About Special Plants

 Special Plants is a garden, nursery and online seed shop run by Derry Watkins near Bath in Southwest England. The site was purchased in 1996 as a derelict barn surrounded by muddy fields, and has since been converted into a thriving garden, home and business.

 Derry is author of two books on greenhouse gardening and has introduced many plants from her plant collecting trips to South Africa and elsewhere. The result is a collection of unusual plants from all over the world, including an amazing range of hardy herbaceous and rockery plants as well as many tender perennials for terrace and conservatory.

About the Nursery

 For forty years I have been avidly and unashamedly plantaholic. About twenty-five years ago I started the Nursery as a way of justifying all the plants I just had to buy. Against everyone’s advice, I began by specializing in tender perennials – plants which need frost protection in winter. Irritating because you must remember to take cuttings and bring them inside, delightful because they are some of the longest blooming and most beautiful of all plants.

 Of course, I also grow many hardy plants as well, usually those which are difficult to find elsewhere. I only grow plants I love at the moment, so the list is always changing. Recently both grasses and biennials have taken more and more prominence. I did a black and white exhibit at Chelsea, came home and made a black and white border in the garden and as a result have a minor avalanche of very dark and very pale foliage plants. In 1999 we started selling seeds as well as plants.

 Sue Elcock, nursery manager, keeps us afloat when I think we will drown in plants. Her unflappable efficiency and warm humour, keep all the parttime helpers happy and busy, allowing me to go off collecting more plants with a clear conscience. In 1993 I won a Winston Churchill Travelling Fellowship to spend three months plant hunting in South Africa, and I have been back since collecting seeds. Trips to India, Nepal, Chile, Turkey and Bulgaria have resulted in many new plants.

 The nursery is organized according to the needs of the plants – ‘Plants for Damp Shade’, ‘ Plants for Dry Sun’, ‘Tender Plants’ etc. Come and visit and see if you don’t think we are well named – Special Plants!

 MAIL ORDER We do mail order of plants between September and March only. There is a £10 minimum plant order and a £15 delivery charge to mainland UK. Seeds can ordered all year round and can be sent to most countries.

In 1996, we bought a derelict barn with the roof collapsing. My architect husband, Peter Clegg, made it into a light and airy house with a wall of Streptocarpus instead of curtains. We would not want any more between us and the fantastic view.

 We are on a steep hill at the top of an idyllic valley, but the house was surrounded by muddy fields. I was busy moving the nursery and had no time to make a garden. Peter had never made a garden before, but he designed and built a garden here on several levels with graceful flowing curves. I planted it with my favourite things.

 We have heavy clay soil. Most plants thrive, but I love Mediterranean plants and I knew they would hate it, so the first thing I did was make a gravel garden. The plants loved it and so did I, so we made a second gravel garden.

 We have springs so there are ponds with trickling water between and a bog garden.

 In 1999 I did an exhibit at Chelsea, called “What’s Black and White and Red Only Occasionally?” When I came back I planted a new black and white border (perhaps purple and silver would be more accurate).

 Some years later Peter planted the ‘Empty Quarter’ – a circle of beech trees around plain gravel, then a vegetable garden and an orchard with a Miscanthus hedge between lawn and field, grass dividing grass from grass.

 We made a woodland walk through the scrubby woods down one side of the garden with a magic carpet bridge that ripples up and over a tiny stream. We lost several trees this winter so it may be less of a woodland this summer. Nothing stays the same

 Peter’s Shapes in the Landscape, sculpted hedging, a mystery to me when he started, is the crowning glory of the garden. But he cannot stop. Now he is sculpting the surrounding fields with the help of our friendly digger driver

 Over time the garden has grown and bloomed beyond our wildest expectations.