It is not surprising that most visitors to the Picton Garden come to see the Michaelmas Daisies around the end of September. But, those who come earlier in the season are not disappointed when they enjoy a garden which has evolved over many years to grow a large collection of interesting plants.
Echinaceas are still very much "in" plants. On the whole they do not enjoy most of the planting sites we have to offer. However, one or two seem happy enough in a small prairie bed where the drainage is good and we remember to prevent other plants from swamping them.Our main area of prairie style planting makes extensive use of many cultivars of Aster novae-angliae. In most years some of these can be very tall, up to 200 cm in a few examples. The majority are around 120 cm in height. the next two pictures show this part of the garden before the asters come into their own.
The picture above shows the prairie willow, Salix exigua, Solidago and " Joe Pie Weed", Eupatorium purpureum. On the left mixed planting looks back to the latter group.
the deficiency with some early autumn colour.
The picture below shows Helenium 'Goldrausch'
Hippophae rhamnoides (Sea Buckthorn)
additionally colourful with orange fruits.
Eucryphia x intermedia 'Rostrevor' is an easy to grow, late flowering variety of these superb small trees.
These have been just a few of the interesting plants
to be seen in the garden during August and the early days of September.
There is nothing very unusual about most varieties of Hydrangea. But, it does seem surprising that so many have flowered so well after the severity of last winter.
and lectures. This specialised interest served him well when Miss Daisy Hopton was looking for a head gardener to take charge of her extensive garden in Herefordshire. The garden at Hagley Court included an enormous rock garden built by Walter Ingwersen. Prompted by Ingwersen and armed with a glowing reference from the great William Robinson, Percy Picton became head gardener at Hagley in 1934.
the most important part of the work for Percy and his team of gardeners. At flower shows he met more and more of the country's growing number of alpine enthusiasts and widened his friendship with many who visited the garden at Hagley.When Miss Hopton died in 1946 her family decided to sell the property. Walter Ingwersen again took a hand in Percy Picton's future. The World famous breeder and grower of Asters (Michaelmas Daisies) Ernest Ballard was also an expert grower of alpines and a great friend of Ingwersen. Ballard's nursery in Colwall, on the Herefordshire side of the Malvern Hills, had suffered from lack of sales and staff during the years of the second world war. Ernest Ballard was in his 70's and needed a younger man to manage his nursery and put it back on a sound business footing. Since alpine plants were an important part of the Old Court Nurseries stock, alongside the asters, Ballard and Ingwersen considered that Percy Picton would be the ideal man for the job. Their candidate was not at all convinced, having spent his whole career in private service, running a commercial nursery would involve a very different style of work and format for growing plants. Eventually, he succumbed to the persuasive overtures from the two older men and, in 1947, began the task of revitalising Old Court Nurseries and the fortunes of Michaelmas Daisies.
e nursery fields during the winter months.
until the late 1960's Michaelmas Daisies enjoyed an even greater popularity than they had achieved in the 1930's and crowds flocked to Colwall each autumn to see the colourful display. Then, within the space of two years, interest in asters vanished as far as the general gardening public were concerned. Shrubs, conifers and heathers became the rage. Percy Picton was not daunted by this dramatic downturn. He simply turned his propagating skills to producing more of the plants the public wanted to buy. In fact he went a stage further and created a demand for the more unusual and rare varieties which were not widely available for sale. Through his contacts with growers (private and commercial) he was able to build an unique stock of interesting plants. It was not long before customers came to Old Court Nurseries asking to see rare and unusual plants. No one went away disappointed and a good many filled the boots of their cars. Most of the great gardeners and plantspeople of the day visited Colwall and enjoyed talking about plants with "The man who could make a billiards ball grow roots".
During his years at Colwall Percy Picton undertook the judging at many local flower shows. He, also, built a reputation as an immensely popular speaker about plants and how to grow them. He hated to use slides and a projector, always preferring to use live plant material in season to illustrate his talks. Famously, his specimens were contained in a giant cardboard box and as the evening progressed it seemed that it was a magic box incapable of becoming empty. His down to earth and amusing presentations spread his fame afar and his lectures covered most of the country.
