltered woodland to avoid hot sun and early frosts which can damage the display. Otherwise easy and adaptable.
3L pots ~ £8

Salvia reptans

Very different – this is a slender willowy American, very late f;lowering species with very narrow, almost grassy green leaves, giving a very light fresh effect in the garden among grasses or grey leaved shrubs. The flowers are exquisite – small but of intense cobalt blue on fine stems above the foliage and produced from September until the frosts. For open well-drained sunny sites.

Two things: like many bushy Salvias, the stems are quite brittle, and the flowering, being so late can be spoilt by harsh weather, so although quite cold hardy, all in all best given some shelter.

Ps. not to be confused with S.repens which is a low growing S. African species with short spikes of mauvish flowers. I think both reptans and repens mean creeping (as in reptile) but this one, so far at least, does no such thing. Strange...
1L pots ~ £7

Gladiolus papilio

A terrific tall slender species that always attracts attention with its cryptically coloured nodding flowers. Easy and perfectly hardy around here and, though I've not tried it, probably worth trying to naturalise in rough grass. It can run about a bit underground, popping up here and there so I recommend planting it among herbaceous perennials or low shrubs that are done flowering for the year.
1L pots ~ £7

Keiskea japonica Pink form

Keiskea are from Japan and make extremely pretty bushy herbaceous perennials to about 2ft tall. The pink is very pale so the flowers shine out against the dark tinted foliag.
Plants that flower late into autumn are always worth having and there are a number of late season Lamiaceae (mint family) from eastern Asia that are far too little grown in the UK. Colquhounia, Elscholzia and Rostrinucula are three that I grow, and this is another.

Adaptable and completely hardy, but possibly at their best in coolish, moistish spots.
2L pots ~ £9

Sussex Prairies Plant Fair

Once again we will be at Sussex Prairies on Sunday, September 1st. This is the only fair we do at the moment (us not having a van as yet, and it being just down the road from the nursery) but it's good hectic fun and a great opportunity to chat to fellow plant nuts.

Sussex Prairies itself is famed for its immense Prairie plantings (lots of grasses and giant herbaceous perennials in huge drifts) set around a geometrical pattern of broad grass fairways. For the fair there are also sculptures to look at (and buy) and a huge selection of specialist nurseries, including some from the continent.

Please feel free to contact me in advance if you would like to reserve some plants to pick up at the fair.

Gladiolus flanaganii

An absolutely astonishing hardy species from near vertical cliffs in the Drakensberg. The plant is only 10ins high but the outsized vivid red flowers are rich red and grow out sideways. Hard to explain – has to be seen.

Closely related to the equally extraordinary G.cardinalis and should be just as hardy over much of the country in a well-drained sunny spot.
10cm pots ~ £7

Indigofera

Indigofera hebepetala

A very striking species with fresh green leaflets and dramatic magenta and maroon flowers over a long period in summer. Easy and adaptable in any ordinary garden soil in sun.

May need shelter in cold areas.
4L pots ~ £12

Indigofera pendula

A tall lax shrub best grown among other sturdier shrubs which it will decorate with its fine silver green pinnate foliage and pendulous strings of pink pea flowers from June until the frosts come.

Almost any half decent soil in sun. May need shelter in cold exposed areas.
Sold out for now - sorry

Indigofera decora

I've been wanting to do this for ages and here it is. I only sowed the seeds last autumn and here are the first flowers already.

This is an exquisite small ground-covering species with fresh green foliage and rosy pink flowers. 

Apparently a popular front of the border plant in warmer climates but is hardly ever seen in the UK. 

Hardy but wants a warm sheltered spot to grow and flower well.

Sold out for now - sorry

Dodecatheon dentatum

Quite distinct from the well-known pink flowered species – this is a lower growing, more spreading species with white flowers. Best in moist leafy woodland situations.
Despite the distinctive flower shape, Dodecatheon are now included in Primula
10cm square pots ~ £6

Viburnums

I've always had a lot of time for Viburnum. I especially love the variety of form and foliage. The flowers are generally small and either white or rosy pink but produced in large quantities and often fragrant, and then most of them produce a good show of berries in the autumn.
The main reason though for their being so popular around here is that they grow so well on chalky soils.
I'm offering a few of the more rarely seen species.

