ive got the summertime blues, pinks, reds, oranges, · pdf filei’ve got the summertime...
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I’ve got the summertime
blues, pinks, reds, oranges,
yellows... The old Eddie Cochran song is about the “summertime blues” but as I
write it looks like we’re heading for a proper summer this year and if
you’re like me you’ll be out in your garden as much as possible.
I’m always looking for more colour, scent, shape and texture for the
garden and this year I’m looking for even more flowers to attract bees
and especially butterflies to the garden.
Our plant fairs have just the right range of top quality nurseries to
provide plants for every part of my garden from patio pots (as well as the pots) through to
ornamental trees.
I’ve included my little guide to common garden butterflies in this edition with information about their
food plants and photos taken here in Hankelow Cheshire.
Best wishes
Martin
Garden Butterflies with SpecialPerennials: Peacock
One of my garden’s showiest butterflies
with its slow, strong wingbeats and those
amazingly coloured “eyes”.
The caterpillars live on nettles (pictures
shows one preparing to pupate). Adults
can live for up to a year, hibernating
through the winter in dry places like
sheds.
Happy returns to
Arley Arboretum We were absolutely thrilled to be invited to hold a
plant fair again at this Worcestershire gem after a
few years absence. The arboretum and gardens are
truly magical, filled with a sense of peace and
tranquillity punctuated occasionally by the toot of a
steam train on the nearby Severn Valley railway.
Much has happened there since our last visit and we
are looking forward to discovering the new
developments along side the long history of the trees
and woodland.
Our last fair was a tremendous success with over
1000 plant lovers flocking along on a sunny
Saturday.
This year we are back on Saturday 4th July from
11am to 5pm. Entry is half standard price at just
£2.50.
We have a great line up of 20 nurseries including
your first opportunity to meet Scotland’s famous
Edrom Nursery at a Plant Hunters’ Fair.
Arley Arboretum & Gardens
Upper Arley, Near Bewdley
Worcestershire DY12 1SQ
Email: [email protected]
Estate Office: 01299 861368
website: www.arleyarboretum.co.uk
Saturday 4th July 11am-5pm
Entry is just £2.50
Dogs on leads welcome
This year Dr. Steve Reynolds will be
holding his famous drop-in “What’s Up
Doc?” clinic at Arley Arboretum
Bring along a sample, photo or description of
a flower, fruit, or veg pest or disease (all
samples in sealed bags please!) and Steve
will help you find an answer to it.
If your gardening club is looking for a lively,
knowledgeable and professional speaker
then we can highly recommend Steve to you.
Please see Steve’s page on the Plant
Hunters’ Fairs website garden speakers
directory.
You can contact Steve to book a talk:
Phone: 01588 660 618
Mobile: 07929 303 425
email: [email protected]
Summer’s abundance at
Sugnall Walled Garden Summer in the kitchen garden is my idea of bliss. Vegetables
growing before your very eyes, the fragrance of ripening fruit,
the buzz of insects and all that produce to cook and enjoy. So
I was really pleased when it was suggested we moved our sec-
ond fair at Sugnall Walled Garden from its traditional autumn
spot to early July.
Sunday 5th July is the new date and the garden gates open at
10am. I’m looking forward to sampling some of the garden’s
produce in the restaurant. This spring the visitors particularly
praised the freshly picked asparagus and poached eggs from
the garden’s chickens. The menu for the summer will be
packed with similar seasonal delights.
The garden will be full of the fragrance of lavender and old
roses as well.
We have a great line up of 17 nurseries and it is still just
£1.00 to come in and enjoy it all.
Sugnall, near Eccleshall,
Stafford ST21 6NF
Phone: 01785 850820
email: [email protected]
Website: www.sugnallwalledgarden.co.uk
Sunday 5 July 10am-4pm
Entry is just £1.00
Sorry no dogs allowed in the garden
Garden Butterflies with SpecialPerennials:
Speckled Wood
Increasingly common in my garden well away from any woodland this
is a territorial butterfly that patrols sunlit areas in dappled shade
chasing off other butterflies.
The caterpillars live on various species of grass.
