Welcome to March and – hopefully – the start of Spring! Lots to tell you about what’s happening across the Hardy Plant Society this month so do check out the video below of the transcript, then read this email for lots more news and information. Managed to film this month’s video in the sunshine for once and while filming I was treated to the uplifting sight of my first bumblebee of the year. A sure sign that spring is stirring.
Towards the end of the month — or very early in April — you should receive the next issue of the Journal. It’s looking splendid, with some terrific features. Our new editor, Drew Swainston, is keen to welcome fresh voices, so if you have a plant passion, a garden story, or a nursery you’d like to review, I’d encourage you to get in touch with him at editor@hardy-plant.org.uk.
Let’s trust that spring is properly on its way now and that winter is finally on the way out, although I won’t be putting my winter coat away any time soon!
Steve Bustin, Chair HPS
If you prefer to read Steve’s message in the video, the transcript can be downloaded here.
Bursary Report
Every recipient of a bursary from the Kenneth Black Bursary Scheme is asked to submit a written or video report afterwards outlining how they’ve used the money to forward their horticultural knowledge.
Here’s an exciting report from a trip to the Sichuan region of China to explore the flora and fauna. To view the video, simply click on the image below and you’ll automatically be taken to YouTube to watch the film.
Advice: Rabbits!
As you will know, we have a team of horticultural experts ready to answer any plant or garden related question you may have – a service that is included in your membership. All the questions and answers can be found on the website and here are a couple of recent questions – click on the green button to visit the website to read the answer.
Q: I moved here in September and all seemed fine even if plant selection in borders unimaginative. Now I know why. Rabbits visiting the garden regularly as soon as I go into the house. I have fenced small veg patch but can’t fence whole garden which is rural. What smells or plants will deter them or stand a chance against the nibbling?
Q: In mid December we moved a 40 year old topiary Yew Tree to a better place in the garden as we are having building work done and the builders could help move it.
I made sure to keep as many of the big stabilising roots and as many of the fibrous feeding roots as possible. Digging out went easier than I expected and the moves seems to have gone OK.
I have kept it watered even though it has rained for weeks! I think it will not start into growth until around April/May, but I wonder if there is anything else I could be doing to ensure it survives? Feeding perhaps? if so what with? Thanks!
Help Needed
We are looking for volunteers to help with a number of roles including:
- Social media
- Shows & Events
- Photo Librarian
- Trustees
Social Media: Marina Lindl has done a great job of promoting the society and our groups online, but now has to focus on other commitments. If you are confident with Facebook and Instagram and feel able to make posts to engage the public then please get in touch.
Shows and events: We’d love someone (or more than one person) to help represent the national society at shows and plant sales around the country. If that sounds like your sort of thing please get in touch.
Photo librarian: The HPS has an extensive library of plant photos built up over many years and we’re looking for a volunteer to manage this: adding new images, ensuring correct naming, ensuring access for members and non-members, running our annual photo competition.
Trustees: We are looking for two or three new Trustees to join the Board. The Board shapes the future of the HPS and ensures the organisation meets all its regulatory, charitable and financial obligations. Board meetings are held on Zoom every other month and most Trustees take on other roles or specific projects between meetings.
It’s a great way to help shape the Hardy Plant Society and to ensure it is delivering value for members, groups and the gardening community. If you’d like to know more, please drop our Chair, Steve Bustin, an email on chair@hardy-plant.org.uk to set up a chat.
70th Anniversary Celebration
Next year we’ll be celebrating 70 years of the Hardy Plant Society. Thank you to all those individual members and groups who have submitted ideas on how everyone can get involved with those celebrations.
We’re now establishing a small working group to sift all those ideas, decide which we have the capacity and finances to deliver and then to set those ideas in motion. If you’d like to get involved to help us celebrate 70 glorious years, please email our Vice-Chair, Nicholas Hales, on vicechair@hardy-plant.org.uk.
New on the website
If you haven’t already please take a look at a new articles from our contributors:
Skimmia
This week I’ve been collecting Skimmia berries at the Lakeside, extracting the flesh from the seed as seen. I’ve planted the seeds into seed modules in a very gritty hort grit mix/ seed compost for stratification in a cold frame. Plants should germinate in spring to prick out into 7/9cm pots of ericaceous compost.
