News

Happy New Year!

2015-01-20T11:40:40+00:00

Best wishes for 2015 to all our customers and a happy alpine growing season ahead. Its been a snowy start at Slack Top with over 15cm on 18 January. Makes the alpines feel very much at home though! Lots of them are already beginning showing signs of bud or colour, especially the vast array of kabshia (porophylla) saxifrages including Saxifraga grisebachii (pictured), and also the Olsynium douglasii, which are often the first thing to flower up here in the Yorkshire Alps.

Our current Plant availability is now fully up to date on the website.

We are also in the process of developing an Online Shop which we hope will be available sometime in the Spring. The process may mean that the website is affected at brief intervals during shop development but we aim to keep this to an absolute minimum. For those that prefer more conventional means, you will still be able to place mail orders using post and cheques but the Online Shop should make it easier for the majority.

Alpines for Christmas

2014-11-30T21:22:26+00:00

With Christmas just around the corner, maybe a relative or friend might enjoy receiving a little collection of alpine plants to refresh a tired container or trough. Pop a mail order in to us before 15th December and Santa’s little alpine elves will deliver it back you before the Christmas rush… all the way from Yorkshire! How about 6 easy alpines for £27.80 (inclusive of postage to most mainland UK postcodes*), or include a copy of our book ‘Alpines - an essential guide’ for only an additional £19.95. The perfect gift for alpine enthusiasts or those simply wanting an instant miniature garden with minimal maintenance!

* For the Highlands & Islands different rates may apply.

Winter update

2014-11-13T12:07:15+00:00

As the weather turns cooler and wetter, we’ve covered some of our alpine troughs as we have such a high rainfall here (sometimes as much as 65 inches or 1700mm annually). It can be done simply with a piece of perspex or glass supported on bricks or concrete blocks (for larger areas) or on strong wire supports to protect smaller troughs or individual plants. It keeps the worst of the wet off the plants but still allows air and light in. If the soil was damp when the cover was positioned, no further watering should be required until spring (check occasionally by scraping a small section of gravel back and see if the soil is dry). If the cover may be lifted in strong winds, make sure to weight it down with a brick or similar. It may not look great but it does the trick!
Little colour remains now in the alpine garden but this Aster ericoides v prostrata is still looking wonderful. Here it starts flowering in October and was still in full flower when this photo was taken on 13 November. It can be vigorous but makes good ground cover and extends the season of interest.

Extended Autumn opening

2014-09-13T09:47:10+00:00

With the weather being so nice we’ve decided to open the alpine nursery and garden some days throughout September and October too, so if you’d like to pop up, please just phone the day before to check we’re open. The garden is still looking rather nice and there’s plenty of plants still to choose from - whether for autumn colour or even winter foliage interest.

Autumn planting orders now being taken!

2014-08-11T20:10:49+00:00

Late summer and autumn are the traditional time for planting, and our new autumn availability update is now shown under the Plants section. So dive on in, make your choices and pop a mail order in the post in as early as you can to avoid disappointment as many things will sell out fast.

There are lots of lovely new things listed… including a selection of dwarf conifers, a new Dwarf Dierama, some wonderful Saxifraga including ‘Prince Hal’ and ‘Cranborne’. Alternatively pop up and visit us at the nursery (just make sure to phone first to check we’re around as we try to get a few days’ break sometime in September). Our display garden still has many alpines in flower and the sales benches are full of colour - Gentiana septemfida, our new Sedum ‘Coca Cola’, Allium flavum, new Lewisia ‘Tutti Frutti’ and many more. Don’t forget to plant a few ‘evergreen’ foliage things so you have winter interest - dwarf conifers, silver saxifrages, sempervivum, azorella are all good for this and look great when highlighted by ‘Jack Frost’ (not that we want to think about winter just yet!)
(Please note: the print-friendly list will shortly be downloadable once a small technical issue is resolved)

Tatton Flower Show 2014

2014-07-29T13:58:19+00:00

RHS Tatton Flower Show 2014 was lots of fun… if a bit hot! Thanks to everyone who came and bought alpines from us, and for all the lovely comments about our display. For those of you who couldn’t make it, this year we displayed our alpines in 30 different containers (handmade lightweight troughs and painted wooden boxes), with over 60 different plants featured. Remember that multi-purpose compost isn’t suitable for alpine containers - rather, use 2 parts of John Innes no. 1 or 2, with 1 part of grit or sharp sand for best results. Water well after planting and then leave and enjoy!

