My Life in Plants
The first plant I ever grew
When I was about four or five I remember my grandad, also called Aubrey, showing me how satisfying it was to pop the flower of a fuchsia. This led on to me growing more than 50 varieties, with my own catalogue when I was just 12. Is that sad?
The plant that shaped the nurseryman I am today
The first commercial endeavour we had as a nursery in 1968 was to buy 1,000 cuttings of leylandii conifers. From this I started a collection of 350 different conifers, all grown in open ground, before branching out into heathers and shrubs.
My favourite plant in the world
This has to be the 300-year-old ash tree standing centre stage in our garden. The fourth largest of its kind in the country, it has overlooked all our activities since I’ve been at Hopleys Nursery in Hertfordshire.
The plant that made me work hardest
In 1971 we discovered potentilla ‘Red Ace’, the first red-flowered variety, for which we obtained Plant Breeders’ Rights. As a family, we grew 110,000 plants before licensing it to other nurseries for sale and export five years later. It was a huge endeavour with great rewards.
The plants I’d like to grow more of
My favourites are the shrubby mallows, such as the globe mallow, sphaeralcea, which don’t sell nowadays, but which may well become more widely grown as our climate warms.
The plant I am in human form
My wife, Jan, suggests the holm oak, Quercus ilex. She says: “It’s always solidly dependable, good looking, without being flashy, and classy in an unobtrusive way. You can also cut it back!”
The plant that helped shape my life
Osteospermum ‘Whirlygig’. I saw this unusual crimped-petal form of African daisy in New Zealand when there were only two plants in existence. I promptly imported it and commercialised it in the UK. This led us into growing and introducing a wide range of other long-flowering perennials, such as salvia, penstemon, gazania, origanum, verbena, argyranthemum and, recently, diascia.
The plant I’d always give as a gift
Either Coronilla valentina glauca ‘Citrina’, which has such beautifully scented flowers held almost all year, or abelia ‘Hopleys’, which I regard as possibly the best of the 150 plant introductions we’ve made over the last 50 years.
l 2018 is our 50th anniversary so I’ve decided to retire and close the nursery. I’d like thank all our customers, visitors, staff and colleagues over the years.