Anyone with a hint of green-fingered knowledge will know that when it comes to prestige, the Dibleys Nursery certainly takes the Lomatium (the biscuit root, to you and me).
This is the nursery that has won no fewer than 25 gold medals in the Chelsea Flower Show and over 250 golds in other Royal Horticultural Society shows throughout the UK.
But last weekend Dibleys Nursery was introduced to a Pembrokeshire nursery that has now joined it on the gold winner’s platform at the RHS’s highly prestigious Malvern Spring Festival.
“I’m still waiting for someone to tap me on the shoulder and tell me it didn’t happen,” said Sandra Williams, 24-hours after returning to the award-winning Corseside Nursery in Angle Road.
“To arrive at that 200-metre long marquee in Malvern along with the 49 other nurseries which are among the best in the UK, was beyond comprehension.
"And on Monday morning, 35 of them packed up and headed off to the Chelsea Flower Show, where they’ll go on to win even more gold medals.”
From the moment she arrived at Malvern, Sandra knew her stand was going to be somewhat nonconformist.
“Everyone else had these immaculate black cloths covering their tables and their plants had been arranged in black shiny pots, but ours had old fishing pots that I’d found on the beach and loads of other recycled stuff. But the RHS must have liked what they saw.”
Sandra pinned her hopes on gaining a silver or, at the very least, a bronze.
“The one award I definitely didn’t want was a highly commended,” she laughs.
“We were all chucked out of the marquee at around 2pm on the Friday afternoon and told not to go back in until the following morning. I woke up at five and needed to know straight away what award I’d got. So I snuck under the tent canopy, went to my stand and saw the gold. I couldn’t believe it, as the RHS rules and regulations are so high.”
Sandra’s accolades continued when she returned home and received a call from Gardener’s World, informing her that their team will be visiting her garden later this summer to film for a future edition of the programme.
Her gardening success is particularly profound given the fact that when she moved to her property near Angle 30 years ago, her gardening knowledge was non existent.
“I bought an acre and a half of short grass and in no time at all it was two feet high. What the hell was that all about? So someone gave me some sheep as I couldn’t cope.
“All my friends had the gardening knowledge, but their backs had gone and couldn’t do much to help me apart from give me a headful of information and a car load of cuttings.”
And so began Sandra’s mission to create her garden.
“In those days my children were very young and I was also taking care of my grandparents and later my mother, so the amount of time I had in the garden was pretty limited.”
Because her land is fed by a well, Sandra quickly realised that thirsty plants such as delphiniums and lupins were too demanding on water. And so her attentions turned towards the drought-tolerant succulents which have since become her speciality.
Her massive collection includes around 40 different varieties of aeoniums ranging from the tree-like four-footers to the smaller, more petite plants.
“They stand outside all summer and then come inside for the winter as they can’t tolerate the cold,” explained Sandra. “And the wonderful thing is that when you come back from your fortnight’s holiday, they’re still alive as they don’t need much to drink.”
When the covid pandemic took hold in 2020, Sandra realised that her plants would now have to be sold online.
“My daughter, Rosie, is an incredibly clever girl with websites as she’s a professional wedding photographer, but she never got her hands dirty with plants. So I told her during lockdown to get online and start selling. And this is precisely what she did via eBay, Amazon and Etsy.”
Needless to say, the Corseside Nursery hasn’t looked back.
Sandra is currently reconstructing the award-winning Malvern garden at the Corseside Nursery and locals will be able to visit it at an open day on July 15.
Anyone wishing to visit sooner can book an appointment by emailing corsesidenursery@btinternet.com or by phoning 01646 641505.
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