MHS members’ event
Our speaker tonight is Fiona Wemyss, the owner of specialist succulent nursery, Blueleaf Plants, specialising in sales of succulent plants for gifts & weddings, containers for patios, window boxes and window sills, domestic green roofs and living frames.

She runs the nursery from her home in the small village of Warehorne in Kent on the edge of the big skies and wide open landscape of Romney Marsh. Running a nursery has been an ambition since completing her degree in horticulture at nearby Wye College, but it was over ten years before Fiona could leave her office job in London to put her plans into action.

Succulents have always been a fascination – an early plant purchase as a child was a Faucaria, a tiger-jawed, fleshy-leaved South African plant that didn’t last the winter probably due to overwatering… It was this fascination coupled with the frustration of being unable to find succulents to buy, which resulted in the decision to start a nursery that specialises in succulents.

“I specialise in growing succulent plants and creating interesting and original arrangements with them, but I’m not a hand-on-heart specialist – I’m more of a succulent generalist! There are many people with detailed knowledge about haworthias, lithops and agaves and it takes a lifetime to gather that knowledge – I’ve got a long way to go.”

Another more practical reason was that the plants’ ability to withstand drought, means that the household can go on holiday in the summer months without worrying about watering.