Key facts:
- Size: 1-acre 19th century walled garden
- Age: Founded in 1997 by Nick Macer
- Planting Style: The nursery carries rare and desirable trees, shrubs, exotics, climbers, bamboos and more. It’s a serious plantsman’s nursery. There is a naturalistic planting style in the display garden that occupies roughly half of the 1-acre site.
- Open to the Public: Yes, the Pan Global plants nursery and garden is open to the public. Check their website for opening times.
George’s Jungle Garden visits Pan Global Plants
Hey there! In this video, you’ll meet George, a super enthusiastic plant enthusiast from the Georges Jungle Garden YouTube Channel. George is on a mission to explore Pan Global Plants, a nursery run by the amazing Nick Macer. Nick is a plant wizard, known for sourcing the rarest and most desirable exotic, temperate, and subtropical plants. George takes us on a delightful stroll through the nursery’s display garden, where they chat about plants and share some fantastic design tips. It’s a must-watch for plant lovers!
“ We’re the very top of the West country and the very bottom of the Midlands actually, and we’re not by the sea. We’re by a river and all the cold air is sinking right down here”
Nick told George that his plant nursery might look exotic, but it’s actually in a pretty chilly part of the UK. The secret to Nick’s success is creating tiny microclimates and getting plants from places with similar climates. He’s got some massive specimens in his garden, like a 20-year-old Trachycarpus wagnerianus and seed-grown Agaves that are over 15 years old. However, despite growing t these incredible plants, Nick still loses some specimens to the harsh winters.
“Rare is rare and tricky is tricky”
While taking a stroll through the Pan Global nursery gardens, Nick was eager to share that not all rare plants are difficult to grow. As he chatted with George, he made a great point: “Rare is rare, tricky is tricky, and there’s a lot in between.” It’s true that rare plants can be elusive for various reasons, not just because they’re tricky to grow. Maybe they’re new to cultivation, recently sourced from the wild, or they have an unusual form that’s only popular among enthusiasts. On the other hand, tricky plants can also become rare in cultivation because most growers struggle to grow them successfully. But here’s the thing, even common plants can be tricky to grow well sometimes.
“Certain things are contrived in the British landscape, like having Trachycarpus palms….I think you make them less harsh in the landscape with softer things and I personally like the contrast.”
Nick and George have made a brilliant point here! The contrast between big, bold architectural foliage and softer, more graceful plants really brings out each one’s unique beauty. It’s all too easy for us gardeners to get caught up in one style and end up with a garden full of the same leaf or flower forms. That way, the contrast doesn’t really shine the spotlight on the plant’s features. In tropical-style gardens, big leaf plants can quickly lose their ‘wow factor’ if there’s nothing smaller beside them to provide contrast.
“ Part of the joy of this garden, I think, is the natural self sowing and I edit.”
In the Pan Global garden Nick lets Fennels self-seed through the garden, the swaying grasses hybridise and also self-sow their way around. Each of these softens the more rigid foliage of plants like Trachycarpus and Agave.
“ To soften that brutal form with grasses, perennials or whatever, for me that ticks all the boxes.”
When asked what makes a garden beautiful for him, Nick very beautifully explained that for him beauty is not enough. Nick loves to source and use plants that are rare, different from the norm and that work well in their landscape. Nick, a highly successful plantsman and plant hunter, explained that for hi a garden must also be botanically interesting.
“ When designing gardens, a lot of people just go for beauty, for me that’s not enough. I want beauty plus botanical interest.”
Plants to look out for:
- Rheum ‘Great Bere’
- Tetrapanax ‘Rex’
- Boehmeria ‘Kyushu Rishiki’
- Heracleum lehmannianum
- Sanguisorba applannata
- Agave ovatifolia
- Digitalis ferruninea
