Plant collections

Plant Collections

 

Plant heritage helps preserve plants for the future through plant collections and much more. Click here for more information on national collections.

We hold 4 national collections of plants they are:

Dark leaved dahlia Dark leaf dahlias

National Collection
Dark Leaved Dahlia

We are suckers for dahlias but couldn’t collect them all, not enough space, not enough money! Best guess is that there are about 18,000 named varieties of dahlia out their! Wowsers. So out scope for plant heritage focusses on dahlias with dark foliage regardless of their flower types.

We also grow lots of dahlias outside the official collections particularly species dahlias and dahlias that are good for floresty.

Persicaria Virginiana cvs. Persicaria Virginiana cvs.

National Collection
Persicaria Virginiana cvs.

We were drawn to this group of plants due to their beautifully marked/painted leaves, late flowering and ability to grow in shade, what more could you want from a plants.

Plectranthus Plectranthus

National Collection
Plectranthus

We have Janet Elliot of old hall plants to thank for the nucleus of out collection, she was looking to pass on all the plectranthus she had collected and we were looking for something to geek out on! Plectranthus hail mostly from south Africa, but with many notable exceptions, with so many species and cultivars in the collection it has inevitably led to a few interspecific hybrids forming which we have named and released for sale over the years, the most recent being ‘Brunsendorf’ which we named after Andea Brunsendorf a horticulturist of great talent who worked with plectranthus in south Africa and first female head gardener of the inner temple in London.

Pseudopanax Pseudopanax

National Collection
Pseudopanax

Hailing from new Zealand these evergreen srhubs and small trees are surprisingly hardy, and here in east kent we have them planted outside in a jungle garden with backups in containers just incase.
Lancewood as they are commonly called are endemic to new Zealand, the curious thing about these plants for us is the juvenile (young) foliage is often completely different to the mature adult foliage.