On a Chalk Hillside – February 2026
In an inclement and dark winter month it’s a delight to look at the colourful photos I have taken over the years of “Long Borders;” all visited in the brighter light of summer or early autumn as the light levels here currently are very low indeed. Here are a few. A traditional early summer herbaceous border at Hindringham Hall Norfolk:
Mahonia
Mahonia species commonly known as the Oregon Grape are RHS listed as a shrub for UK wildlife. That’s my focus for the HPS, the environment and nature linking with the plants.
Continuing from the interesting article (James Miller): autumn journal, Shrubs Revisited, and my Skimmia blog, let’s move onto Mahonia, of which comprises 70 species largely form North/ Central USA, Eastern Asia.
Philadelphia – Garden State of America
Longwood Gardens spans 200 acres of meadows and formal gardens, but is best known for its ever-changing Conservatory displays. Its Chrysanthemum Festival, running since 1981, features hundreds of cultivars trained into striking forms such as baskets, columns, arches and spirals.
Japan: A Journey of a Thousand Miles starts with a single step
Running from Saturday 25th October – Friday 7th November 2025; the authors of this report, Ella Anderson-King, Kate Nannery & Nadya Pearson, undertook a bursary trip to Kyoto, Japan to explore the edible, ornamental and production aspects of Japanese horticulture.
In our 11 day trip we visited more than 50 gardens giving us a real crash course in everything from plant collections to garden design to food growing, in part because the application to our own work was so wide but also to take in as much as possible from this incredible opportunity.
Tromsø Arctic-Alpine Botanical Garden and the wild flora of Oldervik and Fløya
The Hardy Plant Society’s Kenneth Black Bursary Scheme generously supported my visit to the Tromsø Arctic-Alpine Botanical Garden in June 2025. I spent three days working and learning specialist techniques at the Botanical Garden, and two days exploring wild flora on the neighbouring mountain, Fløya; and at an area of special geological and botanical interest near the small fishing village, Oldervik.
Certificate in Plantsmanship
From September to December 2025, I attended the inaugural ‘Certificate in Plantsmanship’ at the London College of Garden Design (LCGD).
Based at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, this part-time ten-weeks program allowed me to deepen my botanical expertise under the guidance of industry-leading tutors.
Botanical Trip to the Himalayas, The Majestic Mountains, Nepal
Squeezed between the Tibetan plateau and the plains of the subcontinent – the modern day giants of China and India – Nepal has long prospered from its location, as a resting place for traders, travellers and pilgrims.
An ethnic melting pot, it has bridged cultures and absorbed elements of its neighbours, yet retained a unique character. Nepal’s topography is remarkably diverse from lowland regions of Terai to hilly mountain
region in the middle and Himalayan region in the north featuring the high mountain ranges and world’s 8 highest peaks.
The 11th International Oak Society Conference
Since 1992, the International Oak Society has been holding a conference on the genus Quercus on a 3-year cycle. Welcoming horticulturists, arborists, researchers, conservationists, environmentalists and general enthusiasts, the conference gives attendees the opportunity to meet, give talks, share knowledge and share passion.
The choice of Oaxaca, Mexico as the host for the 2025 conference was
by no means a fluke. There are approximately 430 recognised species within the genus Quercus, around 170 of which grow in Mexico, 109 of which being endemic.
Nothofagus forests of Chile and their conservation and restoration
Nothofagus is a taxonomically small (37 extant species) but ecologically important genus of trees, with a disjunct distribution across the Southern Hemisphere indicative of its Gondwanaland origins.
Today, Chile is the centre of diversity for temperate Nothofagus, with eight species inhabiting a broad range of forest types in the subantarctic and temperate zones, commonly occurring as the dominant species.
That said, three of the Chilean species have a particularly restricted distribution and extant populations are relatively small and fragmented.
Two Weeks in Sweden with Peter Korn
Although aware of the work and practice of Peter Korn for a number of years prior, it was during a KMIS lecture given by Peter during the winter of 2023 on ‘High Diversity Plantings’ where we first had the opportunity to hear him talk in person.
After the lecture we were also able to briefly discuss with Peter the best locations to visit the natural plant communities in the wild which are so intrinsic to the manner in which he approaches his practice, a conversation which in turn, led to an inspiring trip to Turkey’s Pontic Alps region earlier in the summer.
Attending a Garden Masterclass Planting Design Course at The Plant Library, Serge Hill
Over three separate days this summer 2025, I attended a planting design course in collaboration with The Serge Hill Project. This course was run by Garden Masterclass, taught in person by Annie Guilfoyle as well as extra tuition from Noel Kingsbury via zoom.
