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
Finally, a few individual
Finally, a few individual shots, including Helleborus thibetanus.
cheers
fermi
WOW, that's quite an
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.
It's interesting to see pot
It's interesting to see pot saucers used. Obviously, there would be a water conservation advantage.
Were there any significant disadvantages noted?
Fermi, could you buy plants?
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.
RickR wrote:
[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
That's what I would love to
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
Here are more of the Stock Plants from which they do their breeding.