17 replies to this topic

[Ian Salter]

Hi all

Our second open day is looming closer and the collection is looking the best it has ever been!  We have moved house within the last 5 months and now have the luxury of having a very good sized garden in which we now contain all of our plants, where as before we had to divide the plants between 2 different locations.  Our new garden and set up now boasts a 40ft x 14ft polytunnel, a 22ft x 10ft greenhouse, a 10ft x 8ft greenhouse and an 8ft x 20ft part enclosed outside growing area.  There is also plenty of other spaces to plant the "typical" garden plants along with a bit of space for the little monsters to play.  Over the past 12 months we have managed to increase our collection with an extra 70 plus clones of plants with a few having spares available for sale at the open day.  All of my own crossed S. moorei's (S.schnells ghost x S. flava var rubricorpora) are all looking really good, but we were unable to divide them due to the house move, (moving more than 4000 plants and erecting new grow houses is a big task!) but if there is a division in the pot, we will be more than happy to divide on the day.
(Pictures will be uploaded within the next few days.)

We are fortunate to live only a few miles from Ystradefelte which is known for having D. rotundifolia and P. vulgaris growing naturally.  We have not as yet been able to venture out exploring but we hope to be able to see them for ourselves soon.

We are hoping that as many of you as possible will be able to make the trip to our open day and we also hope that the weather man has some good weather in store for us.  Refreshments will be available throughout the day and if anyone fancies a late afternoon BBQ (welsh weather permitting) you will be more than welcome to join us.

There is a lovely B&B around the corner from us (Mountain View B&B Resolven) for those of you who would like to enjoy a nice welsh weekend.  Swansea marina and Swansea Bay is roughly 15mins drive from our house, with the Gower and Mumbles also only a short drive away too.  Those of you with families who would like to bring them along, you are more than welcome to!  (We have 3 monsters who will be joining us for the day...lol.)

Please remember to bring spare plants for sale or swap, and remember me if you have something special that I don't have !  If there is any chance that you will be able to car share, then please do so to help cut yours and someone elses fuel costs .....................  It could mean that extra little bit of money for an extra plant for you and them  !

Please contact us for address details and or directions and if possible to let us know that you are coming so that we can make sure we have plenty of refreshments for everyone.

We look forward to seeing as many of you as possible on Saturday 23rd July 12pm onwards.  

Regards Ian and Dianne

As promised some photo's, it's still a work in progress as all this has been moved and set up since Feb. this year and there is still much to do.

To the right out of shot is a 10" x 8" containing S. x excellens, S. x mitchelliana and overspill VFT.


I think we need another poly-tunnel.





VFT and some choice Sarracenia.


The out of shot greenhouse with a nearly out of shot main greenhouse to the left.


The screened off end of the enclosure between the structures containing mainly S. purpurea purpurea and ssp venosa, Darlingtonia, hardy Pinguicula and Drosera + others. Oh and a bit of a bog thing.



Clones of S. leucophylla and our own lovely pink seed reared S. x moorei.



I'm very excited about these, all individual clones of my own cross between 'Schnells ghost' (MK-L3) and a lovely clone of S. flava var rubricorpora (Phil adadeji). Oddly there is an equal number of largely green/white S.x morei's with little colour.


A huge S. flava var rugelii thanks to a generous grower on this forum some years back.



An odd one from years back, big and green.



A bit of something else.



There may be more pics to come and the growlist is due to be updated in the next day or two.
Cheers all.

Edited by Ian Salter, 11 July 2011 - 21:39 PM.

[Mike King]

Hi Ian & Dianne,
   I will be there and I hope to bring a few others! Not to be missed!

If anyone wants to meet me at my house at around 9am, I can take upto 6 with fuel costs shared. I am able to bring/take plants back as there is still a boot!

[Elliot]

Mike King, on 10 July 2011 - 22:04 PM, said:

Hi Ian & Dianne,
   I will be there and I hope to bring a few others! Not to be missed!

If anyone wants to meet me at my house at around 9am, I can take upto 6 with fuel costs shared. I am able to bring/take plants back as there is still a boot!

Count me in for a lift Mike.

Elliot

[Ian Salter]

Pics added.

[Tricky Utrici]

Hi Ian & Dianne,

I'll be there and look forward to seeing your new set up and no doubt some very interesting plants.

Regards

Tricky

[danthecpman]

I will be there Ian!!!    look forward to seeing you and your collection

Dan

[blueflytrap]

oooh...nice setup!
Sadly wont be able to make it this year but I am hoping to make it down in the future.
Hope it all goes well.

[mlong]

Wow! Fantastic looking plants and greenhouses!

Don't think I'm going to be able to make it unfortunately due to work. The Nedd Fechan and Ystradfellte areas are lovely spots, definitely among my favourites in South Wales, so I'll hopefully be down that way before too long.

[fishycps]

Ian and Dianne, it's a great looking set up you have. I'm most envious! I'm afraid I've shot my bolt for overseas CP trips this year so I'll unfortunately not make it.
I do hope to make it over sometime in the future though. I hope the weather holds up and you have a great day.
All the best, Ian

[John Jearrard]

Thanks for your hospitality and a great afternoon. Beautiful collection, beautiful part of Wales, lovely way to spend a summer day!

Edited by John Jearrard, 23 July 2011 - 21:44 PM.

[Ian Salter]

Thanks guys for making the effort to get down here it's a shame more couldn't make it although we do appreciate the rise in fuel prices is making it more expensive to travel you always have an opportunity to bring plants to sell/trade and an equal opportunity to car share.
We had enough food to feed an army and enough choice Sarracenia to make it interesting.
The day went well and the weather was great, always good to discuss all the aspects of our beloved plants and have a chilled out day not repotting or dividing or doing anything else that needs attention.
On Dianne's behalf I would like to say that the best thing about holding your open day is you don't have to drive home or worry about drinking and driving.
Thanks to Mike for bringing enthusiasts on a car share.
And thanks to all attended particularly John and Steve who I know travelled a long way to be here.
We had a pleasant day.
Cheers all.
Ian/ Dianne.

[James O'Neill]

Although I wasn't there today, I have visited , and it is a super setup. Thanks again, I and D. I thoroughly enjoyed my stay in Wales as well.

[danthecpman]

Thanks for letting us visit your collection it was a very good day! thanks for nthe BBQ to it was very nice    Im looking forwards to when i get to see your collection again.

Cheers
Dan

[Daniel G]

I really want to get down if you do another open day (Will you?)
Not too far from my dad's house... time to beg  

[Ian Salter]

Daniel G, on 24 July 2011 - 09:59 AM, said:

I really want to get down if you do another open day (Will you?)
Not too far from my dad's house... time to beg  

We will open our garden to anyone at most times prior to arrangement.
Ian/Dianne

[Daniel G]

Wow!
I'll have to beg my dad even more  

Dan

[STEVE T]

Hi Ian and Dianne
It was well worth the trip, great plants, food and company and as John said the scenery was an added bonus.

Steve.

[Tricky Utrici]

Ian & Dianne,

I can only echo the comments made by others I really enjoyed my visit, what a nice place to live and such a great garden for filling up with greenhouses.

The plants I bought were inb great condition and very reasonably priced.

To all those that didn't go...........yer daft.