We spent time in Tom Stuart-Smith’s “Plant Library” (>1500 perennials and bulbs planted in a grid formation, which is a physical reference library for on-site designers and visiting practitioners). Other staff in the design studio also gave time for lectures and gave detailed garden tours.
We always want to hear from anyone who can write about plants and gardening. If you have something you’d like to see published, please get in touch.
Events at Local and Special Interest Groups
Below is a listing of Local & Special Interest Group Events around the Country. Most are open to guests for a fee. For more details click the link below and check with the organisers of the specific event for more details including the venue location.
- Mon 2nd Mar at 19:30 Cheshire and Friends group: How we Created a Garden – Norley Bank Farm
- Tue 3rd Mar at 19:30 South Pennine group: The Unbelievable Umbels AKA The Awesome Apiaceae. (Andrew Ward)
- Thu 5th Mar at 19:30 East Yorkshire group: Spring Cottage- Gardening with Best Beloved – Val Bourne HPS President
- Sat 7th Mar at 14:00 Hertfordshire group: Growing Perennials and Woody Plants for Cutting – Rachel Siegfreid
- Sat 7th Mar at 14:00 Northamptonshire group: Spring Fever – Janette Merillion
- Sat 7th Mar at 14:00 Cambridgeshire and Bedfordshire group: Plants from the Edge of the World – Tony Kirkham
- Sat 7th Mar at 14:30 Devon group: Hostas – A Shady Character for your Garden – Mike Arthurs
- Sat 7th Mar at 14:30 Shropshire group: Developing the World Garden at Lullingstone Castle – Tom Hart Dyke
- Sun 8th Mar at 14:00 Essex group: What Makes a Good Garden – Ed Flint
- Mon 9th Mar at 19:30 Cumbria group: AGM & Designing Gardens for all Generations – Tom Hinson
- Tue 10th Mar at 19:15 Berkshire group: AGM followed by A Labour of Love – 55 Years at Pottertons Nursery – Rob Potterton
- Tue 10th Mar at 19:30 Rutland group: New, Rare and Unusual Perennials – Tim Fuller
- Fri 13th Mar at 19:15 Nottingham group: AGM followed by The Cutting Garden – Martin Fish
- Fri 13th Mar at 19:30 West Yorkshire group: Wildlife Gardening- Will Tomson
- Sat 14th Mar at 11:00 Somerset group: Life with a Nursery and What Comes Next – Chris Ireland-Jones (formerly Avon Bulbs)
- Sat 14th Mar at 14:00 Worcestershire group: An Armchair Walk Through the Gardens of Blenheim – Andrew Mills
- Sat 14th Mar at 14:00 Herefordshire and Mid Wales group: The Magnolias of Hergest Croft – Rowan Griffiths
- Mon 16th Mar at 19:30 North West group: Through the Eyes of David Attenborough’s Gardener – Alan Hulme
- Fri 20th Mar at 19:30 Staffordshire group: Fronds, Fernlets & Fancies – Marian Goody
- Sat 21st Mar at 10:00 Southern Counties group: AGM followed by A Blessing in Disguise – Lynne Moore
- Sat 21st Mar at 14:00 South Wales group: AGM followed by Geums – Robin Pearce
- Tue 24th Mar at 19:30 Clwyd group: On the Shady Side – Jill Cawthray
- Sat 28th Mar at 10:00 Somerset group: Early Spring Plant Fair
- Sat 28th Mar at 13:45 Western Counties group: My Fascination with Alpines and The Arley Arboretum Project – Gail Devries
- Sat 28th Mar at 14:15 Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire group: Variegated Foliage – Kerrie Lloyd-Dawson
- Sun 29th Mar at 14:00 Sussex group: Frondy Friends – Helen Picton
- Sun 29th Mar at 14:30 Kent group: Herbaceous Clematis – Everett Leeds
Join the Hardy Plant Society
Help us spread the benefits of plants and gardening. Our members tell us they feel relaxation, happiness, satisfaction, calmness and love from plants and gardening. We want to see these benefits reach everyone, and at the same time improve our environment.
Since 1957 we’ve been promoting plants and helping our members adapt to changes in our environment. Entirely member funded, we run a network of local groups around the country and are always looking to start more.
All memberships provide many benefits including
- The option to join any of our local or special interests groups
- Three copies of The Hardy Plant (in full colour, by post)
- Immediate access to the members area of our website with access to all our news and articles
- Free plant advice through our advisory service
- Participation in the Conservation scheme
- Participation in the Seed Distribution Scheme
- The option to subscribe to Cornucopia for an additional fee
Thank you for reading!
