This year (2023), I went to my first carnivorous plant open day at Hampshire Carnivorous Plants. I have visited several nurseries in the past and even have seen a few displays by growers at various shows and events but I have never got the chance to actually go to an open day with other growers of all of kinds.
I arranged with another carnivorous plant grower friend to go up on the late June open day as this would be when all the plants looked their best. This is something I had looked forward to all year and was so excited when the day finally came round, I even found an excuse to wear my carnivorous plant themed T-shirt I was gifted on my birthday earlier in the year. It was great to go to an open day with another like minded grower where we got to chat about all things carnivorous plants all day and admire every little detail from the plants.
We arrived shortly after the open day started and there was already many growers looking around, it is best to get there early to get the first look at what plants are available for sale and speak to a lot of the other growers there.
We decided to go and view the outside bog gardens first which were bursting with colour and different shapes and colours. I really admire bog gardens and Matt has created a great example showing off various genera and species of carnivorous plants that can be grown outside year round, it attracted a lot of attention with many people there and there was also lots of interest with people wanting to create their own.
Hampshire include Sarracenia, Dionaea, Drosera, Darlingtonia, Pinguicula and even Cephalotus outside in the bog gardens which get no protection over winter and I love that it is a great feature point at the open day as it allows more people to explore and understand the hardiness of these plants.
The bog gardens at Hampshire
After a good look round outside we decided to head into the greenhouses. We were able to have a little look round before getting to speak to Matt, I had spoken to him the weekend previous at Gardeners World so was lovely to have a proper chat. He showed both me and my friend around and explained all the work he was currently doing as well as his experiments within going peat-free. It was so lovely to speak to a likeminded grower like Matt and we were so appreciative that he took time to show us around behind the scenes and recommend some lovely plants to us.
Hampshire Carnivorous Plants Display at Gardeners World Live
We had already spent a good couple of hours at the open day and had also bumped into a couple of people who recognised me from my YouTube which was lovely to also speak to some of the people who had been following my work which I appreciated so much. I had only picked up a couple of plants at this point and decided that I wanted to make the long journey to get to the open day count, so we had lunch and decided to go round one more time to see if we missed any plants we wanted to purchase.
Some images from inside the Greenhouses
I had set out to find a dark throated moorei at the open day and was able to come out with 2 different dark throated moorei selects as well as another one of Matts hybrids.
Some of the tables of hybrids were stunning, the colours and the unique differences between each plant were incredible. It reminded me why I love to grow Sarracenia from seed due to how much difference you can get in a batch of seedlings.
I ended up getting 6 new plants including 5 new Sarracenia and 1 Drosera.
My new plants were:
- G10 HC226 X S x moorei select
- G10 HC226 X S x moorei select
- F3 S. flava var. atropurpurea, all red form (Blackwater, N. Florida)
- S. 'Asbo' x 'Disp 7'
- SHOG1 S.cv Rita Soper x H794
- D. spatulata x ultramifica
My plant purchases in order according to the list above
