Last Saturday I met up with fellow Blogger - Julia (from We're going to need a bigger pot) and we both went to a HTUK forum meet at a brilliant tropical plant nursery in Birmingham called Akamba- Julia had rashly offered me a lift up in her car- but luckily for her she didnt mind my frequent rambling and indeed I think we chattered non stop for about 5 hours there and back!
At Akamba I met up with a lot of friends from around the country who all have a shared interest in growing tropical plants in the UK from the HTUK forum. It was a beautiful day, and was lovely to catch up with many friends who I hadn’t seen for a year or 2! and met many new faces that perhaps I only knew as user name or avatar in cyberspace. I think in all we were at the nursery for 4 hours and I reckon we left early compared with most people!
Can you spot me?- probably not!- there were quite a few of us! We even were given name tags!
Frank and Me engrossed in plant talk
I resisted in buying any plants from Akamba (something not many people managed to do!). However after leaving there was a swap in the car park where people bring their spare plants to give away or swap to others. I was able to get 2 Tetrapanex 'Rex' pups (as mine hasnt pupped yet- one for the sunny side of the garden and one for P's mum), a purple Aeonium, and an Echeveria subrigida.
Frank and Julia
Myself, Julia and Frank decided to go 2 more nurseries on the way home the first was Fibrex- which is a nursery which specialises in Ferns and hold the national collection of Hedera, Pelagonium- and I bought a Cyathea cooperii and some smaller ferns (an Adiantum aleuticum 'imbricatum' and 3 smaller Asplenium scolopendrium muricatum, and once we had our fern fix we headed off to CGF- Cotswold Garden Flowers which has loads (and I mean LOADS!) of gems- i bought an Aloe, a Sanguisorba 'Tanna' for the grass garden, and 2 Asarum europaeum for the shady border.
I will add photos when I can of the visit! I fell in love with a metal crocodile- it was just the price tag that held me back! Thanks to Nick and Lucien for the photos above.
Akamba seems to get hold of some amazing plants at particularly good prices. Keeping meaning to visit, but never really get the chance!
ReplyDeleteI like those metal sculptures too. A lot were made in Zimbabwe (maybe they still are?), I saw a lot of them over there. The best was a crowned crane...maybe one day....
You weren't half as bad as you make out you were, Owen! As I said, it was nice to have a passenger who did more than just get in the car and fall asleep (I always feel like Hubster's personal chauffeur...).
ReplyDeleteAs for the crocodile - the price tag AND the logistics of fitting it in a Fiat Punto, yes?