MANY years ago, we had a National Collection of Primulas that we assembled under the auspices of Plant Heritage, an august horticultural organisation that was, at that time, called the National Council for the Conservation of Plants and Gardens (NCCPG).
We enjoyed making the collection enormously and the generosity of our fellow enthusiasts was immensely cockle-warming.
Our primula collection was limited to European species and cultivars, but they turned out to be legion. My main interest centred on the Vernales section of the genus Primula, which includes our native primroses, cowslips and oxlips. I raised thousands of their hybrid seedlings; some were the result of deliberate crosses, but most of them were open-pollinated foundlings freely produced by this most promiscuous of garden flowers.
I had it in mind that, by crossing super-hardy species such as the Alpine oxlip P. elatior with the Caucasian P. juliae, I might breed a garden-worthy strain that would flourish in such climates as Ontario and the American Midwest and so make my fortune.
The NCCPG was keen that its collection holders should study their plants and make their own contribution to horticultural literature. We soon discovered, however, that so many brilliant botanists and gardeners had worked with the genus that we’d never be able to add to the existing corpus of knowledge.
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Denne historien er fra March 22 2017-utgaven av Country Life UK.
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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
