Richard Norris is a National Collection holder of Lavender. Downderry the famous lavender nursery also has a National Collection in Kent but Richard’s one is mainly of Lavandula x intermedia types and has six cultivars that does not exist anywhere else in the country. Richard’s collection can be viewed on the site of his business Longbarn - a shop, garden centre and cafe of lavender orientated products in Alresford, Hampshire. We are wanting to introduce lavenders including interesting different ones into the garden at Bramdean House, so I was keen to reach out to him as he was so local to seek his advice and see a range of lavenders growing side by side in situ. Demonstration beds to give an idea of how lavenders grow in the wild at Longbarn. When I arrived with my trainee Katie, the first thing that Richard did was show us alongside his shop a sloped gravel based bed that demonstrated the habitat lavender would be found growing in the wild. The scene would not be too far off if on
The Botanic Nursery, Wiltshire, July 2020. As part of a recent contribution to the Young Propagator’s Society zine I have decided to release this corresponding research and my dissertation from 2016. Due to the circumstances in which the dissertation was written (limited word counts etc.) and a set academic approach, it is rather dry in tone and (I am a little galled to say) feels like it brushes over some of the topics. Nevertheless, I feel there are important things that can be extracted from the piece, which was based on interviews I undertook with several nurseries England, Wales and Holland. These gave an insight (in their own words) of how they approach their businesses and reveals their thoughts and ideas around sustainability. Although it is not my finest work, its ended up being one of the reasons I was granted the Prince of Wales Sustainable Horticulture Award in the same year. I've since updated the dissertation and have added notes from Caroline Jackman, a brilliant e