THE PLANT FINDERS

There is always something new at Crûg Farm Plants, where Bleddyn and Sue Wynn-jones trial exciting species they have collected across the world to add a wealth of colour and interest to our gardens

At Crûg Farm Plants, Bleddyn and Sue Wynn-jones trial species they have collected from around the world

People come from all over the world to see Bleddyn and Sue Wynn-jones’s latest finds. Those who can’t make the journey to the hills of north Wales to rootle through their exotically crammed polytunnels can pore over their equally intriguing online catalogue. When they are not running Crûg Farm Plants, Bleddyn and Sue are plant hunters extraordinaire. Wasps, landslides, earthquakes and monsoons are second nature to them on their expeditions. Outside of Kew, they hold the only full, ongoing wildcollected plant import licence in England and Wales. On their assiduously researched annual trips – usually conducted for three months at a time in the autumn – their aim has been not only to seek out new plants but ones that really work in temperate climates.

Over 25 years of plant hunting, they have introduced more than 4,000 new cultivars through the UK, including a graceful Taiwanese schefflera that can shrug off all the weather that a Welsh winter can throw at it and an invaluable ground-cover pachysandra with ornamental leaves and remarkable fruit that even flourish under yew. Their walled garden, open to nursery visitors, is a glorious horticultural wonderland – a jungle of green, filled with mysterious plants most of us have never heard of. “People come here thinking they know a lot about gardening,” Sue says, “and then discover things they’ve never seen before.”

They started Crûg Farm Plants in 1991, when they decided to rent out in stages their 200-acre traditional beef farm in order to open a nursery instead. Initially, Sue looked after their garden while Bleddyn grew vegetables, but with a long-harboured passion for ornamentals, he started taking cuttings and growing plants to sell.

By 1994 they had expanded out of their original walled garden, planted 30,000 trees to create a substantial 20-acre windbreak (Crûg means hilltop or lookout) and set up a website. Both avid travellers, they organised the nursery so they could get away for plant-hunting trips. “Each one tells a story,” Bleddyn says. “It’s very exciting and we are passionate about conservation.”

Their first serious expedition, following family holidays in Jordan and Indonesia, was to Taiwan. Since then, they have travelled through Asia to Korea, Vietnam and the Himalayas, returning with hydrangeas, podophyllums, tricyrtis, actaeas… the list goes on. These days, their trips are shorter and they combine travel with lecturing, showing and handing out plant advice to fascinating people and extraordinary gardens the world over. After 42 years of marriage they remain a terrific, life-enhancing double act, bouncing half-finished sentences off each other with peals of laughter. “We still work hard,” Sue says. “Just like farming, it’s 24/7.”

Bleddyn’s taste in plants inclines towards the subtle – predominantly green with interesting form and foliage, such as Solomon’s seal – but getting them to flag up their favourites is impossible. “Always different, depending on the light or season,” Sue says, while Bleddyn admits, “I have at least 365 favourites a year.”

Crûg Farm Plants, Griffith’s Crossing, Caernarfon, Gwynedd (01248 670232; crug-farm.co.uk).