AUTUMN SUPPLEMENT 2014

 

 

Autumn Reflections
We wake up to a changed world in Scotland ...... but reassuringly gardens will continue to grow.

 

The warm dry autumn means that colours and displays are wonderful. Nerine and Colchicums and Schizostylis are providing vivid colour; Rudbeckia, grasses  and Kniphofia are giving form and interest and everywhere the autumn colours are coming in slow and steady.

 

We have a really good selection of plants to offer…some we have not had for years like Romneya and others such as the old Primroses and Auriculas looking great for the spring. 

 

Time to plant, the ground is still warm and for sure it will rain soon. Time to plan for the spring and plant some of our very good value groups and time to snap up some plants that we only occasionally can offer,  before they are sold out.

 

Happy trails. I will add autumn blogs as we go. It is a wonderful season. Right now, life goes on and I have to skin and freeze a sea of tomatoes.

 

Margaret

 

Click here to go to the Abriachan Nurseries website page to see the Autumn Supplement Online

 

Click here to download a pdf copy of the Autumn Supplement

 

       

      

Match your friends to an auricula name.

When giving a plant as a gift to a friend, I have always enjoyed trying to match up the name of the plant to the recipient.
I thought I would put together a selection of ideas for Primula Auricula which have some wonderfully varied and inventive descriptive names. 

FOR YOUR FRIEND WHO LOVES ALL CREATURES GREAT AND SMALL:
Bookham Firefly, Chaffinch, Cuckoo Fayre, Eden Goldfinch, Eden Greenfinch, Greenpeace, Green Parrot, Hetty Wolf, Kingfisher, Laverock Fancy (A Laverock is a Lark), Mersey Tiger,  Piglet, Queen Bee, Skylark, Snooty Fox, Snowy Owl, Starling, Tawny Owl, Tay Tiger, The Raven
                         
.... AND ALL THINGS BRIGHT AND BEAUTIFUL:

Autumn Fire, Eden Blue Star, Forest Fire, Moon Glow, Money Moon, Northern Lights, Spring Meadow, Sweet Pastures, Scorcher

 

FOR YOUR DELICIOUS FOODY FRIENDS:
Blackcurrant, Butterwick, Brownie, Caramel, Cherry, Cinnamon, Curlie Wurlie, Curry Blend, Honey, Hopley’s Coffee, Lemon Sherbet, Mandarin, Old Mustard, Pink Fondant, Pumpkin, Rosemary, Salad, Stromboli

FOR THE STYLISH FASHIONISTAS:
Blue Bonnet, Blue Jean, Blue Velvet, Chamois, Doublet, Headdress, Leather Jacket, Pinstripe, Royal Velvet, Taffeta                                                                                                       

FOR YOUR FRIEND THE ROYALIST:
Grey Monarch , Holyrood, Kingcup, Old Gold, Pharaoh, Queen Alexander, Queen Bee, Rajah, Royal Velvet, The Czar

FOR THE ROMANTIC, OR MAYBE FOR SOMEONE YOU WOULD LIKE TO WOO:
Angel Eyes, Blossom, Blush Baby, Cutie Pie, Dark Eyes, Dusky Maiden, Favourite, Lovebird, Rosebud    

FOR THE AFICIONADO OF MYTHS AND LEGENDS:                  
Astolat (Legendary city in Arthurian legends), Excalibur, Fiddler’s Green (Legendary afterlife), Golden Fleece, Golden Hind, Guinea, Nymph, Old England, Old Gold, Remus, Sword
OR SCI-FI / GAME OF THRONES FANS:

Star Wars No 1, Pippin,  Hetty Wolf (ok ok, it’s not a Dire Wolf, but it’s as close as I could get), Queen Bee, Sirius, The Raven

FOR THE ROUGH AND THE TOUGH:
Border Bandit, Charles Bronson, John Wayne, Geronimo, Raleigh Stripe, Red Gauntlet, Rodeo , Sherwood, Super Para, Sword                            

FOR YOUR FAVOURITE CULTURE VULTURE:
Chorister, Doublure (bookbinding), Galen (Greek Philosopher), Marmion (Poem by Walter Scott), Margot Fonteyn, Red Gauntlet (Novel by Walter Scott), Sugar Plum Fairy, Tarentella, Tosca, Wedgewood       


