Late Paul Higginson Succulent Collection sale -Sun 10th Nov

[Dave Brown]

Although Hardy Tropicals has a policy of not advertising plant sales in public forums, I'm making an exception in this case, as a tribute to Paul

From fb group post

Chris Grundy
I hope Dave doesn't mind me posting this for Uk succulent fans. If you feel it is not appropriate please let me know and I'll remove it.

As some of you will know Paul Higginson died at the start of the summer. I am helping his family re-house the majority of his amazing succulent collection. This sunday (10th Nov) from 11am his family will be hosting a sale of plants. The aim is to re-house as many plants as possible to good homes. It will be an opportunity to pick up many agaves, aloes echeverias, aeoniums, there are quite a few large specimens at very good prices. If you want to see many of the plants that will be available then they can be found here http://www.n-s-succulents.co.uk/Plants.

The sale will run from 11am - 4pm on Sunday, it is difficult to find with sat navs, so we are arranging signs to be put up from somewhere more accessible: the Wharf Tavern, Market Drayton, Shropshire, TF9 2LP. The greenhouse is a minute from the pub (which does excellent food) and there will be signs pointing to the sale from there. There will be parking so you can drive from the pub.

[Half Hardy]

Nice one Dave

Hope they all go to a good home.

[sanatic1234]

Me to I, hope every plant sells.

[Tom2006]

A great idea hope it helps them all go to a good home.

[paulrm71]

Would love to get up there and grab some nice agaves but it's a bit far for me.

[ChrisG]

Thank you Dave for posting this, I know Pauls family are really grateful for all the support they have been getting from Pauls plant friends and from the forums.

paulrm71 if you are interested in agaves I would make the trip, I am going from Twickenham sadly I will be there for two days, so can't offer a lift. There will be some agaves that you wont find anywhere else in the Uk going (although some of the very specialised stuff will problem be snapped up very quickly) The real bargains will be the large pots and if you want a few feature plants they will be real bargains to ensure we get as many to safe homes as possible.

To make it fit in better here are some photos of Pauls green house and collection so it is of general interest to the site as well. If nothing else to show you what happens when an interest in plants goes a little mad

When you walk in this is the the cold section, his family are keeping this as it looks out for itself.

house-01


house-02

Notice the agave in flower in the corner.

agave-flower-june13

There is also this massive cycad that he rescued. A lot of people have joking asked if this is for sale, I don' know of anything this size in a personal collection.

cycad

The other side of the path

house-03

This section is pretty much unheated which is pretty impressive given his low last winter was -16

you then walk through into the bench section which is partially heated and has two large heat sinks. Almost everything in here is for sale

house-04


house-05

most of the plants were on tables by group, almost all the plants are agaves, this table is full of the closely related manfredas

manfredas

There are two 8x6 greenhouses at the very back which are heated and contain the small plants, next to them is a potting and prop area. I think overall the greenhouse is about 24 wide x 40 deep if not more, all I know is that my whole garden would easily fit inside it .

[Dave Brown]

Thanks for the update Chris. I was going to put a link here to Paul's webshots, but they do not seem to be hosting pics now so both Paul's and Ade's pics are unavailable.

Here is a topic Paul started with some Agave pics. http://www.hardytropicals.co.uk/forum/v ... f=1&t=8771

[ChrisG]

Thanks for the update Chris. I was going to put a link here to Paul's webshots, but they do not seem to be hosting pics now so both Paul's and Ade's pics are unavailable.

Here is a topic Paul started with some Agave pics. http://www.hardytropicals.co.uk/forum/v ... f=1&t=8771

Webshots no longer exists in the same way so all photos have been lost you have to move them. It is one problem with linking to photos that no one concidered before

Anyway the old thread is Pauls old greenhouse, one of the sad things is he was in the process of moving, his new green house was built and filled (the photos here are of the new set up) but the house was not ready so he never actually got to live in it. The new greenhouse is about 10% bigger than the old one he had most of which is in the planted area which is stunning. The two heat sinks are massive and very efficient, I think he dug down about 2m and filled with bricks to create the sinks which form the benches. When you think he did it o=all by himself in the evenings after work it is quite something.

It is scary seeing how big some of the plants are, and knowing they are still only half size. whenever I see 6 - 8 foot agaves and know I have 4 of them, I think I am going to need a bigger garden

[daz h]

some fabulous plants there , paul obviously knew what he was on about when it came to succulents. rip

[paulrm71]

Chrisg, I hope his family get some good funds from the sale of Paul's plants....I know if I went my wallet would end up considerably lighter!!

[daz h]

cant stop looking at these pics , what a great collection .

any chance someone could identify the yellow/green plant in this pic for me?

[paulrm71]

Looks like agave americana variegata to me. Also can anyone confirm that the cycad is a macrozamia communis? If so, must be worth a small fortune. I also spotted what I suspect to be agave parrasana fireball.....would love that it my small collection!!

[daz h]

cheers paul , think thats another one for my list

[Arlon Tishmarsh]

Also can anyone confirm that the cycad is a macrozamia communis?

Its a Macrozamia moorei.

[ChrisG]

You are correct about the cycad, it was a rescue plant he picked up a few years back. It first had to be cleared of all the bugs that were killing it, then it was manhandled into place. He was not too happy when he moved and had to dig it up and go through the whole precess again

The agave in the photo is a cause of much dispute, the label says Agave salmiana angustifolia marginata, there is some suggestion it is americana marginata (from people in US) as someone said here, but the spines are very different, apparently it has also be DNA tested (or the equivalent) and found to be closest to salmiana. I think that is all correct, all I know is that I call it the octopus and it is quite large. You can see the white version planted the other side of the path as as well.