Garden Butterflies
with
SpecialPerennials:
Painted Lady
These large and lovely
butterflies are summer
migrants travelling more than
600 miles to reach these
shores.
Some years there are just a
few and others it seems like
an invasion with the garden
full of them. The caterpillars
feeds on thistles, mallows and burdock. This generation is on the wing in
September and October. They are unable to survive a cold winter here.
Get carried away at
the N.M.A.
Ingenious solution to that
perennial plant fair problem
In our spring newsletter we invited you to get carried
away at our 3 Plant Hunters’ Fairs at the National
Memorial Arboretum this year and some of you
needed no encouragement when it came to filling
your bags with top quality plants.
Then comes that inevitable time when your hands
are full. Every plantaholics nightmare!
Regular plant hunters’ Roy and Sheila came up with
this ingenious solution and carried on getting carried
away unfettered by a lack of hands!
Whether you are looking to fill a whole new garden
or just want a plant to fill a gap you’ll find our
nursery folk just as willing to offer advice to help you
get the right plants.
Our next fair at the National Memorial Arboretum is
on Saturday 1st August and you’re more than
welcome to borrow Roy and Sheila’s idea—just don’t forget to bring your own sticks!
National Memorial Arboretum Croxall Road Alrewas Staffordshire DE13 7AR Tel: 01283 792333 Email:: [email protected] website: www.thenma.org.uk
Saturday 1st August.
10am-4:30pm
Free entry to arboretum and fair.
(Pay and display parking)
A Helping Hand
for Hope House
Hospices
Our first plant fair at The
British Ironwork Centre
raises lots for Hope House
Children’s Hospices.
We had a great time at our first ever Plant
Hunters’ Fair at the British Ironwork Centre
near Oswestry on 17th May: it’s such a fun
place with those magnificent and sometimes
whacky metal animals. But the event also
had a more serious side with the £1.00
entrance fee going to Hope House Children’s
Hospices. By the end of the day the event
had raised £1470 for this very deserving
cause.
The fair and sculpture park were buzzing
with plant lovers and their families with the
keen ones on their marks well before the
10am opening time and still going strong at
the 5pm close.
The event was such a hit that the centre’s owner and chairman Clive Knowles and
Martin got together before the end of the fair and agreed to hold it again in May
2016—watch out for the date on planthuntersfairs.co.uk and in our Spring 2016
Newsletter.
The British Ironwork Centre
Whitehall Aston
Oswestry
Shropshire
SY11 4JH
E-mail: [email protected]
Phone number: 08006888386
website: www.britishironworkcentre.co.uk
Summer at
Dearnford
Lake, naturally
Even more to enjoy this
August.
Our plant fairs at this Shropshire
beauty spot have proved to be a hit
with plant lovers from near and far.
This August there will be more
nurseries than ever with 20 top class
growers booked including a few who will be new to this venue.
August is the best time to enjoy some of the wonderful wildlife to be found around the lake including
many different and spectacular species of dragonfly.
The fairs completely free to visitors including easy parking, lakeside walks and access to the
restaurant.
STOP PRESS: Paviour & Davies have been added to the event line up
Dearnford Lake, Tilstock Road, Whitchurch,
Shropshire SY13 3JQ
phone: 01948 258639
email: [email protected]
website: www.dearnford.com
Sunday 2nd August 10am-4pm
Free entry, free parking.
Garden Butterflies
with
SpecialPerennials:
Red Admiral
The name of this butterfly
comes not from the sea or any
supposed resemblance to any
gaudy military uniform but
from a corruption of its 18th
century name of “The
Admirable”.
Most flying early in the year
are migrants arriving from the
Continent.
The caterpillars, like those of
many of our favourite garden
butterflies, feed on nettles: so
there’s every excuse for
leaving a patch of nettles in even the tidiest garden.
The favourite food plants of the adults include Joe Pye Weed (Eupatorium), Ice Plant (Sedum), Perennial
Sunflower (Helianthus), Michaelmas Daisy (Aster) and of course, as pictured here, left: Bugbane (Actaea) and
right: Heleniums.
