Harveys Garden Plants

Much has happened since the latest news update. The hellebore days were extremely successful, with new customers and old prepared to travel considerable distances to select their Bradfield hybrids in the exact colours they desired. Indeed we had visitors from France, Belgium, Demark, Sweden, Ireland and Japan. Our fame seems to be spreading!

We had more double and anemone flowered Bradfield hybrids, but were still unable to fully meet the demand. Indeed orders for doubles and especially prized single colours were placed for the 2003 season. As our breeding programme continues we hope to have more doubles in cream and white with and without spots for the forthcoming 2003 season.

Evidence for this optimism is showing now, as we are finding more doubles than ever before, at this early autumn stage.

A few will be on sale at the Special Autumn open days next week-end 30/31 August.

The RHS Woodland Talk in April was once again over subscribed and attendees left with enthusiasm to tackle their own difficult woodland or shady areas in their gardens.

This is a joint project with Suffolk NCCPG. (You may like to visit their website www.nccpgsuffolk.org ) During the past year we have been collecting cultivars and species of the genus Helenium with the aim to have a National Collection in due course. We now have over 36 different cultivars which were planted in May and many are currently in flower. Sneezeweed is the common name and the flowers come in a variety of colours, mostly shades of red, burgundy and yellow. The different cultivars also differ in height remarkably.

Other plants of particular interest which will be on sale include Sedum Purple Emperor, plum - red foliage with red flowers, Tricytris (Toad lily) many cultivars, Anemones, Actea atropurpurea Brunnette, ( Cimifuga) Beautiful deep bronze foliage with tall spires of scented white flowers in September, Crocosmia Emily McKenzie Large flowers of orange with an almost black throat.

We also have the usual range of Asters and Grasses such as Miscanthus species and many more.

The first Special Hellebore Days 0f 2002 early in February were well attended in spite of the gales in most parts of the country but luckily not in Suffolk. Customers were prepared to travel great distances to view our plants, even from Europe. All agreed they looked absolutely spectacular. The RHS talks held here at Bradfield St George went well last week with both days tickets sold by the middle of January.

I am, all but ready for this coming week-end with lots of hellebores in flower. (Over 1000 for sale each day) I have now opened up a second 30m tunnel and filled it with hellebores too- well, apart from refreshments- so there are ample plants from which to choose.

Bradfield doubles. The demand continues to outstrip supply. I have plants to satisfy orders but with only a few to spare at present. Also available are a few Bradfield Anemone centred plants. Arrive early to secure the limited stocks.

Did you see the most recent article about us by Katherine Bradley-Hole in Country Life on February 7th? It was an excellent article and well worth a read.

I have been delighted with the press coverage this season. Our Bradfield hybrid hellebores have featured in many of the popular gardening magazines. BBC Pebble Mill is using our hybrids in a program called House Call being broadcast between 10-11am on Friday 25 January.

Also look out for The Saturday Telegraph 2nd February which is carrying a feature on hellebores again.

The hellebores are making steady progress and I hope to have a good show for visitors next week-end. The doubles are still proving illusive, so it is unlikely we will have any on free sale this year as I have already taken many orders from hopeful customers.

If you are still looking for a double flowered Bradfield hybrid it will be essential to Pre-Order. Email me and I can tell you the procedure for ordering plants.

I am planning to have some light refreshments available, but there is an excellent pub in the village which serves hot food as well.

The Autumn Open days were well attended and appreciated by all; lots of colour and interest for the autumn. Since then we have been kept extremely busy with the garden design side of the business. The mild and reasonably dry autumn of late has enabled us to complete many projects, but we still have some which will be held over until the Spring.

I have been encouraged by the success of our first two years and have invested in a further tunnel which will be multifunctional, i.e. will give more space for sales and we shall be able to offer refreshments on our special open days. Currently in our closed season the tunnel is full of hellebores, which are being prepared for next February. We shall have even more hellebores available, particularly doubles and anemone centred forms.

You may have seen articles about our Special Autumn Open days next week-end in the gardening press.

My team is busy getting plants ready for visitors to admire and purchase if they so wish. We are replanting and adding to an outside border to make it more interesting at this time of year.

