Photo: Otter Nursery had 30 types of Fuchsia.
Photo: The young leaves of an Acer Palmatum tree.Last week-end (May) I had a trip to the south west coast of England. I stayed in the village of Ottery-St-Mary and I visited the local garden centre (Otter Nursery). This garden centre is soon to be the largest employer in the area and covers acres and acres of ground. There are countless greenhouses. The car park looks like a landing strip for small aircraft and they even have a collection point for picking up your goods that is the same size and shape as an aircraft hanger. I decided to go early to miss the crowds, but when I got there at nine in the morning the rush was well under way. Luxury coaches were arriving, full of eager shoppers from all over the country every few minutes. I came prepared with my little red notepad and pencil to see what is new in the plant world. I have encountered a small problem though. In my eagerness to scribble down information (I don’t get out much!) I seem to have created a new language, one that I can’t read. I will have to rely on memory to let you know about a few interesting things that I noticed.
IT’S HOTTER AT OTTER
The bedding plants were very established and you could spend a day there just trying to decide what to fill a window box with. Usually, if you wanted, say, a Fuchsia for a container you would consider an upright one for a pot and a hanging one for a basket. At Otter nursery you had about 30 different types from Annabella to Bella Rozella. There were some very interesting geraniums as well. One that caught my eye was a hardy perennial called Pink Spice, it had beautiful frosty coloured leaves.
Japanese Acers were there in abundance too with at least 10 different types. These small trees are ideal for tubs on the patio and give a true feeling of the east. There’s the more common Acer Palmatum atropurpurerea, which has large bright red leaves in spring and summer. There were some interesting variegated types as well such as Acer Palmatum ‘Ukigumo’. Their leaves start off red them splashes of white appear. Acer Palmatum ‘Carnet’ stands out too because of the wispiness of it’s red and green variegated leaves. These plants need to be kept out of strong coastal winds but they can stand low temperatures of up to –8 degrees, so they are definitely worth considering growing around the peninsula.
They have a different approach to Escallonia I found. We tend to go for just a couple of varieties that are used in hedging. These are very reasonably priced around here. But the examples in Otter were all around 8 pounds each in sterling (they do come with a two year guarantee though). Still, using them for a hedge would be very costly! There were some interesting types though. The Escallonia ‘Donard’ has interesting white flowers. Escallonia ‘Golden Brian’ had variegated leaves that are very yellow when young; the flowers are a rosy red colour. I liked a new Escallonia called ‘Red dream’ which had small deep pink flowers. The shrub only grows to 1 foot high so would be ideal for a small garden or as an alternative to planting box hedging around the herb bed. Talking of small shrubs, the Euonymus harlequin was an attractive shrub that should do well around here. These have green and white mottled leaves that make a pleasant change from the green and yellow that we are used to.
IT’S HOTTER AT OTTER
The bedding plants were very established and you could spend a day there just trying to decide what to fill a window box with. Usually, if you wanted, say, a Fuchsia for a container you would consider an upright one for a pot and a hanging one for a basket. At Otter nursery you had about 30 different types from Annabella to Bella Rozella. There were some very interesting geraniums as well. One that caught my eye was a hardy perennial called Pink Spice, it had beautiful frosty coloured leaves.
Japanese Acers were there in abundance too with at least 10 different types. These small trees are ideal for tubs on the patio and give a true feeling of the east. There’s the more common Acer Palmatum atropurpurerea, which has large bright red leaves in spring and summer. There were some interesting variegated types as well such as Acer Palmatum ‘Ukigumo’. Their leaves start off red them splashes of white appear. Acer Palmatum ‘Carnet’ stands out too because of the wispiness of it’s red and green variegated leaves. These plants need to be kept out of strong coastal winds but they can stand low temperatures of up to –8 degrees, so they are definitely worth considering growing around the peninsula.
They have a different approach to Escallonia I found. We tend to go for just a couple of varieties that are used in hedging. These are very reasonably priced around here. But the examples in Otter were all around 8 pounds each in sterling (they do come with a two year guarantee though). Still, using them for a hedge would be very costly! There were some interesting types though. The Escallonia ‘Donard’ has interesting white flowers. Escallonia ‘Golden Brian’ had variegated leaves that are very yellow when young; the flowers are a rosy red colour. I liked a new Escallonia called ‘Red dream’ which had small deep pink flowers. The shrub only grows to 1 foot high so would be ideal for a small garden or as an alternative to planting box hedging around the herb bed. Talking of small shrubs, the Euonymus harlequin was an attractive shrub that should do well around here. These have green and white mottled leaves that make a pleasant change from the green and yellow that we are used to.
Well that’s about all that I can remember from the plant list. The Azalea and Rhododendron varieties were impressive. But the nursery unfortunately wasn’t perfect. The indoor sales area, which covered between I to 10 acres (I’m not very good at measuring areas) stocked almost everything for the garden, whether you need it or not, but lacked the one thing that I had gone in for. The friend I was visiting wants to learn more about the joys of growing your own vegetables so I decided to get her “The New Vegetable and Herb Expert” book by Dr D. G. Hessayon. I find this particular book invaluable with easy to follow instructions and pretty pictures.
Unfortunately they didn’t have it in stock. I think the reason that they had sold out was because Ottery gardens are full of small vegetable plots. Some of them were very well established with potato tops reaching two feet tall and runner bean plants in flower, people have obviously been reading the book well in advance! The area has a lot of plant growers, especially vegetables. Otter nursery seems to have a fast turn over of staff and some that leave set themselves up with a couple of acres and grow vegetables for either door to door box deliveries or for the farmers market. I got hold of some locally grown buffalo at the farmers market when I was there too! Yum yum…
Horticultural.
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