You’ll go a long
way to find
better plants Plant lovers will literally go a long
way to pick up that plant treasure
they’ve been seeking from one of
our specialist nurseries.
This spring at Bodenham
Arboretum these two ladies from
Sweden arrived to get some
choice plants to take home with
them.
We regularly welcome visitors
stopping off from longer journeys
and those who have planned holidays and visits to relatives to coincide with the chance to
take in a Plant Hunters’ Fair. And why not when you have the chance to visit so many top
nurseries and take in a garden visit all for such great value entrance fees.
Our nursery folk are also great travellers and its testament to the support we get from so
many plant lovers that we are able to attract nurseries from all corners of Britain.
At Bodenham this September we have nurseries from nearby Warwickshire, Shropshire,
Worcestershire and Staffordshire and also Gloucestershire, Cheshire, Derbyshire,
Herefordshire and Lincolnshire.
Bodenham Arboretum is situated between the A442 and A449 just north of Kidderminster –
use postcode DY11 5TB for Satnav. The fair is open from 11am to 5pm. Entry to the fair and
parking is free as is access to the restaurant. The arboretum is open and optional entry is at
normal ticket prices.
Bodenham Arboretum
Wolverley, Kidderminster, Worcestershire
DY11 5SY
Phone: 01562 852444
Website: www.bodenham-arboretum.co.uk
Saturday 5th September
11am—5pm
Free entry to fair, free parking.
Arboretum open at normal rates.
Garden Butterflies with SpecialPerennials:
Small Tortoiseshell
This must be one of the most numerous Butterflies in our garden,
with often clouds of them dancing over their favourite plants.
They love Heleniums, Verbena bonariensis and all nectar-bearing
flowers.
Their caterpillars also feed on nettles. The adults are capable of
living through the winter by hibernating in dry sheds and garages
so we often see them awakening on warm days in late winter and
early spring.
Summer sensation
at Abbeywood
Gardens
Spectacular summer colour in
the heart of Cheshire
Abbeywood Gardens is a treasure waiting to be
discovered by garden lovers. There is so much
to see, enjoy, and admire.
The Exotic Garden, inspired by Christopher
Lloyd’s Great Dixter, greets you as you leave
the café and the planting is like a blaze of
trumpets in its bold, hot colours; amazing
leaves and bizarre shapes. From here you pass
into the complete contrast of peace and
serenity in the pool garden.
Beyond this the long herbaceous borders lead
the eye to the distant vistas of the Cheshire
countryside. The formality of the borders melts
into the naturalist planting of the prairie
garden.
Turning back you’ll find the Chapel Garden, full
of scent and the Pergola Walk.
The cool shade of the Arboretum invites you on
a summer’s day leading to the meadows and
vegetable garden. Beyond the café there is the
cutting garden.
We love this garden so much that we’ve given
you 2 pages of photos with many more on our
website and Facebook page.
The plant fair will be set in the meadow area,
near to the parking and we have a great range
of nurseries including some new to the area
such as Paviour & Davies and Edrom Nursery.
It’s also a chance to visit nurseries like Bob
Brown’s Cotswold Garden Flowers ,
Shadyplants.com and Green’s Leaves who
haven’t attended a fair in this part of the
county before.
Entry to the fair and garden is half normal
price at £2.75—we can’t think of a better value
day out in the region.
The garden café will be serving teas and light
refreshments and there will be ample free
parking on the fields at the entrance to the
gardens.
Abbeywood Garden
Chester Road
Delamere
Cheshire CW8 2HS
Tel: 01606 888251
website: www.abbeywoodestate.co.uk/gardens/
Sunday 23rd August
10am—5pm
Entry to fair and gardens £2.75
—half standard price
Plants
ahoy! at
Carsington
Water The second of our
free plant fairs
Despite the icy cold weather
our first fair in March was a big
success. This time we have
even more nurseries and
hopefully it will be dry enough
to spread out on the field next
to the visitor centre. In march
48 hours of rain prior to the fair led to a quick move to the paths in front of the visitor centre for the
fair.
