Thank you for subscribing to my brand new Aeonium blog post. Over the coming weeks I have already taken the decision to start the slow progress of moving all of the plants back into their Winter glasshouse homes while the weather is on my side.
Probably like you, the dramatic heat of the Summer caught me somewhat by surprise, not that it happened, but the speed at which it arrived, and the long period it remained persistent.
In 2026 we had a long warm Summer spell, but it started gradually giving the Aeoniums a good opportunity to acclimatise and flourish, unlike 2027 where so many of my plants decided to enter a semi-dormant protection period very early. I suppose, had I anticipated this hot spell earlier I could have given them some shade cover all Summer long and this may have reduced the slight trauma some of them suffered. No harm done thankfully, they are, in the main,durable plants.
Recently I was visited by Plant Heritage to assess my collection, in particular the part of it that is being considered for a National Collection status. The visit went well and a decision will be made by them at the next collections committee meeting in December. It’s been a steep learning curve for me over the past few years to achieve the requirements of Plant Heritage, but I’m getting close to this landmark point.
I’m currently in the process of creating a separate blog page that contains all of my plants that could be defined as dark-leaved cultivars. Some of these are freely available from specialists nurseries while others are very rare and cannot easily be found in the UK. Because they are cultivars, and created by seed crossing two different parent plants, you can end up with a mix of seedlings, and as a result, some are what the creators are aiming for and others not. Over a period of these trials some plants get named but left behind in the drive towards commercial production and are rarely seen again. With the help of another very experienced National Collection holder I’ve been able to locate and obtain some of these rare plants.
So, here I am, sharing my passion for Aeoniums with other people, and I hope that you will find my ramblings interesting and even share them with other like minded friends.
Please also follow me on Instagram where I’ll be posting regular plant updates all year round.
My collection is open to visit by appointment, generally between June-Sept, but I’m happy to welcome you at other times depending on the weather.
To visit my main page with Aeonium history and cultivation downloads plus all previous newsletter links, please click below.
https://cotswoldaeoniums.me.uk/blog/
Happy Growing 🪴
Steve
Cotswold Aeoniums 