Our condolences go to all at Chiltern Seeds, our wonderful seed sponsors whose founder Douglas Bowden recently passed away. Meeting Douglas (the company is based near me in Cumbria) and experimenting with their vast range of seeds was a turning point in my gardening life, an one that leads directly to my approach to Abbey Gardens.

I have reproduced an article I wrote on Chiltern Seeds in 2004, on our Somewhere blog here.
Here is an extract:

Over a cup of tea in the living room, I compliment him on those idiosyncratic catalogue entries so beloved of CS fans -an example, characteristically witty but not without pathos 'Magnolia campbellii....Such glory takes many years to achieve but, an object lesson, had we sown a packet when we arrived at Bortree Stile in 1980 (seems but yesterday!) we would have something marvellous to look forward to to this spring - we didn't and we don't! " He concedes that he enjoys the sourcing and describing of new items the most of all aspects of the business and cites a heavy US tome 'Cornucopia' from which he derives much advice on edible plants. Cunningly, if a plant is shown to be edible it escapes VAT, so his scholarly curiosity accompanies a shrewd business sense, confirmed by his dedicated lobbying on the subject of US export legislations. Sales are stable, he says, despite TV makeover shows making seed-sowing look like a very distant cousin to the plants shoe-horned into the average suburban plot.

Topics: [seeds]

Posted February 25, 2010 10:54 by Karen Guthrie