We were contacted in 2023 by Janette, Allan's wife. Allan unfortunately had not been with us for a few years, but Janette had kept her husbands collection going.
We are always blown away by the love given to these plants by family and caregivers long after the original owner has passed. It makes it emotional when we eventually do take them away.
Allan and Janette had spent many months in Ghana throughout their lives, collecting plants, bringing them back to the UK, and raising money for childrens charity Cheers. They held many plant sales in the UK to do this, and their greenhouse was filled with memorabilia from their time in Africa.
Allan had an incredible collection of caudex succulents and rare cacti, some which we had not even seen before. Quite a few plants were struggling as they had not coped with the winter, but we took most of them anyway. We did the 'squidge test' - if its solid and not squidgy, there's hope yet!
We weren't able to make it to Glasgow until April 2024, as you can imagine, trying to collect a couple hundred large, spiky, heavy plants from the other side of the country is a difficult job! Luckily Mama T and H's Dad Phil were up to the challenge.
We emptied out their camper van and made a weekend trip of it. Janette was incredible, putting on a full afternoon tea for us on arrival, and showing us old photos of Allan and his beloved plants.
We said goodbye to Janette with the promise that these plants would be loved by us as much as they had been previously, and we were once again humbled by the privilege of being able to give such prestigious plants a new lease of life.