How fortunate that today was a beautiful sunny day, for I was lucky enough to have an invitation to Exbury gardens to see not only their public display of Nerines (which is wonderful), but also to see behind the scenes!
After an introductory talk, we proceeded to view the plants on display, a stunning show!
Nerine flowers range in colour from white, through all shades of pink, to reds, and some of them sparkle as if they’ve been sprinkled with glitter! They focus on the sarniensis hybrids here, which need to be kept frost-free.
Claudine Laabs
Nerine Lepanto
Nerine Enchantress
Nerine Lady Eleanor Keane – a really sparkly one!
There were other South African bulbs on display too.
Haemanthus coccineus
Haemanthus albiflos
Velthemia capensis
Cirtanthus sang. horseshoe
Boophone disticha
Lycoris aurea
We were treated to a short but interesting talk from Margaret Owen, holder of the National Collection of Nerine bowdenii, who had come down from Shropshire!
Then we were off to see the ENORMOUS glasshouses, housing all sorts of fascinating stuff, including hundreds of Nerines, mostly in bud.
A portion of the area! What a sight that’ll be when the buds open!
I particularly like the smaller species Nerines (that won’t surprise anyone who knows me!) This is N. braechiae.
And Nerine humilis…
There were some beautiful Oxalis too, this one Ken Aslet
And I liked (actually, coveted) Oxalis lutea
And so I came home with my small, but fairly costly(!) haul of new Nerines.
Sweet Sixteen:
The excitingly named 5448 28571C!
And 5 species Nerines, of which only N. filifolia and breachiae (shown earlier) are flowering (but I’m excited about ALL of them!)
But I mustn’t leave out my ‘old’ Nerines, only 2 of which are in flower now. N. bowdenii is very late here this year (I know why now!)
And slightly tender N. Stephanie has just opened.
Exbury gardens are situated on the Southern side of the New Forest. The display of Nerines goes on until early November, and they should last well this year, being later than normal. The garden is well worth a visit, and autumn colour should develop soon if we get some cool nights!
I believe that RHS members have free entry from October to spring!!
That sounds such a lovely day out. Out of interest, my N. bowdenii has been flowering for a few days now, it is not any earlier, despite the warm summer we have had here.
The flowering process is apparently initiated by a few quite warm days with chilly nights in between. Buds start to push up 2-3 weeks after that happens. Can prove tricky if you’ve planned an exhibition! Last year, they flowered a few weeks earlier in this area.