| The
nursery is
the hub of our business operation and consists of 3 elements:
1. The Collection
New varieties are added to the Collection every year but the decision
as to which varieties to add is always a difficult one as there
are so many we would like. Newly introduced cultivars can fetch
exorbitant prices and some new introductions prove to be so difficult
to grow they may never become commercially available.
Collection plants are grown on until ready for splitting - this
can take a number of years for some slow-growing varieties. Occasionally
some varieties do not survive and we usually try again, if we can
obtain another plant, but this isn't always possible or desirable
as some plants will only ever be collector's pieces.
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Our aim is to sell strong
plants that are showing signs of their expected growth characteristics,
and that we are confident will do well for our customers.
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2. Sales plants
When we are confident that a variety is doing well in our collection
we begin to propagate the plant through root division. Using this
method means it can take a number of years for us to propagate sufficient
plants to offer them for sale generally, as we only start with a
single plant of a new variety.
Although we prefer to propagate sales plants through root division
we cannot always satisfy demand through this method, especially
for some of the newly introduced cultivars coming out of Europe.
As a consequence we source some of our stock from tissue culture
and bring these plants on at the nursery before we sell them. This
allows us to ensure all varieties are exhibiting their correct characteristics
by the time we offer them for sale.
Occasionally we are asked for a specific variety and, if we cannot
initially supply it, we add the customer's name to a waiting list
and let them know when we have stock available. It is always worth
speaking to us if there is a specific variety you are interested
in as we are more than happy to try to accommodate requests.
3. Exhibition Garden
A new feature under development is a 1 hectare garden which is currently
being prepared and landscaped prior to planting with split Collection
hostas.
Our year is divided into two main seasons:
1. April to September: marketing season
when the plants are suitable for sale
This is our busiest time of year when we take
our plants on the road for display and sale. This is where we meet
the majority of our existing customers and seek to attract new customers,
many who have yet to experience the pleasures of hosta growing.
The show season is an intensive period of hard work to bring our
customers the best quality plants possible and to exhibit as many
different specimens from our collection as space allows. We try
to tailor our exhibit to the plants we have for sale whilst at the
same time introducing new varieties and reminding visitors of old
favourites.
Throughout the show season we also need to do a considerable amount
of nursery work alongside opening the nursery to visitors. This
is why we only open Thursday through to Saturday (as shows allow).
However, we are happy for you to visit outside of these times by
prior arrangement.
2. October to March: preparing for the marketing
season
This is when we need to do as much preparation
work as possible to maximise the opportunities the marketing season
presents. This work includes essential nursery and vehicle maintenance,
new building projects, stock building through splitting, care of
the emerging plants, pest treatment, stock control, accounting,
website updates, brochure creation, and a wide range of other activities.
We also like to squeeze in some vacation time,
usually tied into HEA seminars and other horticultural meetings
around the country to keep up to date with developments.
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Plants do not always grow as expected. One
of the biggest issues we face is balancing registered characteristics
with those we experience as plant growers. Doing this enables
us to better advise our customers on what to expect.
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Not only do we need to physically
care for our collection plants we also need to maintain our
knowledge base. Last winter we spent a good deal of time cataloguing
the collection, which involved classification according to registration
data and parentage information, among other aspects. This has
helped us considerably in the day-to-day running of the business
as an initial reference point. The more we know, the more we
find we need to know! |
Supporting our business is our website, which was created in 2001
to share our fascination about hostas and to provide new and existing
customers with more information about the genus.
The site is deliberately simple to navigate, and doesn't use frames
or elaborate effects, to cater for those of us not blessed with fast
broadband connections, or the time to spend learning where everything
is.
Perhaps the most eye-catching element of the website is the leaf library,
which came about as a way for customers to identify cultivars they
may already have, as well as to see what they might like to add to
their collection. This library also acts as a virtual herbarium for
our NCCPG Collection.
Creating the leaf images is quite a long process, involving colour
adjustments to ensure the image you see on your screen is as true
to the colour of the actual leaf as possible. The resulting images
are as detailed as possible, without overloading the site, and we
hope the supporting Hosta Library links provide just the right amount
of information needed to make hosta identification easier.
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