This time we have 20 nurseries from all over with Edrom Nursery travelling from Scotland, Shady
Plants from Gloucestershire and Pottertons Nursery from Lincolnshire, in all representatives from 10
counties are making their way to Derbyshire for this free to enter event.
The Visitor Centre
Big Lane Ashbourne Derbyshire DE6 1ST
There are brown signs to direct you from Ash-bourne
Phone: 01629 540696 email: [email protected] Website: www.stwater.co.uk/carsington-water
Sunday 26th July, 10am-4pm
Free entry to country park and
fair. (Pay and display parking)
Dogs welcome
Garden Butterflies
with
SpecialPerennials:
Small Copper
A member of the group of
small butterflies that include
the blues—actually with their
wings closed the small
copper and common blue
are very similar.
The hairy caterpillars eat
sorrel and dock—they are
most welcome to all they can stomach in my garden!
The large copper became extinct in Britain in 1865.
More to smile about
at Weston Park
Looking forward to our first
autumn plant fair at this
stately venue
Our early May Bank Holiday fair at Weston Park
has become an established favourite at this major
venue, so we were pleased to be asked to put on
an autumn plant fair as well.
Sunday 13th September is the date and entry
will be at the even lower price of just £2.50.
It’s our final fair of the season and we expect to
go out with a big smile on our faces!
Don’t miss the wonderful gardens, 1000 acre
parkland, walled garden and so much more.
Sunday 13th September 10am-4pm £2.50
Dogs on leads welcome
Weston Park, Weston-under-Lizard Shropshire TF11 8LE
Phone: 01952 852100
Email: [email protected]
Website: www.weston-park.com
Garden Butterflies
with
SpecialPerennials:
Gatekeeper
Any butterfly who’s caterpillars
eat couch grass is most
welcome in my garden!
Gatekeepers are one of the
most abundant here loving all
our perennials as well as
flowers on the oregano in our
herb patch.
The caterpillars hatch in
August and hibernate through
winter, pupating in June.
Where did you get that hat? Our stallholders and customers brave everything that the British weather throws at
them but sometimes they have to resort to some very becoming headgear. Here’s a
few embarrassing (or otherwise) shots of them in action.
A bad case of “Cap
Envy” for Anthony from
Conquest?
Andi and Helen are all
“peace & luv” in the
cold at Carsington
Water in march
Dorothy Clive in April 2010 must have been a cold
one if Ali from Slack Top and John from Hillview are
anything to go by and the clue is in Martin’s “coat
and 3 fleeces and still cold” look.
There’s no point in pretending
you’re enjoying the sub-zero
temperature Tony and Sylvia
from Shady Plants we all know
what you’re saying inside!
Getting the right look is so important. Jane from Mayfields opts
for “Freedom Fighter”; Jack from Wildegoose: “Country Gent” and
Jacqueline from Architectural Impact the “Ladies Day” look.
Where did you get that hat?
Carrier bags come
in handy (don’t try this at home!) The heat
definitely went to the head for Nic from Hall
Farm at Adlington Hall a few years ago, and
Sarah from Penmere is trying hard not to
look a drip in the rain at Hodnet.
It is sunny and hot
sometimes! Rob
from Pottertons
practices carrying
two ice cream cones
at Consall
Whoops there go the hats at a windy
NMA
Martin wins the floppiest hat contest at the
NMA hands down
Judy from Woodfield through
the seasons (not saying its
cold in Wales)
Not a hat but an ark is the order of day at
Sugnall but Paul Green keeps jolly through
it all.
Watch out for our next newsletter We will be publishing our annual magazine newsletter in late winter with news of our new events
plus some exciting announcements about new venues for 2016—we have two new venues lined up
already and we are currently working on the details.
If you don’t want to miss out then subscribe on our website at
www.planthuntersfairs.co.uk/subscribe.htm
Autumn-Ness The first Sunday in September see Plant
Hunters’ Fairs return to Ness Botanic Gar-
dens on the Wirral.
There’s lots to see in the garden with the
late colour in full bloom—we love the heleni-
ums and helianthus, the alpines, the berries
on the National Collection of Rowan and so
much more.
