The Hardy Geranium Group Visit
Stillingfleet Lodge Nurseries and Gardens hosted the Hardy Geranium Group’s (HGG) annual ‘Geranium Day’ on 11th June 2022.
This is an account of the day by Alastair Hodge, the HGG’s newsletter editor. For more information on the HGG, please visit the ‘Meet us at special interest groups’ section of the Hardy Plant Society’s website here.
"I awoke very early on Geranium Day and, unable to get back to sleep, went downstairs to make myself a cup of tea. While the kettle boiled I looked out of the window, and there at the edge of the patio was a small, exquisite bullfinch flying up and down again and again, hovering for a fraction of a second each time to peck the seeds out of some phaeum geraniums. “It’s going to be a good day”, I said to myself, and so it was.
The weather was perfect: sunny and warm with a gentle breeze. We welcomed HGG members to the village of Stillingfleet, near York, from north, south, east and west, and as far away as Scotland, Devon, Norfolk and Cumbria. My journey was short as I live locally. Lucky me! It was great to see everyone, including several new members.
Members' Plant Stall
The members’ plant stall in Stillingfleet village hall featured an abundance of geraniums at very reasonable prices. The most sought after rarities this year were probably G. ‘Orkney Flame’ and G. yoshinoi, both very attractive plants. I was especially pleased with my purchase of G. x cantabrigiense ‘St Ola’.
I’ve been a regular visitor at Stillingfleet Lodge nurseries and gardens for over twenty years and they never disappoint. I’ve lost count of the number of plants I’ve bought here, but they’ve all been winners. How glad I was when Vanessa Cook agreed to host Geranium Day. She could not have been kinder and did so much to make the day a success.
Presentation by Vanessa
After our AGM, Vanessa gave a superb presentation on the geranium family and the development of the gardens.
Vanessa and her husband, John, purchased their house and the grass field round it in 1975. They started by planting a shelter belt where the woodland walk is now, and over the first ten years Vanessa developed a garden round the front of the house, basing the choice of plants on recommendations in Beth Chatto’s books. From the beginning her core principles have always been that the gardens must be friendly to wildlife, organic and sustainable. She waited several more years (by which time her younger daughter was leaving university) before first opening the gardens to the public, initially for the National Gardens Scheme only.
By then, Vanessa had been able to return to horticultural college for three years and had taken advantage of a government grant scheme to start the nurseries. Business was slow to start with, but things looked up when one day an elderly gentleman with a silver-topped cane arrived and carefully looked around. He didn’t buy anything, but on leaving turned to Vanessa and said, “You’ll do.” Back he came ten days later with a bootful of desirable plants for her. This generous man had a splendid name – Cornish Torbuck – and lived in a castle near Penrith.
Cornish repeatedly asked Vanessa to visit him, and at last she was able to do so. She had always been too busy at first, which prompted Cornish to enquire, “Will you come if I get a chaperone?”
Vanessa is Yorkshire born and bred and has strong opinions, not least on the tendency to name every single geranium that varies ever so slightly from many others that have already been named. Variations often occur naturally, of course, as shown by the photos of these two beautiful G. pratense seedlings at Stillingfleet.
Second Helpings from the Plant Nursery
In the afternoon we enjoyed visiting the different ‘garden rooms’, like the Rill garden, the Wattle garden and the Pear Tree garden, and admired not just the wonderful planting schemes but the various sculptures. The final stop at the end of such an enjoyable day was the excellent nursery, with some HGG members going back for a ‘second helping’ of plants, having found they’d not quite filled their car boot the first time!"
All the photos are courtesy of Gordon James.
