Out of the ordinary The

Nurseryman Tim Fuller outside the potting shed of The Plantsman’s Preference, the nursery he founded more than 20 years ago with his mother Jenny. Specialising in grasses, geraniums and other herbaceous perennials, it sells an intriguing selection of unusual plants.

WORDS MATTHEW REESE PHOTOGRAPHS JASON INGRAM

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t isn’t difficult to find The Plantsman’s Preference nursery in

Ithe relatively flat landscape of the Norfolk countryside. The nursery, on the edge of the snug village of South Lopham, sits just across the road from the 12th-century church of St Andrew’s, a stately local landmark with an impressively tall tower that can be seen for miles around.

Owned and run by Tim Fuller, the nursery is sited on a plot of about five acres, which it has steadily grown into over the years. Although herbaceous perennials make up the bulk of the nursery’s stock, there are many interesting shrubs and climbers suitable for a variety of garden situations, and even a few tender gems to be found.

Tim points out that the challenging East Anglian climate, with bitterly cold winters and long periods without rain during the summer, can make it difficult to grow certain types of plants. “Lots of the recent introductions from southeast Asia just don’t like it here,” he says. “We do have a history of growing grasses and geraniums. These have become two of the bestselling groups of plants and do particularly well in the local climate.” A favourite of Tim’s is Geranium ‘Blue Cloud’, with pale-blue blooms that he says make it a striking garden plant. He also offers a huge back catalogue of grasses. “Over the past 20-30 years, I have grown about 800 grasses, sedges and rushes, but now it’s only about 350. The one thing I’ve always done is to find a group or family that I’ve not grown before, collect quite a lot of them, and whittle them down to a range of good doers.”

Tim started the nursery on the back of a childhood interest in growing plants. Growing up, he used to help his mother, Jenny, 3

1 Iris lutescens subsp. subbiflora A compact bearded iris with dark, violet-scented flowers on compact plants and waxy greygreen foliage. It needs full sun and sharp drainage – suitable for a rock garden, sink or alpine house. 30cm. RHS H5† . 2 Epimedium grandiflorum ‘Purple Pixie’ A lovely selection with purple and amethyst flowers. Each flower has four thin spurs and is held above carpets of pretty foliage. Old foliage is best removed in winter, so the new foliage and flowers can be fully appreciated. 45cm. RHS H5, USDA 5a-8b. 3 Angelica pachycarpa Grown by Tim for its “amazing glossy green leaves, followed by strong stems bearing heads of yellow-green flowers”. It is monocarpic, so collect seed and sow immediately. Young foliage makes a lovely foil for spring bulbs. 1.4m. RHS H5.

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4 Trillium chloropetalum Trilliums make wonderful woodland plants, and this is one of the largest and easiest to grow. Foliage and flower parts are held in threes. The leaves are marbled in green and brown and the flowers are a burgundy colour. 40cm. RHS H5. 5 Geranium malviflorum This early flowering geranium grows through the winter and flowers in spring. It goes dormant during summer, resting as tubers. The blue, mallow-like flowers are decorated with darker veins. 40cm. RHS H5. 6 Hedera nepalensis ‘Roy Lancaster’ Grown for its foliage, this form of H. nepalensis has large, lobeless, teardrop-shaped leaves. The new growth is an attractive shade of rusty red. It is self-clinging and good for a shady wall where a dark green background is called for. 2.4m. RHS H5, USDA 7a-10b.

to propagate fuchsias for the local fuchsia society and for the Women’s Institute. This interest continued through his childhood, and when the family moved to Norfolk, he developed a liking for alpines. Aged 16, Tim volunteered for Paul Whittaker, the proprietor of the Norfolk-based PW Plants and a stalwart of RHS shows. It was here Tim cut his teeth in the nursery trade, gaining a hands-on education in the skills vital to running a nursery and showing plants.

In April 1996, Tim started his own nursery with Jenny, who had worked at Blooms of Bressingham and ran her own design practice. The nursery was located in the back garden, and it quickly expanded, selling plants at fairs and through mail order. It wasn’t long before the business outgrew the third-of-an-acre site, and after much searching, Tim and Jenny finally found a larger home close to the market town of Diss. When they moved to the new site in October 2000, it was a blank canvas, open to the winter easterlies that, as Tim says, “come straight from Russia”. It needed shelter, which they added in the form of rapidly growing willow Salix alba var. vitellina ‘Britzensis’, which battles against the biting gales, along with a potting shed, sales area and polytunnels.