It’s just £1.00 to enter the plant fair and this
can be redeemed if you pay to enter the
garden.
Ness Botanic Gardens
Neston, South Wirral
CH64 4AY
Tel: 0845 0304063
Email: [email protected]
website: www.nessgardens.org.uk
Sunday 6th September 10am-4pm
Entry is just £1.00
Garden Butterflies with
SpecialPerennials:
Comma
This butterfly gets it name from the
small, silver “comma” on the
underside of the wings.
They are most common in our garden
in late summer, although we do see
adults that have hibernated flying in
early spring.
The caterpillars feed on hops, nettles
and currant bushes.
High and dry at the
Dorothy Clive Garden
Plant fair takes the high ground
We’ve always loved coming to The Dorothy Clive
Garden on the Shropshire / Staffordshire borders for
our twice yearly plant fairs. This August Bank
Holiday Sunday and Monday will be our 8th year at
this lovely garden.
This spring we moved the fair from the sloping grass
field to a more even and drier hard standing at the
top of the garden near the tearooms— “closer to the
beating heart of the garden” as Curator Marcus
Chilton Jones put it. Less of struggle to browse, drier
under foot, cosier and with a real buzz. Over 1600
visitors came along to give it a go and the feedback
about the change was almost 100% positive.
Fair Field Garden Bygones set up shop in the
pavilion with their beautiful and useful vintage
garden tools. This time they will be joined by
Pottertons Nursery with their “bulb bazaar”.
New to the venue are Edrom Nursery all the way
from Scotland with their internationally renowned
selection of alpines and woodlanders.
We also welcome craft potters Studio 8 to the garden
for the first time. This Staffordshire pottery has
proved to be outstandingly popular at our other
events this year. All their wares are hand-thrown and
wood-kiln fired using Staffordshire clay.
As always the gardens will be looking at their
summer best with a riot of colour to enjoy.
Even after 8 years of fairs there’s always something
new to enjoy at the Dorothy Clive Garden Plant
Hunters’ Fair. And don’t forget entry is half standard
price as well!
Willoughbridge, Market Drayton
Shropshire, TF9 4EU
Tel: 01630 647237
email: [email protected]
Bank Holiday Sunday & Monday
30th & 31st August
10am—5pm
£3.50 for fair and gardens.
Free parking
Dogs on leads welcome
The new site created a real buzz
Fair Field Garden Bygones set up shop in the pavilion
As always there will be a great line up of top name
nurseries
Local craft potters Studio 8 will be at the event for the
first time
2015 Plant Hunters’ Fairs July
Sat 4th Arley Arboretum, Near Bewdley, Worcs. DY12 1XJ 11am-5pm
Sun 5th Sugnall Walled Garden, Eccleshall, Staffs. ST21 6NF 10am-4pm
Sun 26th Carsington Water, nr Ashbourne, Derbyshire. DE6 1ST 10-4pm
August
Sat 1st National Memorial Arboretum Alrewas Staffs. DE13 7AR 10am-4:30pm
Sun 2nd Dearnford Lake, Whitchurch, Shrops. SY13 3JQ 10am-4pm
Sun 16th Bodnant Garden near Colwyn Bay, Conwy LL28 5RE 10am-4pm
Sun 23rd Abbeywood Gardens, Delamere, Cheshire. CW8 2HS, 10am-5pm
Sun/Mon 30th/31st Dorothy Clive Garden, Newcastle, Staffs. TF9 4EU 10am-5pm
September
Sat 5th Bodenham Arboretum nr Kidderminster, Worcs, DY11 5SY 11am-5pm
Sun 6th Ness Botanic Gardens Wirral, Cheshire. CH64 4AY. 10am-4pm
Sun 13th Weston Park, Shifnal, Shropshire. TF11 8LE 10am-4pm
You can contact us by:
Email: [email protected]
Phone: 01270 811443
Twitter: @plantfairs
Find us on Facebook as well.
Website www.planthuntersfairs.co.uk
Details published in this newsletter are we believe
correct but please do check on our website or with the
venue before travelling as occasionally arrangements do
have to change.
All views expressed are those of the authors.
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