Hellebores

Submitted by Fermi on Mon, 08/19/2013 - 23:37

Last Sunday we went to an Open Day at a nearby wholesale Hellebore Nursery, Post Office Farm, run by a friend, Peter Leigh.

Peter took a group on a tour of the nursery and we got to see "behind the scenes" of a very well run operation. Here are some pics

cheers

fermi

Comments


Submitted by Fermi on Mon, 08/19/2013 - 23:42

Here are more of the Stock Plants from which they do their breeding.


WOW, that's quite an operation. I would love to have any one of those Hellebores shown in the 2nd photo, the Display Bed, but that dark black-purple one is out of this world. Thanks for showing these.


Submitted by RickR on Tue, 08/20/2013 - 08:24

It's interesting to see pot saucers used. Obviously, there would be a water conservation advantage.

 

  Were there any significant disadvantages noted?


Submitted by Hoy on Tue, 08/20/2013 - 12:11

Fermi, could you buy plants? (I would have had problem choosing.) What does one plant cost down there? Here hellebores are expensive plants and the varieties offered are few.


[quote=RickR]

It's interesting to see pot saucers used. Obviously, there would be a water conservation advantage.

 Were there any significant disadvantages noted?

[/quote]

Hi Rick,

these plants were growing under clear "plastic" (?polycarbonate?) roofing so watering would've been strictly controlled. Everything looked pretty healthy so I can't say that there were any disadvantages.

Hi Trond,

Of course there were plants for sale! Tubestock between $6 and $15; 25cm pots from around $30 - bigger pots were around $50 I think.

We only buy tubes usually as they are easier to establish in our soil.

I had an e-mail from someone who is making the trip down from Canberra with his wife and another friend to Post Office Farm and several others - doing what we call a "nursery crawl" - I hope they have enough room in the car to get all the plants and the 3 of them back home! My partner and I did one in 2002 when we went to Tasmania and there was literally no place for even one more plant by the time we got back onto the ferry - we stopped 3 times just between the last hotel and the ferry terminus!

cheers

fermi


Submitted by Hoy on Wed, 08/21/2013 - 13:57

In reply to by Fermi

That's what I would love to do! I mean, take my car, go abroad (to UK by ferry for instance) fill it with plants and go back home. But alas! As Norway isn't a member of EU I can't do that, I would be in trouble at the customs!

I do the next best, visit nurseries at home like this one: http://www.odegard-plantesalg.no/default.aspx?mod=4&m1=15