Plants and Bulbs to Flower in the Summer and Snowdrops
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p23 p29 p34 p46 Mail Order Catalogue Spring 2017 p38 Plants and bulbs to flower in the summer and snowdrops p14 www.avonbulbs.co.uk 1 Avon Bulbs Mail Order Catalogue Spring 2017 Winners of… 29 Gold Medals at Chelsea in 30 years Avon bulbs Welcome to the Avon Bulbs contacts spring Catalogue 2017 2016 must surely go down as a bit of a shocker? Hardly a winter to speak Email: of in 2015/16, which may be a blessing to our many readers, but it does confuse the plants! This does result in difficulties for us in timing the despatch [email protected] of orders and for growing plants for flower shows which remain on a set Web: timetable regardless of season or even global warming. Then the Brexit result, the outcome of the election in the USA and now temperatures down to -6° C www.avonbulbs.co.uk in November. Fortunately one thing that did go to plan was the installation of our new Mail Order system which appears to be working well and allowing Tel: us to do more of what you want us to do for you. We also made it a clean 01460 242177 sweep of Gold Medals at the major shows that we attend – Malvern, Chelsea, 01460 249060 Gardeners’ World and Hampton Court. So can I suggest that when the world seems to go mad, turn off the phone, the radio and TV and find some peace and stability in the certainty that winter Burnt House Farm will give way to spring, the snowdrops will emerge and bloom ahead of the Mid Lambrook daffodils. It may get wet or dry or windy but some exercise and time in the South Petherton garden will help to set your own piece of this world to rights! Somerset TA13 5HE Chris IRELAND JONES Sales and Events in the Spring of 2017 that we shall be attending. Altamont Gardens, County Carlow, Ireland Saturday 4 Feb Gartneriet Spiren, Skælskør 4230, Denmark Saturday 18 and Sunday 19 Feb Lectures from Julian Sutton and Kevin Hughes at Ballykealey Manor with garden On the plant nursery of Danish friends who concentrate on Hellebores mainly, a tours and plant sales at Altamont a short drive away afterwards. few other sellers. Our first time. Website: http://www.gartnerietspiren.dk/ Contact Hester Forde: [email protected] Cottage Garden Society Snowdrop Event Saturday 18 Feb Alpine Garden Society Conference, Newport, Shropshire Saturday 4 Feb Godolphin School, Salisbury. Speakers: Jennifer Harmer and Chris Horsfall Lectures by John Grimshaw, Joe Sharman and Vojtech Holubec followed by garden visits. Booking contact: Pamela Lucas 01235 555536 Several snowdrop nurseries attending. Bookings through the AGS:01386 554790 Mannheim Spring flower show (near Frankfurt) Saturday 25 and Sunday 26 Feb Shaftesbury Snowdrop Gala Saturday 11 Feb In the remarkable Luisenpark held in a glasshouse-like hall, lectures and a Talks by Tom Mitchell, Alan Street, and Lord Heseltine. Followed by plant sales variety of plant nurseries. Entry to Park: 6.00 Euro and garden visits. Part of a well organised week long event. Contact: [email protected] Website: www.shaftesburysnowdrops.org/#/study-day-2017 Hardy Plant Soc. Early Spring Plant Fair, RHS Early Spring Plant Fair, Vincent Sq. London. Tuesday 14 and Wed 15 Feb East Lambrook Manor Saturday 25 March Always a busy event, especially on Tuesday, and everyone will be there, so a great A very busy event with a wide range of stalls in an iconic cottage garden setting. place to catch up! Website: www.rhs.org.uk/shows-events/rhs-london-shows Details: www.hardy-plant.org.uk/somerset Orlich, near Nettetal, Germany Saturday 18 and Sunday 19 Feb Gardens Illustrated Festival 2017, Busy early season plant fair, outdoors(!) in the grounds of a small village Westonbirt School, Tetbury Saturday 25 & Sunday 26 March hotel. Refreshments and huge pieces of cake for sale! Slightly mad, weather A great line up of speakers and lectures, a vintage shopping marquee and a dependant but usually great fun. lovely venue. Details: www.gardensfestival.com/ We can bring your pre-booked potted snowdrop orders only to events that we attend but these need to be booked well in advance, with the crush of events in mid February we need a full 2 weeks’ notice please. 