columnist: scott galloway
I am starting the New Year by reminiscing about one of my favourite garden visits of 2023. In late September, I had the opportunity to visit Cally Gardens, a walled garden nursery in Gatehouse of Fleet, formerly owned by the late Michael Wickenden and now being restored as a biodiversity garden by Kevin Hughes.
The garden is a plant person’s paradise, tucked away in the south west of Scotland with an unrivalled collection of wild plants from across the world, most of which were collected by Michael on his many expeditions to places such as Myanmar, China, and the Himalayas. It is undoubtedly one of Scotland’s great gardens but one that unfortunately fell into decline following Michael’s tragic and untimely death, so it is wonderful to have Kevin steering the garden in a new direction, protecting and conserving its horticultural jewels for the future.
Travelling through Cally Woods on a narrow road bounded on either side by young oak, birch, sycamore, and beech trees lends a magical, almost spiritual element, to the visiting experience as it leads you to the walled garden hidden in the forest. As you enter through the gate, the garden appears unruly yet romantic, surprising you at every turn. Beds and borders bursting with plants spill out over the paths forcing you to turn back or push through thickets of foliage to get to the other side. It may appear messy to some but this is a garden that puts nature and ecology first, we are only guests invited to navigate and admire.
There are very few labels and for those that you do find it is best to heed Kevin’s advice, “Don’t trust them!”. A garden nursery like this tests the boundaries of a plant person’s identification skills, but also adds an element of thrill when admiring an unlabelled Buddleja with highly attractive elongated drip tips, or a Rodgersia with enormous leaves and a creamy inflorescence. Most of the plants growing in the garden can be traced to an expedition, with one section in the lower walled garden even named ‘Yunnan’.
As I explored the garden I found borders bursting with unusual and interesting plants from around the world, from the large leaved Anemone fanninii, which I mistook for a Rodgersia, to purple flowering Aster of all kinds, to swathes of golden flowering Solidago set against the red inflorescence of Rodgersia ‘Cally Hybrids’. An exceptional silver leaved form of Actinidia engulfed a whole section of the west facing wall, growing alongside a collection of unusual Eucryphia species (such as E. milliganii and an interesting compact form), an unrivalled tree for pollinators when in flower in late summer. Geraniums of all kinds spilled out over borders and as I tried to identify a Bergenia from Russia, I watched Kevin plant a group of Roscoea (hardy gingers) in a newly cultivated bed.
The sheer number of plants was almost overwhelming. I could have quite easily spent a whole weekend there with Kevin chatting about plants, biodiversity, and Kevin’s future plans for the garden.
Before leaving, I could not resist buying some plants. I had already agreed with Kevin to take Bergenia divisions to support my research and spent an hour running around the garden filling large zip lock bags with cuttings of 20+ unnamed species and cultivars. Rather excitingly, I found some growing in the ‘Yunnan’ section, a region of China rich in species diversity and high in endemism.
As it was late in the season with the plants moving toward a period of dormancy, Kevin generously took some divisions of Rodgersia for me. This included many Cally selections made by Michael, such as ‘Cally Coffee’, ‘Cally Salmon’ and ‘Cally Hybrids’, as well as the aforementioned large leaved form growing in the ‘Yunnan’ section and described as Rodgersia ex. China.
I was also keen to find a Mahonia trifoliolata (now Berberis trifoliolata), a desert holly native to South Texas, but as Kevin couldn’t find a potted plant he shared something even better with me: a Mahonia freemontii. This desert holly from SW USA and New Mexico is rarely found in cultivation, yet it is a beautiful plant with highly attractive glaucous foliage and red berries in summer. Kevin was also able to share two more Mahonia with me: M. duclouxiana and M. gracilipes, two very beautiful and quite unique Chinese species with the latter being particularly graceful (and less spiky!)
Cally is a garden that calls to all those who are truly passionate about plants. There is something truly magical about its non-conformity, its ‘untidiness’ and the way it fosters difficult conversations about plant conservation, biodiversity loss, and climate change. Thankfully, Kevin is leading the charge, taking Cally in a new direction, showing how horticulture and ecology can thrive in a modern day nursery. Though change might be on the horizon, the spirit of Cally and the legacy of Michael will never be lost.
Scott Galloway is a Glasgow based horticulturist currently working in biodiversity policy development in local government. He has worked in horticulture for over 6 years in various roles across the National Trust for Scotland, Royal Horticultural Society, and Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh.
Scott is a researcher of Bergenia and has built a collection of more than 150 plants, from which he produced the first ever phylogeny of the genus in 2023. He is now expanding his work to include the study of another garden favourite, Rodgersia, and is interested in growing a wide range of Himalayan, Central and East Asian plants. He is also specialises in herb growing, and has recently leased a horticultural facility from which he hopes to propagate some of the many interesting and unusual plants in his collection.
Follow Scott on Instagram for more chat and watch his bergenia collection grow on @thebergenlist!