Yes September is the deadline for signing up for next years NGS openings.
At the end of our last opening this year, the plant stall was decidedly empty, So we have been on forays out to get plants we can grow on through the winter and split them up in spring. Also to get some plants for ourselves as well. One trip to 2 nurseries was 150 miles round trip.
We had one visitor come up to me and say " I see you have the National collection". of what I said, puzzled, Phlox said the lady. Well we have 24 different Phlox paniculata, and 4 maculata with a couple of carolina as well, but nothing like a National collection.
We have already started moving some plants around, and getting rid of a few we don't like after all
.We have divided up some Iris sibirica and ensata as they were getting congested. We now have over 100 of them in 2litre pots, for next years plant stall
There will be lots of Phlox and Monarda to thin out in the spring, so back to the same old problem, where to store them till next July.
We use a lot of 2 and 3 litre pots, so far in the 9 years of opening we have not had to buy any. Several years ago I was at a job mending the washing machine, and we gat talking gardens, I ended up coming away with a van full of pots the owner had collected over time, and was storing them in a spare shed, we are stiil using some of those. We also have a sign on the end of the plant stall facing the road, asking for people to recycle pots by lobbing them over the gate for us.
Malcolm
