Do plant enthusiasts still exist?

Growing plants is only half the job of a nurseryman, the other half being to enthuse gardeners to actually buy the plants. Picking the right plants to grow is crucial; grow a plant that no-one wants and you're left with stock that has cost money to produce and gives no chance to recoup your losses. Accurately predicting the needs of your customers is what makes nurseries successful.

Ajuga incisa 'Bikun'

The tricky bit of this process is the timescales involved; a customer will often decide at very short notice that they want a particular plant, but the time to raise that plant can vary from a few weeks to a year or more, longer of course for a specimen-size plant.

Trochodendron aralioides

In many ways the enthusiasm for particular plants is driven by the nurseries producing them. Advertising, bright posters in garden centres, and accolades such as 'RHS Chelsea Plant Of The Year' all help to drum up interest for new varieties. What about older varieties? What about rare plants?

For me a rare or largely unknown plant has a certain lure, but this isn't the case for everyone. Nonetheless there are thousands of plants being grown by smaller niche nurseries in the UK for the discerning plant enthusiasts who flock to them, many of which are grown by only one nursery. If a plant isn't good enough to be mass produced is it really worth growing?

For me the answer is a clear yes, but others don't share my certainty. In order to understand why small nurseries persevere with these plants rather than growing the more 'commercial' varieties it is important to understand why a plant is rare in the first place. Sometimes plants are rare because they are difficult to propagate or to grow, limiting their availability or their potential market (how many people could provide lots of room for a fast growing tender tree or carefully controlled humidity for a tricky orchid?). Other plants are rare because they have been superseded by better, more reliable varieties. Still other plants are rare simply because very few people have ever heard of them, maybe because they have only just been introduced into cultivation or because their names aren't 'out there' yet. Just because a plant is rare in cultivation doesn't mean that it's not worth growing and not worth telling the whole world about!

Styrax japonicus

For a nursery selling rare plants the key is providing good information; today's gardeners may not be as knowledgeable as previous generations but they have better access to information than ever before, so good descriptions and plenty of easy to understand information about a rare plant will allow it to compete on a level playing field with any other plant.

The advantage to modern online retailing is that the internet has made it easier for customers to find out about and shop with smaller, more specialised retailers, and the knock-on effect of this is that it has become possible and desirable to buy niche products. If you want to you can buy Egyptian cotton, incense sticks from Japan and Tartan from an independent in Scotland, all via your computer. Likewise you can research and buy rare and unusual plants from specialist growers to make your garden unique.

Petasites paradoxus

Getting the message out to gardeners is the hardest bit, but is also crucial. Using your knowledge and experience as a grower and a gardener (along with the quality of your plants), it is entirely possible as a nursery to make a living growing and selling special, rare and unusual plants. You do, however, have to build up the confidence of your customers first; once you have a reputation for a great range and extensive knowledge then your nursery will become a mecca for serious gardeners.

So do plant enthusiast actually still exist? Yes, very much so! As the older generation shopping with dogeared lists of plants carefully selected from extensive reference libraries slowly wains, so a new generation of plant enthusiasts is emerging, replete with smartphones and tablet PCs, looking for exciting and different plants to enhance their gardens, and these new expert gardeners are every bit as passionate about growing plants as the generations before them.

Gunnera perpensa

You might be interested to know that, although the Styrax and Trochodendron both appreciate protection from strong winds, the plants pictured on this page are rare and unusual but are also reliably hardy in much of the UK.