Have you entered the Members' Photographic Competition? There's still time; closing date 6th December. Click here for details.
A registered charity promoting hardy herbaceous plants, we grow and study these plants in our own gardens, and try to keep rarer varieties in cultivation. We share our knowledge and love of these plants with other gardeners whether they're experts, beginners or somewhere in between.
 Have you got your members' newsletter yet? It was sent out on 18 November and includes our president Roy Lancaster’s lockdown, our first competition with £250 worth of prizes, how four nurseries coped during the pandemic and profiles of many people, for example our blogger Nadine Mitschunas. Your seed list is there too. If you haven't got these yet, you can find them on this website. |
 Recently published… the new HPS booklet, Border Phlox, is here. Phlox have been popular garden plants for over 250 years and are starting to flower now, from July through to September. Phlox add colour and perfume to summer borders and this book is packed with information to help you grow them, as well as descriptions and colour photos of many cultivars. |
This autumn I’m discovering a new Conservation Scheme plant – not one that is new to the scheme, but new to me. It has actually been in the scheme since 2010, introduced from the Hertfordshire group.
I started the three articles on gardening in lockdown showing you the shoots of Echinops ritro ‘Veitch’s Blue’ just coming through in the first week of lockdown, so I shall finish by showing you it in beautiful flower on 23 July as we were coming to terms with “the new normal”
Seed heads are dominating on the allotment now, but there is still colour from late flowering perennials such as the many asters, Rudbeckia laciniata and Coreopsis ‘Full Moon’. Looking good at the moment are the seed heads of Monarda fistulosa which last for a very long time.
A star plant from the last day of May – the beautifully scented honeysuckle, Lonicera periclymenum ‘High Scentsation’. This honeysuckle was stunning this year, huge flowers and the scent hung on the still, super-heated air for metres in all directions for several weeks
