Leading garden plant conservation charity, Plant Heritage is expecting a busy week during National Gardening Week 13th – 19th April, with 6 talks, 3 National Plant Collection® open days, 3 plant fairs, 1 visit and the national AGM.
Those with a passion for Primula can visit two National Plant Collections this week. Drointon Nurseries’ Collection of Primula auricula (Border) in Ripon, Yorkshire will be open on Saturday 18th April 10am – 4pm and refreshments will be available.
A second Collection of Primula auricula (Border) will be open on Sunday 19th April (11am-4.30pm) at Regina’s Cottage, set in a small wooded valley in Carmathenshire, where Collection Holders Pat and Robin Fisher look after old fashioned and new varieties of garden auriculas.
Walnut and wingnut fans can visit the National Plant Collections of Juglans & Pterocarya at Upton Wold, a hidden private garden set in a beautiful Cotswold landscape in Moreton-in-Marsh, which is open to the public as part of the National Garden Scheme on Sunday 19th April 11am – 5pm.
Three regional Plant Fairs will take place, with specialist nurseries and some rare and unusual plants. The Essex Group’s Spring Plant Fair at RHS Hyde Hall will take place on Saturday 18th & Sunday 19th April. The North Wales Group will hold their Plant hunters fair onSunday 19th April at Penrhyn Castle. The Devon Group will hold one of their regular Plant Fairs at Burrow Farm Nurseries, Axminster on Sunday 19th April.
Six Talks by National Plant Collection Holders and horticulture experts will be taking place around the country, including a talk in Staffordshire by Helen Picton who holds the National Plant Collection of Aster & related genera (autumn flowering) and recently co-authored “The Plant Lover’s Guide to Asters” with her father Paul Picton.
Lady Catherine Erskine & Mr Elliot Forsyth from Cambo Gardens in Fife who hold one of the National Plant Collections of Galanthus (snowdrops) will also be giving a talk on “Cambo 200 years on”.
The week will also see the Somerset Group host Plant Heritage’s National AGM from 17th-19th April, in Wells. Plant Heritage members from across the country will gather to enjoy interesting talks, garden visits and share rare and unusual plants that have been propagated in the Annual Plant Exchange.