The Patch - A Garden For all Seasons - A talk by Jim Almond

The Rutland Group of The Hardy Plant Society at the February 2019 meeting was entertained by another excellent and knowledgeable speaker Jim Almond. He talked about ‘The Patch’, the Shropshire garden owned by the late Margaret Owen. She held four national collections for Plant Heritage and had a collection of over 800 types of snowdrops. She featured at RHS shows and opened her garden to the public collecting more than £6000 in one day from her plant sale. Jim worked with Margaret for many years and knew the plants in her garden well. He showed images of 15 snowdrops including Galanthus ‘Sally Wickenden’ her first named snowdrop, G. ’Michael Holcroft’ an upright one and the vigorous G. ’Godfrey Owen’ named after her husband. Bulbs need to be planted deeply and dead headed if you wish to avoid rogues!

Other good plants mentioned were Corydalis solida 'G.P. Baker’ with red blooms, Bergenia ‘Apple Blossom’ and the miniature B. ‘Godfrey Owen’. Recommended were Primula ‘Gigha’, Narcissus' 'Gypsy Queen' and the early N. ‘Dawn Chorus’. The Narcissus ‘Mitzy’ with white spiky decorative flowers was a good one to use in a dark corner to lighten it up. As the season progressed Fritillarias and Trilliums came to the fore, followed by Iris (another plant named ‘Godfrey Owen’), Deutzia x hybrid ‘Strawberry Fields’. Then it was the turn of the Camassias, of which she held a national collection where there were rare ones, again named after Godfrey Owen and another C. scilloides. Jim told us that the secret of growing Dictamus is to make sure that the plant never dries out!!! Clematis texensis ‘Etoile Rose’ and C. scottii were garden worthy plants.

Later lilies came into their own with L. martagon album and L. Rosthornii flowering into October. Prevalent then were Colchicums, the Fuschia ‘Lady Bacon’, Nerine bowedenii ‘Quinton Wells’ and 'John Crisp'. At the end of her life Margaret shared all her collections with fellow horticulturists of which Jim was one.