Viburnum cinnamomifolium

A wonderfully big lush exotic shrub, and essentially a tree-like version of the common (and unfairly despised) V.davidii. Both species have among the very best evergreen foliage of any hardy shrub, and are well worth growing even without the flowers, which are the usual small rosy white, or the berries, which are intense blue with red stems. You will need male and female plants to get fruits but davidii will pollinate cinnamomifolium apparently.
5L pots ~ £15

Viburnum atrocyaneum


A neat evergreen with small rounded very glossy leaves with a distinct wine red cast. The flowers are the usual small pinkish white affairs, followed by bloomy black berries. Very adaptable and easy.
3L pots ~ £12

Viburnum cylindricum

An evergreen species grown for the unusual greyish cast to the foliage and panicles of creamy flowers in summer.

Bloomy black fruits. A rare large shrub – excellent on chalk.

sold out - sorry


Viburnum erubescens

A very high quality and strangely little-known evergreen species. Perfectly formed bell-shaped white flowers are produced in spring on red stems. The foliage is glossy green but also has a distinct red tint and turns rich maroon in winter. Overall the shrub has a graceful layered spreading effect. Excellent in every way.
sold out - sorry


Viburnum henryi

To my mind the very best. This one has well textured foliage that, although evergreen, turns unusual warm fawn/maroon shades in winter, tinted red and with a pale midrib. There are also creamy flowers in summer and berries turning translucent red to bloomy black in autumn.

Suitable for most ordinary garden situations but especially good on chalk.
sold out for now

Moraea huttonii

Stupendous tall Iris with beautifully crafted yellow ‘flags’ on rigid upright stems well above the narrow strappy green leaves (easily hidden among other perennials).

For open sites on fertile moist soils ideally but very tough. Basically they’ll grow anywhere Agapanthus or Kniphofia succeed.
1L pots ~ £10

Piptanthus nepalensis

A really striking shrub, notable not just for the acid yellow flowers, but also for the dark green foliage and, once the leaves drop in autumn, the rich lustrous black-green stems (a bit like the black bamboo, as my mate Richard pointed out the other day).
Hardy and adaptable but probably at its best with some shelter. Other members of this group (Laburnum, brooms etc) are real sun lovers, but Piptanthus nepalensis can look a little washed-out in too much heat and drought. It often looks its best in less exposed, cooler, and even semi-shady conditions.
Can be grown as a free-standing multi-stemmed shrub or trained on a wall.
5L pots ~ £14

Viola pinnata

Viola pinnata

Pretty purple violet flowers produced in profusion among a clump of most un-violet-like fingered foliage. This is a European alpine species, almost never seen in cultivation to my knowledge, but which seems very happy indeed here in our sunny raised bed.
10cm pots ~ £5

Thalictrum rochebrunianum

A fabulous tall species, related to delavayi but larger in all parts, and very fine. For moist cool sites, sheltered from drying winds. Grows beautifully here on the Wealden clay, among Acers, Hostas, Trollius and Dicentra.
5L pots ~ £12

The new growth and seed heads are good too.

Big Chilean Lobelias!

Lobelia excelsa

A potentially large shrubby species (6ft tall here) from Chile with vivid scarlet flowers, and remarkably hardy so far. I've planted these outdoors in several locations in Sussex (all sunny and well drained) and they've formed substantial clumps.

This year, with the mild winter, they've been evergreen and flowered on last year's stems. In colder years they are cut to the ground by frost but grow away vigorously in the spring and flower in August. For any well drained soil in full sun.
Barry Clarke, the holder of the national collection of Lobelia, tells me this probably isn't excelsa, in which case, as far as I'm concerned anyway, it's even more interesting.
sold out

Lobelia polyphylla

Another large Chilean species more like the better known L.tupa but more shrubby. The flowers are a dark maroon red in this case. These seem to be much less hardy than excelsa but would make a good subject for a container in cooler areas (as here) or in a sheltered spot in perhaps the South West or elsewhere in Europe. I'm going to plant some in a garden in Rottingdean - see how that goes.
sold out

Moltkia doerfleri

An unusual and uncommon herbaceous perennial making clumps of slender leafy upright stems to 18ins (50cms). The flowers are a bit like comfrey in a sort of blackcurrant purple (what is that colour called?) and produced over a month or two in spring. Understated but very easy.

1L pots ~ £6