The Shade Plant Specialists

Long Acre Plants is essentially a mail order plantsman's nursery, situated in a hidden triangle of Somerset that slides into Dorset and Wiltshire. We specialise in unusual woodland plants and plants for shade, by mail order. This includes Erythronium, Epimedium, hardy ferns, hardy geraniums, hellebores (Helleborus), snowdrops, Viola odorata and Hepatica amongst many other shade loving plants.
Plants are the reason for this business and with a very few exceptions we grow what we like, for all the usual human reasons of association, perception of what is beautiful or just inexplicable love.
We try and grow in an environmentally aware way, including peat free compost, collecting and recycling rain water and using recycled paper. Plus all electricity used in the nursery and office is generated by wind or hydro, not through burning fossil fuels. We endeavour to make our packaging as environmentally friendly as possible. The packing cases we use are made from recycled PET which can be recycled again so creating a closed loop and having the best carbon footprint.

Hardy Ferns

We offer an extensive and large range of wonderful hardy woodland or shady garden ferns, evergreen and deciduous. As a rule, ferns are best in shade, but some ferns will take almost full sun. Some are good in dry soils others in moist. Ferns fit into many different styles of garden, Japanese gardens, woodland gardens, cottage gardens, courtyards and containers, city gardens, tropical/ foliage style gardens even alpine gardens can look wonderful with a range of dwarf ferns, as well as pure ferns gardens or stumperies. Ferns fit into practically all garden situations and combine well with other plants. For example, deciduous ferns can be grown successfully in the same situation as a large Winter/Spring bulb displays, with aconites, Cyclamen, Galanthus, Narcissus and Erythronium etc.

Upcoming - Rare Plant Fair, April 14th

We will have a range of early woodland plants including evergreen ferns available on the day. We are happy to take orders for collection to the sale.

We always take a wide range of hardy and unusual ferns and woodland perennials suitable for semi or full shade. Both moist and dry situations.

Click on the image to the right for the full list of sales.

Rare Plant Fairs
We shall be at all but two of the Rare Plant Fairs in 2024. The details of our unusual plants fair schedule can be found the shows tab at the top of the page, or click on the image to the left..

We are happy to bring orders to sales for collection saving you the shipping charge.

All of the fairs are within lovely gardens and they usually have good catering facilities. So all round a good day out.

Cyclamen
Cyclamen is a genus with a number of non-hardy species, but there are also some very hardy species of Cyclamen which thrive in a woodland or shady garden. Early Autumn flowering Cyclamen hederifolium will just about grow anywhere. Winter flowering Cyclamen coum is also is very tolerant of shade, even thriving under walnut trees, where growth in many other plants is greatly supressed.

Geranium
Hardy geraniums are amazingly good in shade, even dry shade. The geranium forms we offer are Summer flowering so often give colour to shady areas during the most difficult time. We find that hardy geraniums combine well with Spring bulbs; eg snowdrops through to Erythronium. Geraniums cover the gaps after the bulbs finish and give another season of colour. A few will even keep their leaves through a mildish Winter too!

New Woodland Plants

Roscoea purpurea Snow Goose £11.00 A stocky White flowered Roscoea true purpurea flowering over a long period. find out more	Impatiens quingchengshanica 'Emei Dawn' £7.00 A form with pale pink flowers in late Summer and Autumn. The stems are quite tough and stout with dark green ... find out more	Begonia 'Torsa' £9.00 A new hardy form whcih grows very large, pink flower in late Summer till frosts. The leaves can grow 40cm across find out more

Begonia grandis 'Snowpop' £7.00 Begonia grandis subsp. sinensis is a more compact selection than the typical subsp evansiana,. Smaller foliage and earlier flowering makes for ... find out more	Saxifraga stolonifera 'Nezu Jinga' £6.50 A Japanese form with very large silvered green leaves with a network of silver veins to the extra large leaves to ... find out more	Roscoea cangshanensis £7.50 An easy and quiet vigorous species from China. Summer flowering from July right through till the frosts with us. find out more

Best Selling Plants

Geranium macrorrhizum 'Mount Olympus White' AGM

£6.45 (2 or fewer items) £5.95 (3 or more items)

syn Geranium mac. 'White Ness'. An easy, hardy, evergreen Geranium. Very good in dry shade. Forms good ground cover with fragrant foliage. Pure white flowers over most of the Summer starting in late May. This is a pure albino with no hint of pink in the calyx or flower.

find out more

Geranium nodosum

£5.95 (2 or fewer items) £5.50 (3 or more items)

Bluish pearly pink flowers. A nice form of this woodland toughy from the Old Rectory, Burghfield. Will seed around to a certain extent and thrive in pretty much the driest position. An incredibly useful Geranium, a great candidate for underplanting in shaded and wooded spots. Wonderful for natural or semi wild planting schemes.
find out more

Dryopteris affinis 'Cristata The King' AGM

£7.00 (2 or fewer items) £6.50 (3 or more items)

A truly magnificent fern with splendid crests and arching fronds, said to be the 'King of the British Ferns'. In time, to 1.2m tall. Very effective in a pot against a north facing wall. Semi-evergreen.
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4 x Ferns that will tolerate dry shade

£24.00

{Description}Polystichum setiferum (Soft Shield Fern ) 45cm evergreen.
Polypodium vulgare (Common Polypody) 30cm, evergreen.
Asplenium scolopendrium ( Harts Tongue) 45cm, evergreen.
Dryopteris filix-mas 'Linearis Polydactyla' (Male Fern) 60cm, deciduous.

Please note Collections may vary depending on stock availability
{About}
4 ferns, one of each of above each in 9cm pots ready to go directly into the garden

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Dryopteris filix-mas AGM

£7.00 (2 or fewer items) £6.50 (3 or more items)

The native male fern, easy and very tolerant of dry soil. Decidous.
find out more

Polystichum setiferum 'Herrenhausen'

£7.00 (2 or fewer items) £6.50 (3 or more items)

A fine divisilobum form of the soft shield fern. A beautiful, elegant form of this easy very tolerant fern even of dry soils. Makes a very good subject for a container.
find out more

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The Shade Plant Specialists

Hardy Ferns

Upcoming - Rare Plant Fair, April 14th

Rare Plant Fairs

Cyclamen

Geranium

New Woodland Plants

Best Selling Plants

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