The Beech Gardeners turned out in force for the visit to Nick and Sheila Sorby’s Holly Garden. 20 of us braved the drizzle and tramped about the garden with Nick telling us about the history of quite a few of his 90 different species of Holly.
Nick explaining about some of the Hollies
We started off down by the road and worked our way slowly up hill and steps to his front doorstep with Nick showing us a good dozen different plants just in his front garden. We then went round to the back where there were still more species.
BGs trudging up the hill
Then we trudged up the steps to the back garden and on up the slope right to the Recreation Ground at the back stopping and admiring all these different Hollies. They were fascinating – some with no prickles, some with copious prickles, some tall, some short, and even a couple with orange and yellow berries.
Nick with one of his cuttings
All in all we spent a most enjoyable afternoon with tea and cake in the conservatory afterwards.
Following is a gallery of photos, which Nick has been kind enough to name for us. They show how different all these species are and he has even put in the female “f” and male “m” genders for us. Thank you Nick and Sheila for such an entertaining afternoon
Sheila and some of the BGs listening carefully
More BGs concentrating