2 Avon Bulbs Mail Order Catalogue Spring 2017 Sign Up to our Newsletter We send out a newsletter once a month (no more!) alerting you to any events we might be attending or awards we might have won, sales at the nursery, seasonal special offers on the website, comments on items in the gardening press, hints and tips which we hope might be useful. All you need to do is register your email address on the website, and you can unsubscribe at any time. Five Year Diaries! This remarkable diary really is New Unused a real memory Snowdrop Pots builder! As you fill one We recycle and entry you cannot help but look reuse the pots in which the back to what you wrote on the same day snowdrops have in past years. Keeping a record year on been grown, but year of the weather for the day can really we do get asked help you understand your garden and its for pots by keen microclimate, as well as remind you of your Galanthophiles gardening successes and lessons to learn. who might be But you can also include films you saw, growing their own books you read, how much jam you made, snowdrops to sell who called for a chat or came to dinner, what or give away. We you ate, what the grandchildren told you, the try not to encourage the growing of snowdrops in pots long term, but of all the pots we have used over the list is endless! years these seem the most suitable for single snowdrop Finished in a wipe clean cover and spiral bulbs. They are 9cm square and 12.5cm deep with bound with botanical illustrations by Susan good drainage holes and of a robust construction and Olgilvy marking the start of each month. 6” only available in black! wide (15 cm) and just over 9” deep (23.5 cm) and weighing 770 g these are provided Sent with any order they will not incur additional postage charges, sent alone please allow £3.00 in a purpose made delivery sleeve and can be posted at any time (they make great 668-01 Snowdrop Pots £2.50 for 10 Christmas presents) but can be started at any time of year. Unique to ourselves and not available elsewhere. RHS Perfect for £15.00 including P&P (within UK) Additional Pollinators. EU postage £6.00 The RHS Perfect for Pollinators mark is only given to plants that support pollinating insects in Plants we list which have received the gardens. Bees, butterflies, moths, RHS Commendation ‘Award of Garden hoverflies and many others Merit’ are now tagged with the trophy visit flowers to feed on nectar TM symbol. Space does not allow us to add and pollen; while doing so they the hardiness rating – please be aware the award transfer pollen and increase seed applies to the ease of cultivation, excellence and set and fruit development. Find out more at rhs.org.uk/plants constitution, but not necessarily hardiness. 3 Avon Bulbs Mail Order Catalogue Spring 2017 The varieties below are nearly all supplied from pots. As they are all grown on the nursery the availability of some of these is limited and orders are taken on a first come first served basis, and if we have to cancel any orders (should COLLECTOR’S SNOWDROPS the stocks we thought that we had not live up to expectations, this is gardening not engineering) any cancellations start with the last orders to be received. It is however unusual for us to have to cancel orders. Numbers in brackets after the price refer to the page number for a more detailed description in the snowdrop bible. We believe these to be flowering sized bulbs and in many cases there is a big bulb and an offset all counted as one. Whilst these are pot grown, to save on the postage costs, the plants are ‘knocked out’ of pots and sent in plastic bags, but this is much kinder on the roots than being dug. Photo credit: Judy’s Snowdrops p Abington Green 22-272 Found in Little Abington, Cambridgeshire with a descriptive nod towards the green band that marks the inner segment. It is one of Richard Blakeway-Phillips’ finds in the late 1970s with broadly splaying outer segments which open to show the inner marking, bending the arching spathes as they do. £ 14.00(180) Alison Hilary 22-16 Slim outer segments, slightly clawed at the base resulting in an attractively rounded shape, the inner segments are heavily marked at the base in a X or H shape that fades towards the apex. Found at Sutton Court, Herefordshire, the famous Backhouse garden. £18.00 (248) alpinus bortkewitschianus 22-152 A charming species from a remote and very Angelique 22-47 small area in Southern Russia in Beech forests. Introduced from France in 1999 by Mark Ailwyn 22-146 It is thought to be of low fertility as it has never Brown. Remarkable in its time for its poculiform attributes (6 petals of nearly equal length). A Found first by Richard Nutt at Anglesey Abbey been seen to set seed here in Somerset, charming find, the name commemorates a and named after Lord Fairhaven. One of the few nevertheless it grows well in our heavy soil in part shade.