Established 1976
- How to find us
- History
- Pre-hostas
- October 1987
- 1992: abandoning market gardening
- 1999: poisonous soil and brilliant friends
- 2006:
the team grows
The team: for a brief overview of the 'Hosta Team' read the June 2007 issue of our newsletter. - 2007: NCCPG
Pre-hostas
We haven't always grown hostas for a living - we used to be market gardeners
with a bit of a growing obsession with collecting hostas.
A key event in our lives was the 1987 'Great Storm' that hit the south-east
region of the UK in 1987. The following section revisits the damage caused
to our newly erected polytunnels and shows in detail just how damaging
our 'temperate' climate can occasionally be.
October
16th 1987
As morning came we could see the wind tearing at the polythene on the
tunnels - it still was not safe to walk around outside due to flying debris,
so these were a couple of hastily taken shots from the shelter of the
bungalow...
... by mid morning the wind had died down and there was considerably less debris flying around. The sights were something to behold, we couldn't imagine the forces that had buckled the tunnel frameworks and displaced the steel legs that had been concreted into the ground:
A subsequent assessment of the damage revealed that the wind had blown directly as a broadside into the southern-most tunnel. The wind had then funneled over the top of that tunnel and slammed into the next one with such force it was equivalent to that required to lift a jumbo jet. You can see the direction in which the framwork has been forced - goodness knows where the polythene disappeared to!
You can even see some of our hosta collection (as it was then) still in the ground with their labels!
This damage
lead to the eventual building of a huge collection tunnel that runs the
length, and along the back of, the three polythene tunnels. Clad in netting,
the collection tunnel is designed to act as a wind break whilst providing
as close to a natural canopy as possible with man-made materials. Bringing
our collection plants on in this tunnel means they will exhibit their
characteristics as naturally as possible whilst being under cover.
Finished in 2005, the collection tunnel has had subsequent re-fits of benching to accommodate our rapidly growing collection. Every year we wonder how we will reorganise to fit in more varieties but we always seem to manage it!
1992:
abandoning market gardening
Despite the damage caused by the storm in 1987 we managed to pull ourselves
up and continued growing specialist fruit and vegetables for the market.
We supplied a number of local grocers but most of our produce went into
Covent Garden Market every week. The late 1980s was witnessing the start
of supermarket dominance in the food market and everyone was feeling the
pressure to cut margins. As a small, independent grower we were feeling
the pinch. In 1992 our wholesaler at Covent Garden went into liquidation
owing us a significant amount of money for goods already supplied. This
was the second time it had happened and so we cut our losses with the
Market Garden and decided to build the hosta business from what had largely
been a hobby. In 1992 we set up selling our limited stock of hostas through
mail order.
1999:
poisonous soil and brilliant friends
In 1999 we bought in growing medium from our local supplier to do all
our sales stock and pot on around £10,000.00 worth of new varieties
we had imported from America. Within weeks it was obvious that there was
something wrong with the growing medium as it seemed to be poisoning everything
we potted with it. In fact, extensive laboratory tests concluded that
the growing medium was indeed poisonous to plants and this
was start of a four year battle for compensation that severely affected
the time we could spend running the business. Although we were in the
right, we only broke even due to protracted legal wrangling and could
so easily have gone under.
Fortunately we managed to secure sufficient supplies of sales stock to
fulfill our show obligations otherwise the business would have folded.
We have our dutch friend, Marco Fransen, to thank for helping us to continue
trading and fulfil our show commitments for that year.
Marco runs a family-based hosta growing business in Holland, which you
can visit in person or virtually via his website - Fransen
Hostas. Marco and his wife, Joyce, have been responsible for introducing
the 'Paradise' series of hostas to the world. It is lovely to be able
to trade with a very like-minded couple who are as family orientated as
we are.
2006:
the team grows
Melanie decided to join the family business and become a partner in 2006.
Although she already supported the business through the creation and publication
of the annual plant brochure and website, she had also worked with us
around the nursery and at occasional shows. Melanie brings with her an
enthusiasm for the business that we would struggle to find outside of
the family. In addition, Melanie's husband, David, often helps out around
the nursery. In 2006 we all went up to Edinburgh to do the Gardening Scotland
Show and, as it was half term, our grandson Andrew came too. It was great
to have three generations on the road.
2007:
NCCPG
In March 2007 our collection was designated an NCCPG National Collection
- see here for more details. This was a fabulous
recognition for what we have already achieved and underlines that we are
here to stay and grow our collection for many years to come.
Return soon for more updates.