Latest news from Aberglasney House and Gardens in the Tywi Valley

Latest news from Aberglasney House and Gardens in the Tywi Valley - 

Image by Nigel McCall

Head Gardener's Update

The winter collections at Aberglasney are just coming to their best.

Snowdrops are appearing throughout the Gardens as one would expect.

There are also excellent displays of early flowering Narcissus such as the renowned ‘Cedric Morris’ and the even earlier 'Rijnveld's Early Sensation' which is mass planted in a two thousand strong drift. One of the best partners for these bulbs is the Hellebore of which we have many types throughout the Gardens.

There are mass planted drifts of the famous ‘Helen Ballard Strain’ and more recently a collection of the exciting ‘Harvington’ strains which have very clear colours from white to black or even spotted which are a favourite of visitors.
Over the last two years we have tried many new Helleborus such as ‘Anna’s Red’ which are created with an exciting new method of propagation called micropropagation or Tissue culture to be exact. This method allows Helleborus to be cloned in the same way as a plant can have a cutting taken from it.

This produces a new plant which is identical to the parent in every way.

Historically, Helleborus have been propagated by seed and the offspring were similar but not the same as the parent. This can create challenges for gardeners as the more picky ones like Aberglasney often want an exact colour to be repeated in the border. This is now possible with the tissue cultured plants as it also allows the very best individuals to be reproduced.

So far we have tried ‘Anna’s Red’ and a few more named clones and they are excellent. In ‘Anna’s Reds’ the flower is a very clear deep purple red flower that is about twice the size of a normal Hellebore and the foliage has a beautiful marbling later in the season. We will certainly be trying more of these exciting new plants in the near future.

Joseph Atkin

Autumn Evening at Aberglasney by Nigel McCall

Nigel McCall is a winner!
We are thrilled to learn that no less than three images of Aberglasney Gardens taken by Nigel McCall have won awards in the International Garden Photographer of the Year competition.
All three images were entered in to the 'Beautiful Gardens' category. The category awards, as announced on Friday 3rd February, are:
First Place Winner for Autumn Evening at Aberglasney
Finalist for Upper Walled Garden Sunrise
Highly Commended for Mist over the Lower Walled Garden
Now in its 10th year, the International Garden Photographer of the Year Competition or IGPOTY, brings together the best garden, plant and botanical photography from across the world with around 18,000 entries from over 50 countries.
Nigel is managing director of his family’s builders merchants, Towy Works Ltd. in Carmarthen.

He has a great interest in wildlife and landscape photography and has spent the last two years documenting the changing seasons at Aberglasney.

Speaking after hearing of his success in the competition he said: “Photographing Aberglasney is always a joy for me and I feel very proud that my image ‘Autumn Evening at Aberglasney’ has been chosen as the winner of the Beautiful Gardens category. I feel that the photo embodies the uplifting atmosphere that always pervades within the Gardens. It’s also a fine testament to the hard work of Head Gardener Joseph Atkin and his gardening team - thanks to you all for allowing me to capture the true magic of Aberglasney”.
Nigel will be holding an exhibition of his work in the Mansion from Saturday 18th February to Saturday 25th February.

Nigel’s award winning photographs will also appear in Aberglasney’s 2018 calendar which will be available at the shop from Friday 17th February and priced at £7.95. The calendar is also available to order online with a postage and packaging rate of only £1.

Order the 2018 Aberglasney Calendar

Upper Walled Garden Sunrise by Nigel McCall

Mist over the Lower Walled Garden by Nigel McCall

March breaks available for only £375
Two week-long breaks are available in Coachman's Cottage in March at a rate of £375 each: the 10th to the 17th and the 17th to the 24th.
New for 2017... Both Gardener's Cottage and Coachman's Cottage now have free Wi-Fi!
Find out more and book now on our website or email cottages@aberglasney.org

www.aberglasney.org