Next week we shall also build an indoor display based on autumn flowering plants. This will form the basis of the display we shall build for the RHS Great Autumn Show at Vincent Square, London on 18 & 19 September.

Unusual plants will be available for purchase such as Spiranthes cerna 'Chadds form', an autumn sweetly scented white orchid easy to grow in ordinary soil. Trycitris ohsumiensis,is a large flowered lemon yellow toad lilly, quite exquisite, and rare.

Other plants include many varieties of hybrid Anemones, Asters, Alstroemeria psittacina, Echinacea, Eupatorium, Heleanthus, Impatiens balfourii, Cyclamen, Dhalia, Miscanthus, Stipa.

Even our Hellebores don't want to miss the show and will be making an appearance; a few of our Bradfield hybrids are starting to flower already.

The Hellebore season was brilliant this year. Our Bradfield hybrids were spectacular as the weather was decidedly inclement. The feature on Gardeners World caused quite a stir, and is fondly remembered by customers and family alike.

We will be exhibiting at the NEC next week, BBC Gardeners World Live. Do come and see us if you are attending. Plants of special interest will include the genus Astrantia, especially Astrantia Hadspen Blood and Astrantia Buckland as well as a new pink hybrid. Further specials include Eryngium alpinum Blue Star, Eryngium bourgatii and Alium christophii.

Electronic Telegraph

Saturday 17^th February 2001

These sturdy beauties go on and on through the winter, says Val Bourne

WHEN it comes to winter and early spring, hellebores are the mainstays of any garden, producing handsome, glossy leaves and large, beautifully marked flowers.

Well bred: Roger Harvey pollinating a Bradfield hybrid

These graceful plants come in every shade, from warm white through to slate, unfolding as soon as the sun shows a hint of potency. Their leathery sepals allow the flowers to endure the roughest weather, lasting for months rather than weeks. In turn, the colourful petals form abundant nectaries that sustain early bees and insects.

The showiest hellebores are the oriental hybrids, which are listed under Helleborus x orientalis. Breeders used to name individual plants; however, hellebores are difficult to divide successfully and these named plants often lost their vigour and disappeared. As a result, hellebore-breeding now concentrates on producing seed-raised plants from deliberately crossed parents.

Specialist nurseries raise large batches of seedlings and allow them to flower before selling any plants. This ensures that the best colours and forms are used to improve the breeding line.

Growing tips

· Sow hellebore seed as soon as it is ripe (usually in June). It should germinate during the following winter, but it does need a spell of cold weather.

· Put plants where they will avoid the midday sun. Semi-shade is ideal.

· Hellebores like open, friable soil that retains moisture, but they do not like being waterlogged. They prefer alkaline soils but tolerate most conditions.

· Dead-head young plants in late spring or early summer, to maintain their vigour. Older clumps can be left to self-seed.

· Trim any leaves that are lying against the soil, leaving upright leaves intact. This helps to prevent the plant from succumbing to Coniothyrium hellebori, a disease that blackens the foliage. Remove any leaves with dark brown patches.

· Mulch around the plants with bark or well-rotted mushroom compost to keep the plants cool and moist during summer, but avoid covering the crown. Sprinkle on a slow-release fertiliser.

· Watch for slug damage in wet, warm winters.

· Remove all the leaves in November to keep air circulating around the plant. When the hellebores come into flower, usually from January onwards, the leaves will be healthy.

· Hellebores make good-sized clumps, which can be moved intact in late spring. But they are difficult to split, and the central part of the plant often dies, so don't divide your prize clumps.

Roger Harvey of Harvey's Garden Plants near Bury St Edmunds in Suffolk, breeds and sells the Bradfield strain, as well as other hellebores and woodland plants.

"I was lucky enough to buy some wonderful hellebores from a nearby nursery that was closing down. They got my interest going," he says.

"I don't know of any other plant that flowers over such a long period and looks so good. The 'Picotee', which has a white flower with prominent veining and edging, is my favourite."

The range of flower colour and shape varies tremendously, making this one garden plant that should definitely be bought in flower. Look for plants in deep pots with healthy leaves, and examine the flowers; the ideal hellebore has sturdy stems with flowers that face slightly upwards.

