If visiting nurseries and reading plant catalogues ever gives you that impression that the famous plant-hunters, Wilson and the rest, have got the world pretty well sewn up and there’s little else to discover, have a peep at the catalogue of Crug Farm Plants. Bleddyn and Sue Wynn Jones, from their Welsh pastures within sight of Iris Mon (Anglesey to you or me) have spent decades in remote parts of the world finding and recording hundreds of plants you probably never heard of. They’re still at it, and their website will make your mouth water.
Their ever-changing website tells the story. A large part of their stock of new introductions don’t even have names yet: they go by collection numbers. Some should even have warnings attached. One climber of theirs I planted shinned up and over our Welsh stone mine building in a single season, sneaking into every gap in the stones, so that we still haven’t entirely got rid of it five years later. Not that I’d put you off experimenting. St Christopher looks after travellers; who looks after gardeners?
