Hopping Mad

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There are two arches in the main view of my back garden. On the first one are two wisterias but the second one has been bare for a few seasons now. Over the years, I have tried several different climbers – clematis, vitis, ampelopsis, kadsura – to name but a few. But either they became too rampant or not rampant enough and faded away. A couple of years ago I decided I needed to get serious about planting something on it.

One side of the arch is at the end of my yellow border so I decided to keep the yellow theme, either in flowers or foliage. After much research, I decided on a golden hop – not the ordinary one but a dwarf form called ‘Golden Tassels’. I searched on the internet but there very few suppliers and even fewer that offered mail order. Undeterred, I tracked down the nearest one in Hertfordshire. However there was a snag; they only sent plants in smaller pots by post and this one was in a five litre pot. I rang them up – yes, they were growing smaller ones and would put them on the website later in the year. I checked back several times – no small ones available and then sold out!

At this point I looked for another supplier. Beeches Nursery in Essex was the next choice – a small nursery with a huge range of other goodies to make an order worthwhile. I rang them up in late summer – yes they had ‘Golden Tassels’ and would be able to supply it this spring so I put in my order and mentally ticked it off the ‘wants’ list. The plants duly arrived earlier this week and I delved under the straw that nursed them in transit but found no dwarf hop. “Died in winter” was the apologetic comment on the delivery note. With something already planted on the other side of the arch, it was back to the reference books for Plan B.

I narrowed the list of possibles down to two roses. ‘Devoniensis’ sounded good (well, the house is called ‘Devonia’ and I come from Devon so it was appropriate). I checked Plant Finder – only one supplier in Plymouth. I checked their website – not listed. So on to the second choice, ‘Alberic Barbier’. This I could get locally at a Garden Centre that specialises in roses. So yesterday morning I visited them to get it only to find, you guessed it, not available. I quickly browsed the other climbers they stocked and there was a golden hop, not the dwarf one, but the ordinary humulus lupulus ‘Aureus’. Getting desperate, I decided to buy it anyway. I may have to prune it if it gets too rampant but as it is planted beside a well-established Irish Yew, it may take several years to build up enough strength to reach twenty feet or more. Hopping mad? Hopping hopeful now.

Postscript added two weeks later:
Would you believe it – I found ’Golden Tassles for sale today! Decided not to buy it and stick with the full size hop and see what happens

• 19 Apr, 2009
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