The Coach House Garden Plant Sale

Last Friday I went to the September Coach House Garden specialist plant sale, it's sadly my final plant fair of 2017; Open Studios this Sunday is clashing with the final Rare Plant Fair being held at Llanover House near Abergavenny on Sunday. Specialist and Rare Plant Fairs follow the same sort of pattern, they are usually held in a lovely garden, and at least 15 nurseries attend with a large selection of plants they have grown themselves and are able to tell you about optimal growing conditions. The Coach House Garden at Ampney Crucis holds sales in March, April, May and September every year with some of the leading nurseries in the country bringing a wide range of rare and interesting plants. The garden at The Coach House is beautifully laid out with several rooms, a water feature and a vegetable garden

 

here's the well ordered vegetable garden

 a lovely stone seat in the vegetable garden

 and the view through an arch into the part of the garden with the water feature running through it.

 And in a lovely courtyard, you can look up and see a delightful balcony leading from a bedroom.

The main plant sales area is on the main lawn area

 Most people look round all the stalls, and then make their final choice of plants to buy, always a difficult decision, there are so many fabulous plants in wonderful condition

 Look at these Nerines, tempting.

 I do love these Hydrangeas

 I do like very tall plants, I bought Ratibida pinnata yellow cone flower from DK Plants, visible on the left of the very tall yellow flowers

 and these Heucheras called Cherry Cola, had the most fabulous leaves and red flowers

 I do like the exuberant grasses as well

In the end I bought another Echinacea, I love Tomato Soup, so I'm trying again with that one.

I've cleared a Fuchsia out of a border which had too much sun and heat for it to grow well, and hope I can keep the slugs off it.

I was very pleased to see Derry Watkins from Special Plants with several small Iochroma australe, mini Angel's trumpets. I liked everything I bought, I'm particularly looking forward to siting a Clematis I bought from Marcus Dancer, he has a fabulous selection of scented late summer flowering ones.