by James Alexander-Sinclair
I got a very lovely surprise in the post this week. Not chocolate, [...] not riches beyond compare, [...] but lots of small packets of seed.
I got a very lovely surprise in the post this week. Not chocolate (I'm pretty sure that we've all had quite enough of that for the moment), not riches beyond compare (they must have got lost in transit somewhere), but lots of small packets of seed.
The story behind their arrival is as follows: a month or two ago I went to lecture at the excellent Garden Museum in London given by a clever and entertaining fellow called Professor James Hitchmough. James works at the University of Sheffield and, in brief, his speciality is perennial meadows. He studies plant groupings from around the world and then recreates them for use in urban parks and landscapes. One of the pictures he showed made a great impression on me: it was of a recreation of a Tibetan yak pasture crowded with primulas at the RHS Garden, Harlow Carr in Yorkshire.
I have a client who owns a very wet and scraggy field, which we have christened the 'manky field', in contrast with the neighbouring pasture, which is known as the 'not-so-manky field'. I started wondering whether we could transform with 'pasture'-style planting. Fast forward to a couple of weeks ago when I was giving a lecture in Edinburgh (about which I wrote last week). While there I met a charming nurserywoman called Stella Rankin of Kevock Garden Plants. We talked about primulas, and as a result she has sent me a fine selection of seeds with the promise of more to come in the autumn. So in the next few weeks I will plant some and see how things turn out. According to the Professor early summer is a good moment to start.
For those of you who like lists, the varieties of primula include Primula sikkimensis, P. secundiflora, P. chungensis, P. beesiana, P. bulleyana and P. florindae.
Hopefully I will be able to report progress with my primula 'pasture' at this time next year.
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