The Full Story
About
Natland Pleione is based in the beautiful South Lakes area of Cumbria, in the North West of the UK. We are a small nursery dedicated to the growing and supply of the enigmatic genus Pleione, sometimes called the Peacock orchid, Himalayan crocus or windowsill orchid. Our collection is widely regarded as one of the largest in the world in private hands.
Below you can learn more about where my passion for Pleione originated and what I hope to achieve.
If there is a plant you are looking for, cultural advice or just a chat about plants, please feel free to drop us a message using the contact form below.
Happy Growing.
Stu Crawford
Early Beginnings
I have been growing Pleione since I was 10 years old and this all came about having been given a shrivelled looking bulb in plastic packaging on a cardboard sleeve, which to this day can still sometimes be found in garden centers having been supplied by well known 'bulb specialists'. That one bulb started an interest which for the last 40 years has seen me go from having a single plant to well over 150 species and hybrids of this beautiful yet easy to grow orchid. This is now one of the largest private collections, worldwide
Vision
Along the way I have made many friends and learned a great deal from those who pioneered the growing of these plants in the UK from the 1960's onwards and it is this work which I am proud to continue, to maintain, develop and increase the range of plants available to those who have fallen under the spell of this plant. I aim to have plants available for enthusiasts to buy, either as their first plant or for that 'something special' that we all have or want in our collections. Most Pleione are Spring flowering plants but there is a real movement towards the small but beautiful range of Autumn flowering plants increasingly becoming available. None of this would have been possible without the support and mentoring of my dear friend Rainer Kretz who has kindly supplied most of the text surrounding the background and historical information for many of the plants featured.
