TRECANNA HISTORY

BT - Before Trecanna - many years ago…..

For much of my life I grew up in and around the Tamar Valley and as a youngster I had a tremendous interest in wildlife including caterpillars that I gathered and kept in boxes under my bed (until they escaped!) This led to me looking at the plants that they were feeding on and when we moved into a house with a greenhouse my enthusiasm for growing plants really started. By the age of twelve, I went to school each morning leaving my mother responsible for selling the tomato plants and houseplants advertised on the board I had left outside our house!

After many years ‘up-country’ running garden centres and restoring Victorian nurseries, I returned with my wife, Karen, and children 4 years ago.

AT – After Trecanna:

2001

We moved into Rose Farm in late 2001 and immediately started work on clearing the thousand of brambles, nettles and weeds that engulfed the area planned for the nursery. It was not until these had been cleared that we could see what needed to be done. It was all too much….. So we just concentrated on the first third of the overall area.

2002

We are sited on the steep slopes of the Tamar Valley and the only way to create borders and growing areas was to terrace the entire area – a project that in the end took some over 2 years to complete – initially with spade, shovel and wheelbarrow and later with the help of a friendly digger driver.

We rushed around in early 2002 trying to lay the main pathways and spent endless days and nights finishing the terraces with dry stone walling, using stone collected from around the farm. In April we opened the nursery for the first time, for just 2 days a week, but at that stage it was little more than a polytunnel. We had a basic network of paths but we’d had no real time to propagate so only had a small collection of plants.

Many days and even weeks went by without a visitor and those that came were greeted by masses of heaped soil, gravel and stones as we tried to shape the nursery.

2003

In 2003 we managed to plant our first borders including the Crocosmia Garden. We incorporated a huge amount of grit into the soil to give sharp drainage and to protect our plants against the combination of winter wet & winter cold.

Our selection of plants steadily grew as we found more time to propagate. Meanwhile, I often spent much of our takings at shows acquiring new varieties to add to our collection.

The dry stone walling was finished and the paths were extended with extra steps being added. Thing were really taking shape.

2004

This year we turned our attention towards the ‘untamed’ portion of the nursery. Early in the year we abandoned spade and wheelbarrow for a JCB to help clear the main thicket of brambles, ash and a rampant cotoneaster on the lower portion of the nursery. The JCB achieved more in a few days than we could have done in a year. The area was terraced to give us a wide flat area – something that we had never had so far. After lining the whole area, we added a healthy layer of gravel and built a new polytunnel from hundreds of pieces provided in the ‘kit’.

Over the Spring & Summer we tackled the wilderness between the small car park and nursery area, turning one side into a planted border. It swallowed over 400 pots of stock but would provide a suitably attractive entrance to the nursery.

In September be finally gained our ‘brown tourist signs’ and expanded ours opening period to Weds to Sat, throughout the year.

Our first Crocosmia crosses flowered for the first time with some lovely new varieties. We extended our collection of Achilleas and started offering a much wider and extensive collection of unusual bulbs from all around the world.

2005

A year of many additions – an ex-Great Western Railway goods truck arrived in March (found it on Ebay!) – this was set to become our main pay area for the nursery, whilst also housing our garden gifts, many of which are designed here. The main truck was OK but the roof, floor and some of the sides needed replacing! To follow the theme, the new border leading to the goods truck was held up using a wall of sleepers. An extra 30 varieties of Crocosmia were planted here to create and avenue of hot colours. Finally I made some gates to finish off the entrance.

Less exciting was the addition of a huge water tank to help quench the thirst of our plants in the summer months.

In August we held our first ever South African Weekend with over 100 varieties of Crocosmia in flower. The weekend attracted over 500 gardeners and we raised over £800 for charity – great fun and exhausting!

Our Crocosmia collection reached 140 varieties and amongst the crosses to flower this year were a double red form and a 4-petalled variety. We expanded our collections of Watsonia, Tulbaghia, Lachenalia and Kniphofia (All South African). Our display of Eucomis (Pineapple Lilies was truly impressive over the summer and autumn months.

2006

In August 2006 we will be repeating our South African Weekend – this is set to become an annual event.
New display borders are being added, and our view across the beautiful Tamar Valley has already been expanded by lowering the hedge height.

Our range of plants and bulbs is now vast and all can be seen on our new website, including photographs, all taken at the nursery. We are also now listed in the RHS Plant Finder, the bible for tracking down unusual varieties.