Fibrex Nurseries are giving up their National Collections and scaling back. I’ve been finding out what’s next for the pelargonium specialists.
A trip to Fibrex Nurseries and its glasshouses packed with colourful pelargoniums has long been a summer treat.
With a National Collection of around 2,500 cultivars and species, the colours range from white through every shade of pink and salmon to dark purple.
The display also shows that there’s so much more than the familiar zonal pelargoniums with ivy leaved, regal, stellar and angels just some of the other types.
Now after more than 30 years, Fibrex is giving up the National Collection and handing it over to the Royal Horticultural Society. A second National Collection of ivy has already been passed to the RHS.
This summer will be the last chance to see the pelargoniums in one place as the RHS is splitting the collection between its five gardens.
It’s not the only change at the family run nursery. From the autumn, the site at Pebworth near Stratford-upon-Avon, will be closed to the public and the nursery will concentrate on mail order.
And after winning numerous gold medals at shows including Malvern and Chelsea, Fibrex, the last specialist pelargonium nursery, has no plans to exhibit at future shows, at least for a while.
The changes follow the decision to retire by siblings Ursula Key-Davis, Richard Godard-Key, and Angela Tandy, whose parents, Hazel and Dick, started the nursery in the 1950s. They are planning to stand down as directors at the end of the year and Fibrex will be run by Richard’s wife, Heather.
She describes the National Collection of Pelargoniums, the largest of its kind in the world, as “the jewel in our crown” and said losing it had been a difficult but necessary move, as there’s no next generation to take over.
“To see it go is desperately sad but it’s a phenomenal amount of work.”
Every year, the team propagate the entire collection to refresh it and, in accordance with National Collection rules, they keep three plants of every variety and open the collection free of charge to the public.
This year, they propagated two extra plants of each pelargonium to give to the RHS who will then propagate a third to establish their own National Collection. Once that’s done successfully, then Fibrex will disband its own collection.
“It’s incredibly lucky that the RHS have decided to take them on,” says Heather. “They’ve never taken on anyone else’s collection before.”
As well as safeguarding the pelargoniums, she believes it will also make them known to a wider audience.
“It will help raise the profile of the genus. People will see varieties they’ve never seen before.”
Plant Heritage, who organise the National Collection scheme, are delighted that the RHS is taking on the two collections.
Vicki Cooke, Conservation Manager, said: “We are so grateful for all the work undertaken by Fibrex over many years in setting up and caring for these vast collections. It is so important that the plants and the knowledge about them is not lost, and we are glad to see the RHS will now be the custodians of these collections.”
Meanwhile, there are plans to replace the old greenhouses that currently house the pelargoniums at Fibrex to make the operation more efficient. By concentrating on mail order, Heather hopes to be able to keep offering a wide range of pelargoniums.
While Fibrex stopped exhibiting at Chelsea some years ago, the nursery has never missed the RHS Malvern Spring Festival since it started 36 years ago.
This year’s show has been cancelled and replaced with the Malvern Midsummer Garden Life Festival in June, a busy time at the nursery. Fibrex is unlikely to attend while a decision on the Malvern Autumn Show has still to be made.
It’s also not clear yet what will happen to the nursery’s sizeable collection of ferns though it’s hoped another nursery will take them on.
While there is sadness at the end of an era at the nursery, Heather is sure it is the only way forward: “We’re giving the business a future and giving the plants what they need.”
More information about opening hours at Fibrex Nurseries is available on the website.