Nerine Sarniensis from our President's collection at Exbury.
Theo Herselman from Exbury with Roy Prior beside the display of Exbury Nerines.
An interesting collection of 'Other' (i.e. non-Nerine) Amaryllids.
2016 Autumn Visits
Sat. 22nd Oct. - visits to two gardens in South Devon.
The first Nerine Bowdenii were introduced into the UK by Athelstan Cornish-Bowden who had discovered the plants in South Africa. In 1898 he sent back bulbs to his family in Newton Abbot. In 1904, they were named Bowdenii in his honour.
Mrs. Marigold Seager-Berry (née Cornish-Bowden) has descendants of these original bulbs still growing in her garden at Blackhall in South Devon.
NAAS members, with Mrs.Seager-Berry (centre, wearing dark blue top), were very pleased to be able to visit her garden to view them in bloom.
Descendants of some of the original bulbs sent back in 1898.
Members also visited Bickham House garden, where Steve Eyre holds a National Collection of Nerine Sarniensis.
Steve, just visible in the doorway, with visitors to his polytunnel.
Beautiful blooms, en masse and ..........
........ in close up.
Nerine Sarniensis Nicety.
Steve also has a magnificent display of Nerine Bowdenii, both pink and white.
Nerine Bowdenii Nikita.
Friday 14th October - Bramdean Gardens - one of the sites participating in the RHS Nerine Bowdenii Trials
Beautiful blooms on established plants in the garden borders.
NAAS Committee member Roy Prior checking the progress of plants in the trial beds.
Sat.15th Oct. - Exbury Gardens
Outside the Five Arrows Gallery ......
..... a beautiful display of Nerine Bowdenii
..... and in close-up.
Inside the Five Arrows Gallery, Theo has created a beautiful exhibition of Nerine Sarniensis.
Straw bales, pumpkins, dried hops and other seed heads enhance the displays with an autumnal theme.
Displayed amongst the Nerines are a variety of interesting sculptures by Long Ly, Sculptor in Residence at Exbury.
Leaving the Gallery exhibition in the care of Theo's wife, Sally,
off to the glasshouse and the usual brilliant display of well-known and new varieties, at varying stages in their flowering seasons.
The beautiful soft pink N. Sarniensis Marie-Louise Agius
and others yet to be named,
but all showing their distinctive glitter in the sunlight.
As always, we are very grateful to the gentlemen responsible for the plants and displays:
below, on the right, NAAS President Nicholas De Rothschild with the new Exbury Head Gardener, Tom Clarke,
and Theo Herselman, (on the left!!) who cares for the Nerines in the glasshouse and produces the wonderful displays in the Gallery.
Sun.16th Oct. Ken Hall's Nerine Collection at Springbank Nursery, Isle of Wight.
A display of beautiful Nerine Sarniensis.
Careful study by NAAS members of Ken's N. Sarniensis in his glasshouse.
Not just Nerines to be admired .....
Outside, an impressive display of Nerine Bowdenii with Ken in discussion with a visitor.
The label says 'E B Anderson', which appears to be the bloom on the left. The other blooms look more akin to a pink form of Nerine Flexuosa.
Malvern Autumn Show 2016
Another magnificent display was produced by our hard-working team, with a wide variety of Amaryllids beautifully presented and a silver-gilt medal awarded.
Nerine Sarniensis blooms in a wide range of colours with written information in the foreground.
Next to the N.Sarniensis, a group of Nerine Bowdenii.
NAAS are extremely grateful to Waterperry Gardens, near Oxford, for supplying the N. Bowdenii blooms for this display.
In the background are two posters with information about the
NAAS
Expedition in 2015 to the orginal locations in the Eastern Cape of South
Africa from where the first examples of Nerine Bowdenii were sent back
to Devon by Athelstan Cornish-Bowden in 1897.
We exhibited other examples of Amaryllids, besides Nerines.....
..... including an arrangement of Allium seed heads and .....
....... the blue and white blooms of Agapanthus kindly supplied by NAAS member, and Chelsea Gold Medallist, Steve Hickman.
Chelsea Flower Show 2016
Congratulations to the following exhibitors who won Gold Medals at this year's Chelsea Flower Show:
Steve Hickman at Hoyland Plant Centre,
Chris Osbourne at Kelnan Plants.
Avon Bulbs
If there are others with NAAS connections who have been missed from this page, many apologies - and please let us know about them!
Steve Hickman's stand at Chelsea which included Nerines and Amarines as well as Agapanthus.
Nerine Bowdenii.
Nerine 'Favourite'.
Amarine Aphrodite.
Steve and John David giving close attention to all the details.
Cameramen taking a great interest in Steve's stand.
Carol Klein commented on TV how amazing it was to see the Nerines (Autumn flowering) on display alongside the Summer flowering Agapanthus.
Steve Hickman also had a stand at the Toby Buckland Garden Festival at Powderham Castle in Devon in April this year. The Nerines looked beautiful at that event also and generated a lot of interest as well as bulb sales.