The close-up image of the trough below shows (clockwise from bottom left): Leucogenes grandiceps, Lewisia ‘Little Tutti Frutti’, the heavily scented Dianthus ‘Slack’s Cerise’, Salix serpyllifolia ‘Chamonix’ and Erigeron karvinskianus (Mexican daisy).

Alpine garden at its peak!

2014-06-22T13:09:19+00:00

Its a wonderful time to see the alpine garden - the warm weather has brought a lot of things on and it is a mass of colour. The sales benches are fully stocked - rock roses in shades of pink and red, Campanulas with their lovely purple flowers, erinus (fairy foxglove), Anthyllis vulneraria (this year a new pink form rather than the red), lots of different Lewisias along with the jewel-like colours of Delosperma to brighten up any display. We’ve just planted up a trough with a beautiful mix of Sedums (see picture) - Golden Queen, Coca Cola, pachyclados, Dragon’s Blood, Cape Blanco and obtusatum. They are really easy to grow, and like a well drained soil and sunshine.

Remember that the nursery is closed for one day on Sunday 6 July as Le Tour de France is coming through Hebden Bridge and all roads will be closed from 6.30am that day. We’re open again as usual the following weekend, and also open as usual on Friday 4th and Saturday 5th July.

May Bank Holiday

2014-05-24T10:05:45+00:00

Not a bad forecast for the long weekend… maybe not as sunny as we’d have hoped for but relatively dry and mild. Good alpine plant buying weather! The sales benches are now full stocked and tempting. The garden is looking really beautiful as everything comes into flower. Currently the long wall packed with Phlox and Aubrieta is looking gorgeous, along with the main scree beds. Also many of the plants in troughs and containers are in full flower, such as the strawberry pot filled with various Saxifraga (pictured), and some of the newly planted troughs for this season - come up and take a look. Highlights on the sales benches are the lovely purply- blue flowers of Phlox ‘Chattahooche’, Saxifraga ‘Slack’s Ruby Southside’ with its huge plume of red and white flowers, several Helianthemums (rock roses), Geranium ‘Ballerina’, ‘Lawrence Flatman’ and ‘Splendens’, along with the deeper purple flowers of Geranium ‘Slack’s Purple Stargazer’ which is new for this year. Lewisia ‘Little Mango’ and ‘Little Plum’ are flowering really well and look great in a trough. We also have small stone troughs for sale, while stocks last.

Planting up the new raised beds

2014-04-29T21:15:28+00:00

Now that the mayhem of exhibiting at Harrogate Flower Show is over we’ve started to plant up the larger of our two new raised alpine beds. It already has some spring bulbs and early Saxifraga, and now we’ve selected Pulsatilla albana Lutea, some lovely early flowering primulas, Geranium argenteum and Phlox ‘Apollo’ to name a few. Come along and see what you think to it - the Bank Holiday weekend weather is looking good! The woodland bed beneath the silver birches is looking really pretty too (see photo) and the lower rock garden has some beautiful Pulsatilla ‘Papageno’ in flower.

Easter weekend

2014-04-15T08:08:00+00:00

The nursery & garden are open from Good Friday to Easter Monday inclusive, 10am-5pm, with lots of beautiful spring flowering alpines on display. Why not treat yourself to an Easter pasqueflower (Pulsatilla) - they often bloom around Easter, hence the name “Pasque” (meaning “like Paschal”, of Easter). We currently have three varieties for sale - Pulsatilla ‘Papageno’ (£5), Pulsatilla ‘Heiler Hybrids’ (£5) and ‘Pulsatilla grandis (£4).The lovely red and gold flowers of Primula ‘Gold Laced Group’ make a bold show in the garden, as do Primula x pubescens ‘Boothmans’ (both pictured) - some of the many alpines available this weekend at the nursery. We also now have a good stock of stone troughs for sale.
The new raised beds are looking pretty, and there is lots of interest in the new crevice bed - featuring many tiny treasures suitable for growing in little cracks between rocks in a trough or crevice garden. If the weather holds, the views across the valley from the nursery will be beautiful so do come up and say hello!