Sadly, Jenny passed away in 2010. It was a difficult time for Tim, as his mother had been his inspiration, and he was left at something of a crossroads. It was difficult to staff the nursery, and he found he needed to buy in plants from local wholesalers just to keep the business “ticking over”. Fortuitously, in April 2011, plantswoman Sally Harrison arrived at The Plantsman’s Preference looking for a job, having recently returned to the area. Sally had previously worked for Beth Chatto

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7 Erysimum cheiri ‘Baden-Powell’ An old cultivar with double canary-yellow flowers on a short woody frame. It needs cosseting, sharp drainage and full sun, and is best refreshed via cuttings when it starts to tire. A charming plant and well worth the attention it demands. 35cm. RHS H5. 8 Oxalis oregana f. smalliana A rhizomatous perennial that hails from the redwood forests on the west coast of the USA, the diminutive redwood sorrel makes attractive carpets of clover-like foliage and red, pretty, round flowers. It likes light soils and a shady aspect. 20cm. RHS H5. 9 Primula ‘Lady Greer’ A pretty Juliana type primrose, making neat rosettes of foliage and short stems of dainty, palest yellow flowers held in loose trusses. It likes rich, moist soils and is best split every three years or so to promote vigour. 15cm. RHS H5. 10 Alstroemeria brasiliensis ‘Cally Star’ A white-variegated form with dirty-pink flowers that are marked with green and black streaks. The new foliage is attractive, and after flowering, it can be hacked back to promote a second flush in August. 1m. RHS H5.

Turn the page for more choices from The Plantsman’s Preference

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11 Geranium platyanthum This is a wild-collected geranium from far eastern Russia, and it makes large mounds of fresh green foliage, sometimes tinged red. The sky-blue flowers hover in small trusses on short stems. 45cm. RHS H5. 12 Persicaria chinensis var. hispida Similar to P. ‘Indian Summer’ but in Tim’s opinion possibly an improvement. It produces clusters of small, bright red-pink flowers on rangy stems. New leaves are tinged pink and age to green. It inhabits rocky stream sides in the high eastern Himalayas. 50cm. RHS H4. 13 Hedera helix ‘Buttercup’ A climber that Tim has cultivated since childhood for its “lovely butter-yellow foliage – a version of English ivy but slower than the green form”. They also have an arborescent (adult) form, which makes a shrub. 2.5m. AGM*. RHS H5. 14 Dicentra cucullaria ‘Pittsburg’ A treasure Tim bought nearly 30 years ago from Elizabeth Strangman’s Washfield Nursery. A larger version of the normal form, it makes clumps of ferny foliage with white, spurred flowers that resemble teeth. 30cm. RHS H5.

*Holds an Award of Garden Merit from the Royal Horticultural Society. †Hardiness ratings given where available.

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and more recently with Michael Wickenden at Cally Gardens near Dumfries in Scotland, and she brought with her a wealth of knowledge, as well as plenty of new ideas and energy. It was exactly what the nursery needed. “Things have completely transformed since then,” says Tim. Now the nursery propagates everything on-site, which allows far more freedom in what it can offer for sale.

For Tim, relying on wholesalers meant that the nursery risked offering a very similar catalogue to many other nurseries, and he and Sally prefer to offer more of “the weird, the new and the rare”, as Tim puts it. Sally also brought in new plants from Cally, and when Michael Wickenden tragically died in 2016, The Plantsman’s Preference acquired more of the garden’s plants. Some of these, such as Himalayan blue poppies, have not been successful in Norfolk, but the nursery has a collection of unidentified roses that Michael collected, which it is now propagating.

With new plants, and Tim and Sally’s experience and knowledge, the nursery is blossoming. Making garden-worthy, rare and unusual plants more readily available, while also offering a range of good, popular garden plants, has made The Plantsman’s Preference a notable and inspiring nursery for interested gardeners. n

USEFUL INFORMATION Address The Plantsman’s Preference, Church Road, South Lopham, Diss, Norfolk IP22 2LW. Tel 01379 710810/07799 855559. Web plantpref.co.uk Open March to end of October, Thursday – Saturday, 9.30am-5pm. 16

Top Tim Fuller in the polytunnels of The Plantsman’s Preference. Since the arrival of Sally Harrison from Cally Gardens the nursery propagates everything on site. 15 Arisaema thunbergii A tuberous perennial from the woodlands of eastern Asia. Its hooded pinstriped flowers cower beneath large, exotic-looking foliage. Tim recommends it as a tough, reliable species that has survived the worst winters without problems; an excellent Arisaema to start with. 40cm. RHS H4, USDA 5a-9b. 16 Pelargonium papilionaceum Not frost hardy, this largegrowing pelargonium makes a dramatic specimen grown in a pot or bedded out in a sunny border. It makes mounds of vine-like, scented foliage and small pink flowers. Feed during the growing season and strike cuttings in late summer. 2m. RHS H3.