IT’S not often you find yourself examining a car-park planting scheme, but at The Plant Specialist nursery in Great Missenden, Buckinghamshire, the beds are charming and a sure sign of the horticultural delights to come. The plant sales/ reception area is also cleverly designed, with a low wooden building opening out on both sides to stock displays: on the left are row upon row of sun-lovers, helpfully listed from A-Z; to the right, a large slatted structure houses shady plants. Around the rest of the 4½-acre site, variously sized beds show how the plants can be used in dynamic combinations and, tucked in a far corner, are working areas for propagation and growing on.
Co-owner Sean Walter conceived the idea when visiting Hadspen in Somerset in the mid 1990s, when it was overseen by acclaimed horticulturalists Sandra and Nori Pope; the latter sadly died last year. ‘It was a real lightbulb moment,’ says Sean. ‘It was all absolutely gorgeous: they’d created a beautiful garden, were selling plants they grew there and were running it all themselves. I realised it was exactly what I wanted to do.’
​A native of South Africa, Sean came to Britain in 1990, aged 23, backpacking. Having always been a keen gardener, he got a job at Fulham Palace garden centre, London SW6, and unexpectedly stayed for six years, devoting the second to taking a design course at the English Gardening School. ‘It enabled me to get a sense of what I knew and how to operate professionally.’
This story is from the {{IssueName}} edition of {{MagazineName}}.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Sign In
This story is from the {{IssueName}} edition of {{MagazineName}}.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
Tales as old as time
By appointing writers-in-residence to landscape locations, the National Trust is hoping to spark in us a new engagement with our ancient surroundings, finds Richard Smyth
Do the active farmer test
Farming is a profession, not a lifestyle choice’ and, therefore, the Budget is unfair
Night Thoughts by Howard Hodgkin
Charlotte Mullins comments on Moght Thoughts
SOS: save our wild salmon
Jane Wheatley examines the dire situation facing the king of fish
Into the deep
Beneath the crystal-clear, alien world of water lie the great piscean survivors of the Ice Age. The Lake District is a fish-spotter's paradise, reports John Lewis-Stempel
It's alive!
Living, burping and bubbling fermented masses of flour, yeast and water that spawn countless loaves—Emma Hughes charts the rise and rise) of sourdough starters
There's orange gold in them thar fields
A kitchen staple that is easily taken for granted, the carrot is actually an incredibly tricky customer to cultivate that could reduce a grown man to tears, says Sarah Todd
True blues
I HAVE been planting English bluebells. They grow in their millions in the beechwoods that surround us—but not in our own garden. They are, however, a protected species. The law is clear and uncompromising: ‘It is illegal to dig up bluebells or their bulbs from the wild, or to trade or sell wild bluebell bulbs and seeds.’ I have, therefore, had to buy them from a respectable bulb-merchant.
Oh so hip
Stay the hand that itches to deadhead spent roses and you can enjoy their glittering fruits instead, writes John Hoyland
A best kept secret
Oft-forgotten Rutland, England's smallest county, is a 'Notswold' haven deserving of more attention, finds Nicola Venning
