A Cumbrian wisteria enthusiast has been invited to exhibit her blooms at the prestigious Chelsea Flower Show this May.
Fiona Butcher, from Broughton-in-Furness, has collected wisteria plants since 2000 and in 2016 her garden became a Plant Heritage National Plant Collection.
Fiona's passion for the purple plants grew into an enormous collection which since 2022 she has shared with Brantwood at their historic house and arts centre at Coniston who she will co-exhibit with next month.
It was a memorable encounter that started Fiona's interest in the flowers.
"The first time I ever saw one was up at my mother-in-law’s house," she said.
"Opposite there was a derelict cottage and it was absolutely covered in wisteria, it was right over the front and over the roof and down over the other side, and it was a mass of purple.
"I just thought, ‘I’m going to have to have one of those’, because they’re just so lovely."
One significant misconception about wisteria is that you need a large space to grow it in - Fiona notes that this in not actually the case.
"The ethos of the collection, both here and at Brantwood is about growing wisteria in a small space," she said.
"People imagine them to be these huge things that are hard to fit but all we have do is prune them back.
"We prune them to keep them within a size that we’re happy with which is how you can grow them in a small space, and a lot of people don’t realise that.
"All you need is a pair of scissors. People are frightened of cutting them but the more you cut, the more they flower."
She notes that although she is not a trained gardener, her enthusiasm for growing the plants taught her all she needed to know and the plants have thrived within the walls of her own small garden.
While we might be used to pictures of wisteria falling in a purple tendrils across buildings, the plant can also be grown as bonsai or as a shrub, an effective way of cultivating wisteria in a small space.
Fiona also notes that wisteria are surprisingly tough plants.
"In their native environment, they’re weeds," she said.
"They scramble along roadsides, and up trees and hedgerows, so they’re hardy – not much kills them.
"Weeds always survive better than anything else."
Fiona's private collection is now set to be exhibited alongside some of Brantwood's plants at the Chelsea Flower Show in London as part of Plant Heritage's stand this year.
The challenge now is making sure the plants are at their best for the show which is organised annually by the Royal Horticultural Society.
Growing the plants in the northern climate of Cumbria, Fiona has observed, has a slightly different effect than in southern collections.
"The flowering is later and the length of the flowering season here is slightly shorter, but they do flower as profusely, we’re probably just slightly more at risk of late spring frosts.
"They don’t kill the plant, you just lose the flowers for the year, or they come later in the summer.
"How we protect them from frost is by putting up marquees overnight and taking them down in the morning."
The blooms will be exhibited at the Chelsea Flower Show from May 19 to 23.
This year's show is not only special for Fiona who is exhibiting her collection, it will also be her very first visit.
"It’s really exciting, I’m looking forward to seeing all the bonsai exhibitions and all the gardens in general, everything about it really," she said.
"I think there’ll be a real buzz, we’ll be really exhausted by the end of the week!"
Fiona's garden was featured in 2017 by BBC's Gardener's World and visits can be made by appointment to view the private collection there.
The wisteria blooms cared for by Fiona are also available to visit at Brantwood which is open daily to the public.
For more information about how to care for wisteria and visit the collections, visit Fiona's website, Cumbria Wisteria at https://www.cumbriawisteria.co.uk/.
