Anne Barnard – Charlton and Blackheath Amateur Horticultural Society

Anne Barnard from Rose Cottage Plants, a nursery that has won several RHS medals, following on from her successful talk last year on dahlias, gave an informative and useful talk on some of her favourite perennials. She also brought some bulbs for sale which were snapped up.

Although the nursery is known nowadays for specialising in dahlias, when it first started some 25 years ago, they specialised in perennials. Starting her nursery came from her involvement in the National Gardens Scheme.

In her presentation, Anne referred to and described a large number and wide range of perennials and the conditions they need to grow well, as well as showing a range of perennials that partner well together. Some of the perennials she mentioned are listed here and some of them her nursery sells. They also sell bulbs.

Anne Barnard from Rose Cottage Plants nursery in Essex has many years experience of and is a specialist in growing dahlias, as well as exhibiting widely including at RHS shows. Dahlias, which originate in Mexico and Central America, come in a wide variety of colours from pastel to rich reds and mahogany.

Anne described how planting dahlias in summer beds can transform them and suggested how to choose and use them to best effect. Anne said they provide an outlet for personal creativity, style and artistic expression. She used her own garden, field displays in Holland and Chenies Manor as illustrations.

Dahlias had gone out of fashion, but in recent years there had been a revival of interest in them. Their rich colours were particularly attractive and ‘jewel’ gardens had become common. Many new and more popular and often exotic looking varieties had been developed. Many originate in Holland and she visited several important and influential growers. She said after bulbs, tulips and alliums have flowered by June/July, gardens begin to look tired and dahlias wide variety and rich colours give life to the garden and make a good display right up to the first frosts.

Anne went on to describe a wide variety of dahlias:

Tag: Anne Barnard

January 2023 Talk: ‘Perennials in the Garden’

January 2022: Anne Barnard on Dahlias