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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.
Online TalksSome HPS groups are happy to welcome others to their online talks. If you might like to attend one, you can find a list in the members area. Please use the link on that list to contact the group directly for more details. |
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. |
Because the Golden Hop (Humulus lupulus 'Aureus') is so rampant, I planted shade-loving winter plants directly beside it - a dusky pink Helleborus orientalis seedling and a Harts Tongue Fern (Asplenium scolopendrium)
Anemone blanda opens its pretty flowers in the sunshine and has spread in several areas now. I have to be careful where I walk as it seems to favour the edges of the paths. I have left some patches of lesser celandine (Ficaria verna) in the raspberry bed and adjacent areas as I like the bright yellow flowers ...
My latest Lockdown Project is to re-vamp an old bed on my allotment. This was almost the first section I worked and planted up when I took on the plot. It was meant to be an herbaceous bed in a sea of vegetables. It’s where I planted out my first Conservation Scheme plants
I planted the Irish primrose Primula vulgaris ‘Carrigdale’ in my border – it flowers for a lot of the year – last year one of the clumps in a pot was in flower by the end of January though the clumps in the border waited a few weeks to flower
I've mainly seen large buff-tailed bumblebee queens (Bombus terrestris), making a bee-line for my crocus flowers. Once woken up by warm temperatures the queens have to find nectar quickly or they will starve. It was also warm enough for honeybees ...
A plant name mystery has been discovered in the Conservation Scheme database. In January Cathy Rollinson posted on the Conservation Scheme Facebook page that the plant we list as Persicaria runcinata Needham’s form is probably really Persicaria sinuata. She found this after reading the description on the website of Growild Nursery, which now lists it as Persicaria sinuata EN. So which is it?
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