Heavenly hepaticas

JOHN MASSEY is a happy man. His beaming face is familiar to plant lovers all over Britain and beyond. Plants have been the great love of his life—finding them, growing them, selecting them and selling the best

- Charles Quest-Ritson

In 1967, when he was 18, his father bought a small, rundown nursery for him in Shrop- shire. Today, Ashwood Nurseries is one of our most famous plant centres. It is difficult to come away without spending a lot of money—and feeling very pleased to have done so.

Plant lovers have crazes and, sometimes, these passions develop into lasting relationships. Mr Massey has had a series of infatuations, including cyclamen, auriculas, hellebores, hydrangeas and hepaticas. Not content merely to make a collection of plants that fascinate him, he has gone on to breed new varieties, selecting potential parents, transferring pollen to pistils, sowing the seeds, assessing the seedlings and introducing the best. All have brought him fame, renown and soaring sales.

I first met Mr Massey at the RHS Westminster show on February 17, 1998, when he put on an exhibit of hepaticas. Hepaticas are rather like our common wood anemones, but the two easiest species to grow—H. transsilvanica and H. nobilis (both European natives) —are usually intense blue in colour. Mr Massey’s colours ranged from midnight blue to pink and white. Some were fully double, others camellia shaped. I fell for a white one with crimson anthers. Plant lovers had never seen anything like them. Why did we not know about them? The exhibit electrified the judges and received a Gold medal.