Journal

Excerpts from the Autumn 2011 Journal

THE SPRING PLANT FAIR AT HELMINGHAM HALL

The Plant Heritage annual spring plant fair held in partnership with Helmingham Estate at Helmingham Hall on 29th May was generally voted to be the best ever – so far!

There were over sixty exhibitors, a good mix of specialist nurseries, National Collection Holders and stands selling horticultural accessories. Old friends including Fernatix, Harvey’s Garden Plants, Woottens and Herbal Haven were there, along with newer recruits like Priory Plants and Paugers Nursery. You could buy clematis, campanulas and carnations as well as hats to garden in, dibbers to dib with and obelisks for supporting those roses you’d just bought. Suffolk Wildlife Trust were on hand to answer queries about – well, wildlife, a local beekeeper brought some of his charges (safely confined to a demonstration hive) and the Plant Doctors were on hand to advise on plant problems and problem plants. Musical interludes were provided by The Stowmarket Brass Band.

The plant fair attracted 2,259 visitors from all over East Anglia and from as far afield as London, Yorkshire, Dorset – and a coachload from Berlin!

If you would like to spare an hour or so to help at our autumn plant fair on Sunday 18th September and contribute to yet another great success, please contact Pauline Byford on 01284 762628 or pabyford@btinternet.com

WHERE ARE THEY NOW?

In 2000 for the first time Suffolk Group rather tentatively offered 500 free plants to visitors at our spring plant fair. The idea was to reinforce the message that Plant Heritage (or NCCPG as we were then known) is in the business of conserving garden plants. We decided to choose a plant which was fairly rare or difficult to find, give away as many as we could afford, and hope that they would increase and multiply across Suffolk, East Anglia or even further afield.

Eleven years later we are still doing it – at the spring Plant Fair we gave away 1,000 of Dianthus ‘Whatfield Can Can’, a truly local treasure bred by the late Joan Schofield at Whatfield in Suffolk, and at the autumn fair our new-style offer, a Bag of Bulbs will be available.

Nearly six thousand unusual plants have been given away in the past eleven years at our plant fairs, which raises the question WHERE ARE THEY NOW?

We’d love to know what happened to all those treasures cast like bread upon the waters or, more appropriately, scattered like seeds in the wind. Is Lady Bacon growing graciously, has Iris Benton faded, is the Mendlesham Maid now mature, and is My Old Mum still staggering on? How many of them survived, have they proliferated, what lessons have their owners learnt on how to tend and nurture them?

Have you had one (or several) of our free plants, or have your friends or family introduced them to their garden? Do please contact us with an update on their progress (or demise).. To jog your memory, here is a list of all our free plants – pretty impressive, I think you’ll agree.

2000 Armeria euscadiensis
2001 Dianthus Mendlesham St. Helens
& Mendlesham Maid
2002 Phlox stolonifera ‘Purpurea’
2003 Penstemon ‘Connie’s Pink’
2004 Fuschia ‘Lady Bacon
2005 Primula ‘Barnhaven Blue’
2006 Teucrium fruticans ‘Azureum’
2007 Erysimum ‘My Old Mum’
2008 Digitalis cariensis f. Trojan
2009 ??
2010 Iris ‘Benton’
2011 Dianthus ‘Whatfield Cancan’
& ‘Whatfield Gem’

If you can throw light on where they are now, please contact Maggie Thorpe on 01787 211346 or email smece@aol.com