Tuesday 7 May 2013

Tough plants from Yorkshire


Plants bought this weekend: 24.  (This included a tray of 12 annuals so it's not as bad as it sounds)


This Saturday, I visited Dark Star Plants in North Yorkshire during a visit to my parents.  I was prompted to visit by an article in The English Garden Magazine (yes, still buying magazines) which described the nursery as specialising in plants in dark, dramatic colours and raised to be hardy in the cold climate of Yorkshire.

Dark Star Plants have created their nursery within the old walled garden of Rounton Grange, home of the Bell family who were wealthy 19th century industrialists.  The  Grange itself has been demolished but the extensive walls of the garden remain, replete with the 100 year old vine-eyes still in place.   Overcast weather darkened my initial impressions, however glimpses of sun reflected a glow from the red brick onto purple-black violas and the burgundy foliage of heucheras casting a spell of warmth over the place.  The plant range is extensive, laid out in neat rows: the darkest, most velvety irises, aquilegia 'Barlow Black' and astrantias in all ranges of claret.  It was a relief to browse a real nursery with plants in the state that they should be at this time of year.  Nothing had been forced into flower in a Dutch hot-house with the aim of making a quick sale.  It seems like a long time since I had visited this kind of place and I found it a haven of peace, even though I worried for the owners with the lack of crowds queuing up to buy candles and thermal socks or whatever else garden centres are flogging these days.


The walled garden.  That's my dad in the flat cap on the right.

The nurseryman was a true northerner, slow and thoughtful in his words, greying hair spilling out underneath a countryman's hat.  Once warmed up, he idled for twenty minutes telling us the history behind the garden.  The daughter of the Bell family, Gertrude (described by various sources as a traveller, politician, writer, archaeologist and spy), loved the garden and its staff, writing of the very walls in her books and sending seeds back home from where she eventually settled in Baghdad.  None of the original plants remain now but the new owners have recreated a working garden as well as a nursery, cultivating cut flowers as well as fruit and vegetables which they sell to the farm shop next door.


Typical dark and cloudy Yorkshire weather guaranteed to blow cobwebs away.

It seemed like the idyllic life to a plantaholic like me, tending the nursery within the shelter of the walls, the moors just a nod away on the horizon.  The reality is probably harder: pressure to compete against large commercial outfits and the gardener's perennial affliction of back problems.  Still, it was a treat to browse an unusual collection of plants that cannot be found elsewhere.  If you like your plants hardy and true to life and don't need photoshopped pictures or flowers forced out under UV lamps, plus a bit of history thrown in then it is well worth a visit.

PS My dad pronounced the range of plants 'impressive' - not praise that is given away in a lighthearted manner.

12 comments:

  1. Sounds like it was a good trip. I read the same article and had been intending to go and have a look at some point. Glad to hear that it should be worth it!

    On a similar vein, I don't know whether you've read the article in this months EG about Pan-Global plants? They're based in the next village over from where my dad lives in Gloucestershire, are also in a walled garden, and have some fantastic stuff. It's a small show garden as well as a nursery and well worth a visit if you're in the area.

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  2. Hi Rob, had to go and pull out my copy of the EG to find the article on Pan-Global. Looks fantastic on their website. The planting is a bit more mature than at Dark Star. I don't think the EG really did Pan-Global justice as they could have done with some photos of the nursery and plants in the magazine. The owner looks like similar to the one at Dark Star, funnily enough. I don't get to Gloucester often unfortunately otherwise I would visit.

    Dark Star are actually quite reasonably priced as well - I think it was £25 for 6 perennials whereas everything seemed to be £7.99 as a minimum at Strikes.

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  3. What a great space, Claire. I'd much rather go to a walled garden to buy plants than to Homebase! Sounds like you were very restrained in your purchases to me!

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    1. Unfortunately I have trouble resisting Homebase as well, mainly because it's convenient. I've been recommended a few particular places up at Crews Hill by some professionals: Clockhouse for perennials, Glebe and also Thompsons for manure.

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  4. Hello Claire, I much prefer to visit a nursery such as this compared to these massive garden centres where they sell everything but the kitchen sink. .

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    1. Absolutely Alasdair, it's really nice to feel that the owners are actually interested in the plants rather than just flogging them along with a few spanners.

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  5. Sounds like you had a great trip Claire, and I agree, nothing like a proper nursery, Homebase and B&Q are bleak comparisons. I really miss going to nurseries, although I ‘visit’ nurseries online practically every week it is not the same. But what exactly did you buy? Or is that to be revealed in your next post? Anything unusual?

    I had plans for doing some re-potting today but the cold, windy weather was too much for me, after three attempts to go out between the showers I finally gave up. Didn’t get anything done except filling up the bird feeders. And it is going to rain tomorrow afternoon too.

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    1. Hi Helene, my final purchases were: 3 x astrantia Gill Richardson (which I had been searching for for about a year) and 3 aquilegia Black Barlow. The rest were a tray of annuals at a more commercial nursery.

      I'm in Rouen on a French course this week actually. The weather is much the same as the UK unfortunately. I did however make a pilgrimage to Giverny yesterday and hope to put this up on the blog in the next few days.

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  6. Hi Claire, if it's been grown in Yorkshire then it's probably indestructible in all other climates. It looks as though you caught the weather on a good day too!

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  7. Hi Sunil, hope they are indestructible like you say but not so tough that they mock the rest of my plants for having soft leaves or something similar!

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  8. It looks like an excellent place. Some plants are so babied in greenhouses, that they die as soon as they're planted in a real garden. This looks a nursery for real gardeners. :o)

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    1. Absolutely. So far they are shooting up but so is everything else, let's see how they make it through the winter.

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