Hillview Hardy Plants
Shropshire's Finest Quality Garden Plants

2008 is a year we do not want to repeat!

The summer was rotten ,we lost 6 cats, through illnesses and accidents and now we are all suffering from financial melt down. 2009 must be better so let's start in an optimistic manner. The weather can't be any worse and there is no likelihood of a drought. We have a lovely young border collie called Maggie (who loves everyone), and 6 cats, the oldest being 17 and the youngest 7 months.. Edwina now back 2 days a week and we now have Tom on Tuesdays and Alice on Wednesdays, both doing courses at Rodbaston College and here for work experience

Sarah is taking over the organisation of the NCCPG exhibit at the NEC Summer Festival (Gardener's World). Anyone wishing to volunteer to help before or during the show, will be welcomed with open arms! Just phone her at the nursery or on her

Our first RHS Partnership day will be on "Practical Propagation" with a follow up on "Advanced Propagation". The second will be "Creating a South African Garden in England". As usual, if anyone would like to receive a reminder of any events or offers from the nursery, just go onto our website www.hillviewhardyplants.com and sign up for our newsletter, or ring the nursery.

We already have a mailing list for those especially interested in Auriculas and we are now preparing a mailout for those interested in Cannas. It will be available in April so let us know if you would like a copy. In with your catalogue, there is a separate list of seeds we have for sale. These have been either collected from our garden or are varieties we have been asked for and have obtained commercially and repackaged. We took them to the shows last summer and they proved very popular. Let us know if there are any you would like added to the list.

Plants which will be available during the year but may not be ready when you receive the catalogue, are in italics: please contact us if you need to know if they are ready or not. Again, an (*) denotes plants which may not be hardy with us: sandy, free draining soil, cold in winter and usually dry in summer. Otherwise, all the plants in the catalogue are guaranteed hardy on the nursery.

We have a few customers who are afraid of cats/dogs. Please phone before you visit and we can make sure you do not have to encounter whichever you don't like.

As usual, we have many shows, sales and talks during the year. If you would like plants taken to any of these, just let us know a week beforehand. Any clubs/groups wishing to pay a daytime or evening visit will be most welcome and we can arrange refreshments as required. Any customers are most welcome to have cups of tea or coffee. Just ask one of the staff and they will be happy to make one for you. Any donations will go to the RSPC