THE PASSIONATE GARDENERS
Continuing our series on those whose gardens and lives are shaped by their love of particular plant species, we meet Brian and Steph Ellis of Avondale Nursery who have fallen for graceful wood anemones
In our series on those whose lives are shaped by their love of plants, we meet Brian and Steph Ellis, who have fallen for the graceful charm of wood anemones
BRIAN AND STEPH ELLIS specialise in growing rare and unusual plants at Avondale Nursery on the outskirts of Coventry. Their National Collection of wood anemones (Anemone nemorosa) contains more than 80 different varieties of these desirable woodland beauties. It is a far cry from the couple’s early days in the 1980s when they grew polyanthus on the corrugated-iron roof of their bedsit in Brixton, south London, while earning a living as members of a craft cooperative. How did it all begin?
Neither Brian nor Steph trained as horticulturists. They met at art college in Loughborough where Brian did a degree in Fine Art while Steph studied printed textiles. It was this that led to the craft cooperative collaboration through which they designed and sold their own knitwear and hand-painted roller blinds. Gardening was their hobby but, with only a tiny outdoor area of their own at the time, Brian would do gardening for neighbours in return for space to grow flowers.
Having always planned to move out of the city, after their son Tom was born, the couple relocated to a village outside Coventry near Brian’s parents. A larger garden meant they could acquire many more plants – from plant fairs and by mail order from specialist nurseries. And whenever they went away on holiday they would ‘nursery search’ the local area using the RHS Plant Finder. “The family spent hours waiting for Brian in nursery car parks,” Steph recalls. “We once took a trailer away with us just so that he could swap plants with a grower in the middle of nowhere.”
“I think of collecting plants as beachcombing,” Brian explains. “Everyone will spot a different stone or shell, and each person’s collection reflects their own taste. I must admit that, once I started, the trainspotter in me wanted to track down every variety – although, occasionally, you realise that one particular plant is only rare because nobody wants it in the first place!”
It wasn’t long before the hobby became an obsession – one they justified by selling surplus plants at weekly WI markets. And when the offer of a polytunnel next door to a garden centre came up, Avondale Nursery was born. “The dream has always been to buy a smallholding and live on site,” Brian says, “but, as with a lot of small nurseries, renting has been the only option.”
Ten years later they moved down the road to their present location adjacent to another garden centre, but with more polytunnels and land to develop the Library Garden – a display area where everything is labelled in detail. Here, customers can see plants growing in situ and compare the varieties. The change of site also provided space to establish their three National Plant Collections: Anemone nemorosa for spring, Sanguisorba for summer and Symphyotrichum novae-angliae (New England asters) for late summer.