Well what an eventful few months it has been. With a global pandemic and the shutting down of most of the world, it will certainly be a time we shall never forget. We had the devastating news in March that a lot of our flower shows have been cancelled and subsequently the rest of the show season has been cancelled in dribs and drabs. This initially was a huge shock and a blow to our business that we have poured our blood, sweat and tears into over the last 35 years. However we were determined to dig deep and pull out some of the good old English gritty mentality of ‘keep calm and carry on’. With an army of Agapanthus, Clivia and an array of other plants to water, feed and care for, we had little opportunity to take to the shelter of our house and ride the pandemic out on the sofa.
We were fortunate to already have an established website and have been offering mail order for many years. This has been the sole life line to keeping our business going and we would like to thank all our lovely customers for the support in some of our darkest days. We also were fortunate to have a mention in the Sunday Telegraph and shout outs online. This in no way could replace the flower shows but has kept us plodding along and fingers cross for a mild winter and a booming 2021 flower show season.
We were contacted by the BBC in April to stage 2 displays in the nursery of Agapanthus, Nerines and Clivia. These were similar to what we would have done at RHS Chelsea this year and were filmed by a small (socially distancing) team. The footage was aired on BBC 2 during the coverage of the show. We were very happy with the response we got and managed to show 2 new cultivars we have, Tulbaghia ‘Hoyland Pink Beauty’ and Clivia ‘Pixie Green’.
Our aims now is to prepare for next years shows by propagating, dividing and potting up stock. An unexpected positive from all of this is that we have been given the gift of time. Time to weed that tunnel that we never quite have time to do. Time to admire and watch our plants bloom and grow. And finally time to reflect on what is important in life and how much joy plants bring to mine,
Thank you for reading Steve