GARDENING FOR THE FUTURE
On 30 January ODGC was delighted to welcome back Jack Willgoss of Wildegoose Nursery, Munslow. Twenty years ago Jack and his wife, Laura, developed a derelict two acre site comprising Millichope Park’s former kitchen garden which had been untouched since the 1950s. Their intention was to create a nursery showcasing choice perennials, bulbs and grasses. The site consisted of rough pasture containing little wildlife with derelict glasshouses. The latter were found to be Georgian and have been restored.
They run Widlegoose Nursery in Lower Millichope in Shropshire. It is a small independent nursery with garden housed within the old redbrick walls of a former kitchen garden, nestled in the beautiful Shropshire Hills.
They started the nursery as specialist growers of hardy perennial violas, but their passion for plants has always extended beyond this to encompass a wide range of flowering perennials and grasses. They offer an ever expanding plant list of exciting new perennial introductions and longstanding favourites. The garden at Millichope showcases these wonderful plants in exuberantly planted borders. The garden also functions as stock beds from which Laura and Jack propagate. It is also where they continually test the garden worthiness of the plants they sell.
This talk covers the principles of good border design: structure, balance, maintenance and above all the plants themselves – which to choose and inspiring ways to combine them.
