HPS
Hardy Plant Society Sussex
Making gardens with hardy perennials
Welcome to the Sussex Group of the Hardy Plant Society
Looking forward to 2025!
Thankyou for visiting - we hope you'll come along to a meeting and join our community!
We meet monthly at 2pm (doors open at 1.30) at Henfield Hall BN5 9EQ from September to April - there are stalls with plants and seeds for sale, a raffle, gardening goods and clothing, an information point and often a good selection of second-hand books. There's always a speaker - perhaps a nursery owner, a specialist grower or an author. Our November meeting is a shared lunch and quiz - the prizes are great.
There's a great deal of sharing and learning from each other and a collective enthusiasm for gardening. And cake! The meetings end with tea and cakes, made by our members - and you can buy any left-over slices at the end of the meeting to enjoy at home.
From April to August there are visits to members' gardens and other gardens not usually open to the public, which are great opportunities to see ideas put into practice and to take away inspiration (and sometimes plants for sale). There's always coffee and cake and conversation, of course!
What's a hardy herbaceous perennial?
It's a plant which lives for more than two years - most herbaceous perennials grow and bloom over the spring and summer then die back every winter. They grow back again each spring from their root-stock, rather than seeding themselves as an annual plant does.
Henfield Hall meetings
2025
Sunday 27 April: Doors open 1.30pm; Seedling Swap; at 2pm: talk by Hannah Fox
Talking Plants visits
23 April Sue and Jim Stockwell Lindfield
16 May Cindy Edmonston Ansty
12 June Aideen and Dennis Jones Seaford
20 August Pauline Bastick Crowborough
Sunday 21 September: Doors open 1.30pm; at 2.00pm: Dr Julian Sutton “Twelve Excellent Perennials - Position, Provenance and Propagation“
owner Desirable Plants Nursery, Devon
We specialise in herbaceous perennials, the choice, the interesting and the offbeat. Our bold intention is to list a modest range of immodestly interesting plants from our large and hard won collection, changing the list a great deal from year to year. We sell plants by mail order to the UK only, at a select group of plant sales across southern England, and at our monthly ‘Perennials in Totnes’ events in Totnes town centre
We are towards the ‘small, personal and too-busy-propagating-to-check-the-emails-more-than-once-a-day’ end of the nursery spectrum; serious e-commerce is just not us, so online ordering, stock availability updates, card payments and so on are not available. Treat this site as you would an old fashioned printed catalogue – use the download button, print it out, read it in the bath, and place an order when you’re good and ready.
Our specialities include Epimedium and Geranium; Watsonia and other Southern hemisphere Iridaceae, Anemone, Arisaema, Hedychium, Kniphofia and Thalictrum.
But we always dare to broaden our horizon in offering new, unusual, rare or exciting plants to our customers.
Sunday 19 October: Doors open 1.30pm; at 2pm: Andrew Humphris (Head Gardener, Parham House) 'Parham Gardens moving forward'
parhaminsussex.co.uk. instagram: @parham_house_gardens
The Gardens at Parham consist of seven acres of Pleasure Grounds, laid out in the 18th century, with a lake, spring bulbs, a brick and turf maze and many specimen trees. The old four-acre Walled Garden contains romantic wide herbaceous borders, a rose garden, a cut flower garden, a vegetable garden, an orchard and a 1920s Wendy House. A splendid Greenhouse, also dating from the 1920s, has a fine display of pelargoniums and other tender plants.
In 2020 Parham had to close to visitors due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and an important decision was made to tackle some serious and long-standing perennial weed problems. Visitors who know Parham well will therefore notice some changes when they visit. This is the start of a very exciting horticultural renovation for Parham.
Andrew comes to Parham from West Lodge Estate in Dorset, where he has established and improved upon a new garden and landscape, including working in conjunction with leading designers. He spent his early career as Head Gardener with the National Trust at The Courts and then at the remarkable garden of Biddulph Grange, before becoming Head Gardener at Wollerton Old Hall in Shropshire where he worked closely with the owners to replant and remodel the now celebrated and very beautiful garden they have created there.
Andrew has also regularly lectured on many aspects of horticulture and he participated on Gardeners’ Question Time for BBC Radio Shropshire for six years. In 2014 he was awarded the Loyal and Outstanding Service Award by the Professional Gardeners Guild.
Sunday 16 November: Doors open 1.30pm; at 2pm: Tim Fuller, “New, rare and unusual perennials”
owner of The Plantman's Preference Nursery. plantpref.co.uk instagram: @plantpref
The Plantsman's Preference has been growing and selling an extensive range of Hardy Geraniums, Ornamental Grasses and Unusual Perennials in Norfolk since 1996. They are a small retail nursery selling to visitors and at plant fairs and sales as well as by mail order. As almost all of theirr plants are grown in pots and sent out using next day delivery this enables you to plant when it suits you - hopefully not with bone dry or waterlogged soil!
They are a part of the Norfolk Nursery Network, a group of specialist plant nurseries within Norfolk, and hope that you may find other members of the Network worth a look.
It is their intention to provide plants of good quality and to make new, rare and unusual plants available to a wider gardening audience, whilst not neglecting the more commonplace. The majority of plants grown are easy and reliable to grow and do not need any special care, they have an aversion to plants that need staking or deadheading! They are almost all hardy in at least part of the UK.
While catering for the traditional gardener they are also keen to promote Naturalistic or New Wave style gardening and can provide advice and plants for these relatively low maintenance styles. This can best be done with a visit to the nursery.
Tim Fuller is the Ornamental Grasses and Woodland Perennials specialist. He is a member of the Royal Horticultural Society’s Floral Trials Panel (since 2008) and Stipa Trial Panel which are responsible for recommending plants to the Award of Garden Merit. During 2009/2010 Tim took on the cultivation of the wide range of Hardy Geraniums and will continue them into the future
They have been awarded a total of 6 large Gold, 6 Gold, 10 Silver-Gilt, 4 Silver and 1 Bronze over the years. Oh, and have also been awarded Best in Show at the Suffolk Show in 2011 and 2012.
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