A LEC WHITE, of Primrose Hall Nursery at Dingley Dell, is bucking the national trends in horticulture in all sorts of ways. At a time when many nurseries are fading away, due to the age of the owners or lack of financial return, he’s built up a successful mail-order business specialising in peonies of all kinds. He also attends all the major horticultural shows and his sumptuous and glamorous displays, using peonies grown at his eight-acre Bedfordshire nursery, culminated in a Gold Medal at the Chelsea Flower Show of 2019. The judges admired the range and quality of the plants and the public were wooed by the shocking-neon sign proclaiming ‘Love Peonies’ above a pristine white bathtub containing floating peony flowers.
It was a remarkable achievement, given that Mr White’s first floral display had been only three years earlier at Birmingham’s Gardeners’ World Live. The RHS then had an Innovation Scheme sponsoring young nurserymen and women, so he was fast-tracked into the next Chelsea Flower Show as exhibitor numbers were dropping in the Floral Marquee. Sadly, that worthy scheme is no more.
Displaying plants is in Mr White’s blood. ‘My grandfather grew show chrysanthemums and that’s where my love affair with plants began. I would watch him, when I was very young, carefully curling the petals around a pencil and covering his prized blooms with paper bags.’ The aspiring plantsman was soon growing his own show chrysanthemums and winning gold awards, but the die was finally cast on a visit to the Hampton Court Flower Show with his grandmother when he was 12. ‘I was overwhelmed by the colour and thought it would be wonderful to win a gold medal.’
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