SCOTTISH ROOTS:
Glenelg, Portree, Slioch, Gizabroon (maybe not a real word, but it sounds Scottish to me), Sandwood Bay, Tummel           
ENGLISH HERITAGE:
Butterwick, Southport, Brookfield, Finchfield, Idminston, Lepton’s Jubilee, Minley,  Trafalger Square, Yorkshire Grey, Sherwood, Old Suffolk Bronze, Rabley Heath, Shalford, Southbarrow, Walton Heath                                                                    

IRISH ORIGINS:
Fiddler’s Green, Green Isle, Nantenan, Old Irish Green, Old Irish Scented                                    

FROM WIDER AFIELD:
Brazil, Everest Blue, Mojave, Prague, Zambia        

                            

CHRISTIAN NAMES:

Of course you might hit lucky and have a friend who is a Mary or a Sandra and they can plant a little bit of themselves in the garden.  Here are some more possible match-ups:
Alicia,  Adrian, Beatrice, Helen, Erica, Greta, Joyce, Delilah, Joannie, Ling, Margaret, Mary, Nigel , Peggy, Rene, Rufus, Rosemary, Sandra, Sheila, Sirius, Tim, Trudy, Winifred 

And a lot less likely, but maybe you hit the coincidence jackpot and have a friend with the same name as the original person whom the auricula was named after:
Alice Hayson, Bill Bailey, Bob Lancashire, Douglas Black, Ellen Thompson, Fanny Meerbeck, Fred Booley, Joan Elliot, Karen Cordrey, Lee Paul, Lisa Clara, Lucy Lockett, Margaret Faulkner, Matthew Yates, Neville Telford ,Piers Telford, Rachel Kinnen, Sarah Lodge    

And if nothing else quite matches, why not go with the most simple statement of all:

Primula Auricula My Friend!
 

As a wee disclaimer, I have no idea as to the original eponyms and no offence is intended by my classifications.
CD                       

After The Show

It is always a little sad as you take down the Auricula theatre for the year.

However, I don’t think the auricula are sad.  By mid-May they enjoy the move to a shady cooler place, and it gives us the chance to do the satisfying job of returning everything to alphabetical order and filling in gaps.

Ah if only life were always that simple.

Looking back, what were the stars of the show this year?
Well amazingly, the greens and the white edged. That’s right, the most difficult put on the best show.

Look at Teem, and Hetty Wolf and Bob Lancashire and Minley. 

Hetty Wolf

Minley

Bob Lancashire

It is an odd business but every year the show stoppers are different.

The spot light is regularly on gold centred alpines, Rodeo and Snooty Fox and Merridale are all so bright as to startle.

Merridale

Rodeo

 In recent years some of the doubles have also been very popular.

Like Mary and Gwen Baker, Fred Booley and Excalibur.

Fred Booley

Gwen Baker

Mary

Excaliber

And then there are the Stripes and Fancies. Fancies are just those flowers no one can quite classify. Look at Lord Saye en Sele and Nantenan. 

Lord Saye en Sele

Nantenan

Finally this year some of the old favourite Border varieties were just wonderful.I have never seen Old Irish Scented looking so well; Paradise Yellow flowered outstandingly for a month and Chamois and Bradmore Bluebell were beautiful enough to inspire poetry.

Old Irish Scented

Paradise Yellow

Bradmore Bluebell

Chamois

Finally we had one late flowering new Border, Cloudy Bay.  Astonishing.

It brings to mind all of that imagery of New Zealand wine and scenery.

Looking forward now to our next holiday and next years Theatre.Margaret

Autumn Supplement

It is Autumn at Abriachan and that means it is time for our Autumn Supplement crammed full of great offers.

Primula Scotica

At the end of summer we have rows and rows of plants that we have propagated over the summer. We like to offer them at a really good price before we pot on.

I also know that many of you have been waiting for some of the precious Auriculas and Primroses, as we sold out early in the spring.

So Voilà!

Auricula Grey Monarch

Alongside them are some plants that really appreciate being planted in autumn, Digitalis ( Foxgloves), Hellebores and Candelabra Primroses.



Digitalis purpurea alba



We are also selling good range of Schizostylis (Kaffir Lilies) These blooms are wonderful in the autumn garden, glowing and providing border colour to catch the eye in the late summer sunlight.
Once owned always  loved.

