If the mark of a good nursery is that there’s always something of interest no matter when you visit, then Hoo House Nursery passes the test with ease. I found plenty to brighten a dull February morning and more than a little temptation.
Pink, cerise and white cyclamen flowers sparkling like jewels on silver-plated leaves, dainty Iris reticulata, and a mass of ipheion, were just some of the things I badly wanted to take home.
The nursery, between Cheltenham and Tewkesbury, was started by Julie and Robin Ritchie 33 years ago after they found it difficult to source interesting perennials and rock garden plants for the gardens they designed and built.
“The stuff in the garden centres was pathetic,” says Julie. “It was the era of conifers and heathers.”
Starting a nursery from scratch was a bold move: their sons were then aged three and one and Julie knew little about propagating having studied Landscape Architecture in Cheltenham. How to increase her stock through division, cuttings and seed has been learned through “trial and error”.
“I never had any horticultural training,” she says, although she’d grown up with gardening, as her parents were keen gardeners.
Today, she is a regular on the gardening club talk circuit, holds RHS-sponsored demonstrations at the nursery and is well respected for her plant knowledge – plant purchases always come with advice on how to grow them.
Some of the initial stock for Hoo House Nursery came from one of Julie’s lecturers, Ron Sidwell, who dug up plants from his garden.
“I’m still propagating stuff I got from Ron. If it’s good, why not?”
Among the plants the nursery is known for are hardy geraniums, penstemon, grasses and perennials that will give late summer colour, such as rudbeckia.
Discussing how to keep a garden going late into the season, Julie tells me about Persicaria amplexicaulis ‘Dikke Floskes’, which she recommends for its crimson flower spikes that first appear in late July and which open out to a cone-like shape.
“It’s still in flower in October and the clump is still looking good.”
Standing out when I visit is Carex brunnea ‘Variegata’, which has the most beautiful lime-green foliage that’s just edged with yellow. It makes a handsome plant of about 45cm that looks just as good in a pot as it does in the border.
“I’m not a big lover of variegated plants but that has a certain elegance,” comments Julie.
Elsewhere on the nursery, the star-like flowers of ipheion are dancing in the wind. Hoo House Nursery stocks several including the white ‘Alberto Castillo’ and pink ‘Charlotte Bishop’. There’s also one called ‘Hoo House’, which Julie describes as “several shades bluer” than ‘Wisley Blue’ and not as likely to spread everywhere.
Plants at Hoo House are propagated by cuttings and division, or as in the case of cyclamen, by collecting seed. In one of the polytunnels, specially selected stock plants are kept and there are trays of seedlings at various stages of growth.
Each new plant is examined for leaf markings or flower colour and either goes on sale or is kept for propagation.
“I think ‘I can’t sell that one, it’s too nice’. I’m very bad at that,” says Julie with a smile.
Some of her plants have come from another Cheltenham enthusiast who passed on seed from Crete. It’s produced cyclamen with beautiful markings that Julie says will be tough garden plants.
Others, such as C. cilicium or C. intaminatum are more suitable for an alpine house.
The majority of her plants are grown on site with just bigger things, such as phlox, brought in due to a lack of space.
Hoo House Nursery has been peat-free since 2001 with plants grown in a mix that Julie has made up in commercial quantities. A combination of coir, bark, loam, green waste and slow release fertiliser, it’s designed to be easy to water and have enough nutritional value to keep potted plants going throughout the year.
Its peat-free status means Hoo House Nursery is often used by National Trust Gardens, the only place they send plants as there is no mail order service. Instead, plants can be bought at talks, specialist sales, such as at Spetchley Park, and horticultural shows, including Cheltenham and District Orchid Society’s show and Cheltenham Horticultural Society’s shows. Alternatively, you can always pay the nursery a visit.
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One of my favourite nurseries.
We are lucky to have it so close by. 🙂
I have always found Hoo House Nursery to be an excellent source of interesting plants at a fair price. Julie is very helpful too.
Absolutely! That’s the joy of an indie nursery.