{"id":4256,"date":"2021-10-06T11:05:09","date_gmt":"2021-10-06T09:05:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.gardensillustrated.com\/?p=60904"},"modified":"2021-10-13T17:06:20","modified_gmt":"2021-10-13T15:06:20","slug":"living-dream-behind-the-scenes-at-mynd-hardy-plants","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/gardensillustrated\/rss_feed\/living-dream-behind-the-scenes-at-mynd-hardy-plants\/","title":{"rendered":"Living Dream \u2013 Behind the scenes at Mynd Hardy Plants"},"content":{"rendered":"

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By Katie Beale\n \t\t<\/p>

Published: Wednesday, 06 October 2021 at 12:00 am<\/p>

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It\u2019s the dream, isn\u2019t it? To open a nursery, one that just happens to have a rather lovely wall around it and some gracefully ageing apple trees. Perhaps you might even indulge in your other love and serve some very good English wine for customers to sup between viewing your beautiful border and buying a fine selection of plants.<\/p>\n

Jill Rallings, co-owner of Mynd Hardy Plants, certainly had a dream when she upped sticks from London, leaving her job in education to move to Shropshire. The dream just didn\u2019t yet have a nursery in it \u2013 that is until she and her husband Richard had an idea. Originally a soil specialist and environmental adviser, Richard is also trained in garden design and had started a vineyard in Morville that was rapidly expanding. Its success meant that the couple needed to find outlets for the award-winning wine. \u201cWe thought the combination of wine and plants would be perfect, so we contacted Mynd Hardy Plants, but the owner was looking to sell up.\u201d Rather than try to sell him some wine, the couple decided to buy the nursery. This was in March 2014 and they haven\u2019t looked back since.<\/p>\n

The nursery is located within the Victorian walled garden of Delbury Hall, leased from the owner Patrick Wrigley. With his support but an otherwise free rein to develop the site, Richard and Jill decided on a slow, sympathetic restoration to marry the historic walled garden \u2013 built in 1850 and home to apple trees, thought to be \u2018Golden Noble\u2019 and around 150 years old \u2013 with a modern nursery.<\/p>\n

\""Benches\"<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>
Benches in front of the potting shed display an eclectic mix of plants for sale, including Phlox paniculata \u2018Bright Eyes\u2019, Agastache \u2018Blackadder\u2019, Helictotrichon sempervirens, Erigeron karvinskianus and Prunella grandiflora.<\/span><\/figcaption><\/div>\n

For the previous seven years, the nursery had specialised in daylilies and Jill and Richard wanted to continue with these. But the couple also wanted to add the plants that they love and champion, including around 100 named penstemons, as well as a good range of asters, geums, geraniums and other garden stalwarts.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve chosen plants that are versatile, have a long flowering season, and a good range across the colour palette,\u201d says Richard. Unsurprisingly, these are all plants that work well in a walled garden, complementing the rich-terracotta colour of the brick walls. By displaying the plants here, visitors get to see examples of planting combinations and this gives context: \u201cYou can see what this little plant in a pot is going to become, how large it will grow eventually, which\u00a0is important for the customer,\u201d says Richard. The range is not just about flowers; there is an emphasis on foliage and texture too as in the lime-green foliage of Tanacetum vulgare <\/em>\u2018Golden Fleece\u2019 and the huge, scalloped leaves of poppy Macleaya microcarpa <\/em>\u2018Kelway\u2019s Coral Plume\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe walled garden is as important to us as the plant sales and we\u2019ve gained so much from being part of the Walled Kitchen Garden Network [a group dedicated to the restoration and renovation of historic walled gardens],\u201d says Jill.<\/p>\n

The couple is mindful that the restoration work involves a juxtaposition between creating a display garden and keeping the nostalgia of the place. \u201cIt would have looked very different in its heyday as a working walled garden,\u201d says Richard,\u201cbut we\u2019ve tried to retain the formal structure within a more naturalistic and informal planting scheme.\u201d They achieve this with the likes of Bidens aurea <\/em>\u2018Hannay\u2019s Lemon Drop\u2019 and grasses such as Stipa tenuissima <\/em>and Calamagrostis <\/em>x acutiflora <\/em>\u2018Karl Foerster\u2019. There\u2019s\u00a0a strong emphasis on plants that will bring in pollinators, such as Teucrium fruticans <\/em>and Salvia <\/em>x jamensis <\/em>\u2018Maraschino\u2019. The latter is not necessarily fully hardy past -10\u00b0C, but Richard and Jill have a policy to grow their plants hard. \u201cWe remove the polytunnel doors in winter; it can even get down to -20\u00b0C degree here.<\/p>\n

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The original Victorian glasshouses were rebuilt in the 1920s and although now in need of being restored again, provide an\u00a0atmospheric backdrop to the display area where customers can see how plants, including the eye-catching yellow Kniphofia \u2018Fiery Fred\u2019, will work together in a garden setting.<\/span><\/figcaption><\/div>\n

We sit at the lowest point in the estate and it\u2019s a bit of frost pocket,\u201d says Richard. But that\u2019s good for customers because, as the display garden attests, these plants are tough.<\/p>\n

For a nursery to be successful it must be business-orientated, but Jill and Richard are equally determined to have fun. \u201cWe might stop and have a cup of tea and a chat with a customer.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s such a pleasure to be your own boss,\u201d says Jill. \u201cWe have the freedom to make decisions about what we do and how we do it.\u201d This includes opening on summer evenings with wine and music, getting involved in charity days for the National Garden Scheme and Shropshire Historic Churches Trust, and inviting garden clubs to talks and tours of the garden. In the winter, when the nursery and gardens close,\u201cit\u2019s just us. This is our time to work on the garden as we please,\u201d says Jill.<\/p>\n

\u201cPerhaps because we\u2019ve come from other careers, we\u2019ve got so immersed in this life,\u201d she adds. \u201cWe meet such lovely people, and learn so much from them, and that\u2019s a joy.\u201d It is the dream to get to garden this way and it\u2019s one that Richard and Jill don\u2019t take for granted. Perhaps that\u2019s why Mynd Hardy Plants truly is that secret walled garden, complete with a slice of happiness inside.<\/p>\n

USEFUL INFORMATION<\/strong>Address<\/strong> Mynd Hardy Plants, The Walled Garden, Delbury Hall Estate, Mill Lane, Diddlebury, Shropshire SY7 9DH.\u00a0Tel<\/strong> 01584 841222. Web<\/strong> myndhardyplants.co.uk<\/a><\/p>\n

16 Key Plants<\/h2>\n
1<\/span>

Verbascum chaixii \u2018Album\u2019<\/h3>\n<\/div>
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\""Verbascum\"<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>\n

An extremely easy-going plant with white flowers and rose-red centres that is much loved by pollinators and beneficial insects. Need full sun and prefers free-draining soil. 90cm. RHS H6, USDA 5a-8b\u2020.<\/p>\n