Schizostylus coccinea major

 We hope you find something to tempt you,

Click here to go direct to the website where you can order online,
Click here to download the autumn supplement pdf (order form included)

Don has done a wonderful job taking photographs of the auriculas this year and the website is looking a lot more colourful with all the thumbnail photos (Click on a thumbnail to see a larger photo of the plant), we hope this is a helpful aid to choosing some new plants, sometimes reading descriptive text only can be a bit dry, so we are doing our best to  gradually add photos of every plant we sell.

 

Best Wishes,
The Davidson Family

Auricula Favourites

Has anyone written poetry about Auriculas….I have not seen it, hence I felt inspired to write a verse.

Catch your breath colour

Can it be real?

Tiny perfect picture

Can it be real?

Audacious, subtle, side by side.

Elusive scent, forms the memory first.

I’ll keep on with the day job.

It is like a birthday tea in the poly tunnel just now and you don’t know here to look first, a dizzying array, the dazzle of the alpine varieties and the solid globs of the doubles .
And then beyond the colour you begin to see the symmetry and the subtle beauty of the farina and the paler washed colours.

Do I have a favourites, of course I do, and they change from year to year.
That is partly because different varieties perform well each year…and surprisingly unpredictable.
So this year’s favourites:

Soft Blues: Wedgewood, Walton and Bradmore Bluebells

Bradmore Bluebell

Bold and Red: Favourite and Trudy and Rene…….All border auriculas, strong and beautiful.

Trudy

Fragrant beauties: The nicest are Queen Alexander and Old Clove Red.

Old Clove Red

Breath-taking Greens: Great Parrot. and the fancy Salad

Salad



Beautiful doubles: Golden Chatreuse, Nymph and the new Shaun

Golden Chatreuse

The show stealers: Sirius, Rodeo and Gee Cross

Gee Cross

And best of all …when you have left several auriculas in the room overnight, the scent…cloves, rose, capture it and remember.

Margaret

Old Fashioned Primroses

It is cold. After a wonderful sunny March as is often said “We have paid for it!!”
Cold nights, freezing dawns, cold days, five degrees….rain….lots of it…and snow on the tops, and sometimes even at our lower level.
You wake to a skim of snow that thaws over the morning.

It is the young birds that worry me. Birds nested early and enthusiastically in March. I hope they can keep those babies warm.

Plants just slow down. After a fast start, many spring plants seem almost to be suspended slowly opening their flowers and holding them close to retain a little warmth.

This year there has been markedly increased interest in the old fashioned primroses, one of our specialist groups of plants.

Primula Wanda

Primula Amy Smith

What are old fashioned primroses? Well they are cultivated primroses, often of some antiquity, all good garden plants and hardy.
Most are singles, some are wonderful old doubles and some are polyanthus form. 

This month, April, I am canvassing the villages around Loch Ness in my bid to be re-elected as the Local Highland Councillor, I am often looking over walls into gardens as I am going around.  I see lots of old primroses; they are the ones that have survived for generations, passed from mother to daughter, neighbour to neighbour.
I see Wanda, that great old magenta primroses, an old yellow polyanthus and recently a lovely pale mauve pink primrose, whose name no one seems to know.

Primula Lilacina Plena

Look across the range of primroses we sell, and you see some wonderful old varieties.
These plants do not have the zazzle colours, red, orange, yellow & pink that you can buy in supermarkets and garden centres, but they do have quiet subtle charm.


I have more than one favourite and the plants do look different from year to year.
This year, the pretty Amy Smith with soft pink flowers on dark bronze foliage and Lady Greer, which has dainty Polyanthus heads of biscuit yellow.

And of course then there are the doubles, how could I garden without the old alba plena and the glorious Quakers Bonnet, lilacina plena, but they really are another story and a wonderful one at that.
 Margaret

Plant of the month - Primula Auricula

Plant of the month - April
Primula Auricula

We have a wide collection of these extraordinary little plants.
Intense colours and subtle dustings of farina make them unique and exquisite.
Hardy, easy to grow and guaranteed to delight.
£4 - £6 each

If you too love Auricula and have some photographs squirreled away on your computer, consider adding them to our 'Auricula Addiction' group on Flickr.

Drumsticks of Delight

PLANT OF THE MONTH
Primula Denticulata
(The Drumstick Primula)
 Beautiful spherical flower heads.
Cheerful, early, and indestructible.
They grow almost anywhere and look lovely planted as a group.
We sell as seperate colours (Red/Pink, White and Violet/Blue)
£3 each - £10 for four