More Village Gardeners
The Village Gardeners met this month to hear another talk by Richard
Ayres-returning by popular request. As most locals know, he lives in Lode and
opens his lovely garden to the public, but on this occasion, with Spring in the
air he was back over the hedge in his beloved Anglesey Abbey.
Of course snowdrops were top of the agenda, not only because they are currently looking spectacular there, but also because their abundence is largely thanks to Richard's creativity-when he was head gardener and Dutch Elm Disease. It wasn't until all the Elms were felled (this took eight years),that the snowdrops were "discovered" when the natural light encouraged them to flower and flourish-along with their partners, the Aconites.
He started a collection in the 70's, when National Trust gardens were closed from October till Easter. As a result, the hundred or so varieties in the collection were never seen by the public-so hard to imagine now. Richard finally persuaded a very reluctant NT to open on two Saturdays in February! It was a huge success and for the first few years the Abbey was allowed to keep the money made. This is no longer the case Of course it's still a very popular event and on 12th February this year there were 4000 visitors.
There are about 600 varieties in existence, 250 of which are at the Abbey. We were shown lovely slides of some of his favourites-Lodestar. Misdemeanour, Misadventure, Hobson's choice and a few totally unspellable ones! A rare snowdrop bulb sold last year for £300-if that's too much and you want to increase you numbers -a tip from the top-split them NOW.
There was also huge resistance to the idea of the winter walk when Richard first proposed it. No-one would want to visit Anglesey Abbey in the winter. How things have changed. But with his enthusiasm, determination and lots of connections the project took off, funded almost entirely by private donations. Fifty Acers were planted and private individuals paid £100 pounds each for the privilege of doing so. It's now a glorious scene-but one change. The white bark on the birches is no longer scrubbed by volunteers bearing brushes and buckets of water, but pressure hosed twice a year!