Meet the 'Delphinium Dad' Whose Yorkshire Collection Has National Plant Collection Status
A delphinium display in Yorkshire has been awarded National Plant Collection status by horticultural conservation charity Plant Heritage
Over the past 40 years keen gardener Colin Parton has grown, collected and cared for a range of Delphinium elatum cultivars in his back garden near Leeds. His passion for the plant formed at the age of 16, thanks to a trip to the Harrogate Spring Flower Show.
‘I’ve always liked delphiniums, ever since I was a young lad,’ says Colin. ‘When I was about 16, I went to the Harrogate Spring Flower Show and saw some delphiniums displayed there. They were magnificent. I just thought I’d like to grow some delphiniums as good as those. I’d never heard of some of the cultivars – Conspicuous, Michael Ayres, Kestrel. They’d obviously been forced because the Harrogate Spring Flower Show was in April, but the spikes were tremendous. They were properly elevated and grown in big pots so they did look magnificent and they just caught my eye. At the same show I bought a second-hand book on delphiniums by Frank Bishop.’
Colin and his wife Julie always hoped that when they retired they’d have a garden with lots of delphiniums. But it wasn’t until his wife sadly passed away in 2014 that Colin decided to take his passion for plants to the next level. ‘In 2015 I thought I’d make a start on that garden we were going to have,’ he says. ‘I’ve grown delphiniums for over 40 years on this site. I started to add to them and that’s how this collection came about.’
Colin’s collection now boasts a dazzling display of more than 100 different types of delphiniums, which are enjoyed by visitors at open garden days at Delph Cottage Garden, south east of Leeds, in return for a donation to Cancer Research. ‘I’ve got over 100 cultivars and 21 are on the endangered list [on Plant Heritage’s Threatened Plants Programme] so they’re hard to come by,’ Colin adds. ‘I’ve kept them going for as long as I can. A lot go out of fashion. There are very few nurseries now that sell delphiniums so they are hard to come by. They only grow cultivars that are popular. The odd balls, the oldies, which I like, they just don’t do now. I think it’s a shame.
‘It was my daughter who suggested applying for a National Plant Collection. We opened the garden initially to friends and neighbours and the word spread. It’s about telling people about the delphiniums and offering them the opportunity to see them.’
Colin’s collection is thought to the largest collection of delphiniums in the UK. The spiked plants flower from June throughout the summer and come in a range of colours, including shades of blue, purple, pink, cream and white.
‘It’s not my intention to be one of the best, it’s just something I’ve always loved growing,’ says Colin. ‘If I can find some of the old cultivars I just want to keep adding to the collection and keep it going for as long as I’m able. It’s about looking after all these oldies. The longevity has got to be bred in them otherwise they wouldn’t survive. They deserve a place in anybody’s garden. Like a lot of plants, they just go out of popularity. They're in and out of fashion but I’ve stuck by them all these years. I champion the delphiniums.
‘Because I have a National Plant Collection now, I want to set up some spotlight collections. A lot of the stately homes used to have collections on their herbaceous borders, but I don’t think many do now. I’d love to get some of them interested in a smaller collection. If they could take even half a dozen cultivars it would just keep them going.’