H. foetidus 'Wester Flisk Group' is an excellent hellebore for a wild, woodland setting. This is a red-stemmed form of the native "stinking" hellebore, with smaller, lime-green flowers edged in maroon.

The larger H. argutifolius has lime-green flowers and shiny, veined leaves with serrated edges - the best foliage of all the hellebores. It mixes well with the pink-red flowers of Pulmonaria rubra, which flowers at the same time, but is not as tough as the oriental hybrids.

Helleborus x sternii is also delicate and has marbled leaves and rose-pink flowers. It thrives in sheltered places. The Blackthorn strain is compact and good in containers.

The Christmas Rose, H. niger, is a difficult garden plant and rarely flowers at Christmas, despite its name. It does well in a container. 'Potter's Wheel' is considered the best form , with flowers 4in in diameter.

Helleborus x ericsmithii is one of the most difficult and expensive varieties, a cross between H. niger and H. sternii. It combines the marbled foliage of H. sternii with the pure white flowers of the Christmas Rose.

Mature hellebores look attractive mixed with other spring-flowering diminutive woodlanders, such as cyclamens, snowdrops and wood anemones.

· Next Friday and Saturday are Hellebore Open Days 2001 (9.30am-4pm) at Harvey's Garden Plants, Bradfield St George, Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk IP30 0AY (01284 386777; www.harveysgardenplants.co.uk.). It also specialises in many other early-flowering woodland plants and summer-flowering perennials.

The recent fine weather is really bringing the hellebores on well. We expect to have over 1000 in flower for our open days on 23rd and 24th February. Luckily there has been plenty flowering this week as I have been filming with the Gardeners World Team. They were a super bunch and it was great fun. The feature is due to be televised on the first programme of the season on Friday 23rd February 2001.

The cold weather continues, but we will have over 1000 hellebores in flower for our Special Hellebore Open Days on Friday and Saturday this week. Today I have been building a large display in the sales tunnel to show how hellebores can be used to great effect in the winter garden. The catalogue is at the printers so will be available on Friday at the nursery and will be online next week. This new version will be easier and quicker to download. Hope to see you on Friday or Saturday.

The hellebores are holding their own in this freezing weather. It's hard to believe such a beautiful plant can be so tolerant, isn't it? I am currently updating the catalogue for 2001, amongst other pressing jobs, and hope to have it online soon. We are looking forward to opening for the season this Friday and seeing old friends and welcoming new ones

In spite of the recent cold snap the Hellebores are flowering about 2 weeks earlier than last year, which was in itself was an early Spring. The range of colours is amazing from white to nearly black and all the colours of the rainbow in between. It looks as if we will have well in excess of 1000 flowering hellebores for sale for on 2nd and 3rd February.

For those people who didn't come really early to our Open Days last year and found limited choice, we apologise and offer some improvements for this year. Firstly the whole tunnel (covered with polythene to protect you from cold/rainy weather) will be devoted to Hellebores and companion plants. We shall be staging a display similar to that which we build at the RHS London Shows, which will show how Hellebores can be incorporated into the winter garden. We intend to have a good range of Cornus and Salix together with other winter flowering shrubs. I will be well organised (so my wife tells me) enabling me to be more readily available to answer customers questions on both days.

We are delighted with the response by the press to our Hellebore Open Days 2001. Features are due to appear in the Weekend section of the Saturday Daily Telegraph, The Suffolk Magazine and the Eastern Daily Press. We also feature in the Events Pages of many of the Gardening magazines.

For the first time Harveys Garden Plants is holding a talk in conjunction with the RHS. It is entitled Hellebores in the Winter Garden and is on Monday 12th February,1.15pm to 4.45pm.

It was good to meet so many keen plants people over the past two days at our Special Autumn Open Days. Thank you for your favourable comments about our display and plants. We certainly enjoyed the days and hope you did too.

We did display a few hellebores which were flowering now. These were the first Bradfield hybrids to go on sale and they were quickly snapped up. They included anemone centred plants and a much sought after Bradfield picotee. There will be over 1000 Bradfield hybrids ready for sale in February.

Don't forget if you are in need of some Autumn interest in your garden or you wanted to get planting ready for next year we are open until the end of October.