Quiet revolution

is rare for a plant nursery to revolutionise the way we see a particular group of plants but William Dyson’s nursery, sitting in the beautifully romantic gardens of Great Comp near Sevenoaks in Kent, has done just that. Twenty-five years ago, when William took on the job of head gardener and nursery manager at Great Comp, salvias were either a bright-red bedding plant or ax . “This was a pivotal point,” says William. “I managed to get hold of a few plants and here, where the soil is free draining and we get plenty of sunshine, they were fantastic – masses of colour for months on end. I then went about getting whatever salvias I could get my hands on.” Seedling salvias began popping up in the garden and William decided to start a controlled breeding programme. In 1997 he launched ‘Silas Dyson’, a hardy, floriferous shrubby salvia with rich-crimson flowers that blooms from May to November. The plant was instantly popular and was followed by ‘Dyson’s Crimson’, an open-pollinated seedling taken from ‘Silas Dyson’, which has a darker flower and a compact habit. Many more introductions of hardy shrubby salvias followed and were met with enthusiasm by gardeners who were seduced by their easy cultivation and extraordinarily long flowering period. Around three-quarters of the plants produced on the nursery are now salvias. “At the time it was so exciting because nobody knew much about salvias except the bedding ones,” remembers William. The nursery was the first at an RHS show with a single-genus display of . Other plant breeders and nurseries in