英国 香草农舍 The Cottage Herbery – 伍斯特郡家族香草苗圃

庄园与背景

香草农舍（The Cottage Herbery）是英国伍斯特郡泰姆河谷（Teme Valley）一座专营香草与芳香植物的小型家族苗圃，地处伍斯特郡与什罗普郡交界处、克莱山（Clee Hill）脚下的一处旧啤酒花农场改建房舍之中。苗圃由金·赫斯特（Kim Hurst）女士与丈夫罗伯（Rob Hurst）创立于 1976 年，初期定位就是以香草、芳香与有香气叶植物为主打。罗伯早年是农业科班出身、专攻啤酒花种植，后来才逐渐把精力全部投入到庄园苗圃的日常经营中。这里的香草全部以自然方式培育，从一开始就不使用泥炭，是英国最早一批彻底告别泥炭的小型香草专营园。

创建与发展

香草农舍创立时定下的核心理念是「既然植物是为调味、疗愈与闻香之用，那植物本身就应该以自然方式培育」。这一朴素想法在四十多年里没有改变，到 2023 年 9 月苗圃正式歇业时，庄园已经走完 47 个完整生长季。在植物品类方面，香草与芳香叶植物始终是主营，同时逐步加入了相当数量的耐寒多年生植物（hardy perennials）和一些比较少见的食用作物；1989 年罗伯还开发出一款以椰糠为基质、不含泥炭的堆肥，这就是后来通过 Soil Association 有机认证、自带独立标识的「Fertile Fibre」成品堆肥，2004 年之后独立由其他公司经营。

展览与所获奖项

香草农舍是英国最早一批把有机与无泥炭理念带入皇家园艺学会（RHS）切尔西花展的小型专营苗圃：1992 年首次参展即成为切尔西第一家有机无泥炭苗圃，此后又先后多次摘得切尔西金奖（Chelsea Gold Medal）。除切尔西之外，苗圃还在 2002 年凭「Thyme for bed」主题展获金奖，2005 年再度捧金，并参加 2011 年 RHS Malvern 春展与 2012 年 RHS Malvern 秋展并获得认可。2024 年金·赫斯特又因多年园艺服务贡献，被皇家园艺学会授予 Associate of Honour 荣誉勋章，这也是苗圃歇业之后业界对其 47 年工作的正式认可。苗圃同期还是 Rare Plant Fairs 协会一员，长期在英国多家专业花展、赫格斯特克罗夫特园（Hergest Croft）、赫伦斯园艺术节（Hellens Garden Festival）和拉德洛食品集市（Ludlow Food Producers）出摊展示。

植物收藏与花园

香草农舍常年培育约一百五十种左右香草与多年生植物，按拉丁学名字母顺序整列对外销售，常驻款如欧芹（Parsley）、薄荷（Mint）、鼠尾草（Sage）永远不缺，新引种则每年更新——既有小批量试种的稀有款，也有按订单特别繁育的流行款。苗圃从不提供邮寄（NO MAIL ORDER），植物只在生长季接受预约自取，但本地邮编区订单满 35 英镑可享免费本地配送。花园区域位于庄园南侧一座旧啤酒花烘干房（oast house）周围，由金·赫斯特亲自设计，植物按食用、染色、蜜蜂蝴蝶友好、药草、芳香等用途分组，沿碎石小径划分区块拍照效果极佳。花园内墙下的旱金莲（nasturtium）尤其为金偏爱，因为花、叶、籽皆可入馔，也正是这一原因，被定为苗圃标志植物。

开放日程与服务

香草农舍不在常规时段对外开放，只在每年预约组团（pre-booked visits）与特别开放日（Special Open Days）迎客，并长期承接园艺讲座与现场展示。讲座通常由金或罗伯主讲，配幻灯片与新鲜植物样本，可上门服务，过去曾面向英国皇家植物园邱园协会（Kew Gardens Society）、RHS Pershore College、国家保护栽培植物收藏组织（NCCPG）、英国多年生植物协会（HPS）、英国村舍园艺协会（CGS）、英国香草协会（Herb Society）等专业团体与机构。金近年出版《Hidden Histories: Herbs: The Secret Properties of 150 Plants》，书中梳理了一百五十种香草的药食故事与文化。2023 年 9 月苗圃正式歇业后，金与罗伯并未停下脚步，转而启动了一个聚焦野生植物（wild plants）的全新项目，并通过 Instagram 持续更新进展。

Estate and Background

The Cottage Herbery is a small, family-run specialist herb nursery in the Teme Valley of Worcestershire, England, set in a former hop farmstead at the foot of the Clee Hill on the Worcestershire-Shropshire border. It was founded in 1976 by Kim Hurst and her husband Rob Hurst, originally focused on herbs and aromatic, scented foliage plants. Rob came to the nursery from an agricultural college background specialising in hops, and gradually took on more of the day-to-day running as the business grew. Every plant on the nursery has been grown naturally and peat-free from the very beginning, an unusual commitment when the nursery first opened and one that made it one of the very first English herb specialists to abandon peat altogether.

Founding and Development

The founding idea behind The Cottage Herbery was simple: a plant produced for flavouring, healing or fragrance ought itself to be produced naturally. That unchanging rule carried the nursery through forty-seven full growing seasons before its formal closure on 1 September 2023. Alongside the herbs and scented foliage plants, the catalogue steadily grew to include a respectable selection of hardy perennials and some of the more unusual edibles. In 1989 Rob developed a peat-free, coir-based compost on the nursery, which went on to be Soil Association approved and trademarked as “Fertile Fibre”; the line has been under separate ownership since 2004 and is still on sale today.

Exhibitions and Awards

The Cottage Herbery was among the very first organic, peat-free nurseries to exhibit at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show, debuting there in 1992. The nursery went on to win multiple Chelsea Gold Medals over the years, with notable gold-medal exhibits including “Thyme for bed” in 2002 and a return gold in 2005, and further recognition at the RHS Malvern Spring Festival in 2011 and RHS Malvern Autumn Show in 2012. In 2024, after the nursery had already closed, Kim Hurst was awarded the prestigious Associate of Honour Medal by the Royal Horticultural Society in recognition of her distinguished service to horticulture, a tribute that acknowledged the Herbery’s forty-seven-year contribution as a whole. The nursery was also a long-standing member of the Rare Plant Fairs cooperative and could be found most seasons at Hergest Croft, the Hellens Garden Festival, the Ludlow Food Producers market and other local venues.

Plant Collection and Garden

Around one hundred and fifty herbs and perennials were grown on the nursery at any one time, listed alphabetically by Latin name for the perennials and by common name for the herbs, with reliable favourites such as parsley, mint and sage always in production alongside small batches of rarer introductions and special-order plants. The nursery never offered mail order, and plants were reserved for collection during the growing season, with free local delivery offered on orders over £35 within a defined list of local postcodes. The display garden wraps around a former oast house (hop-drying barn) on the south side of the homestead, laid out by Kim in functional groupings — culinary, dye, bee-and-butterfly, medicinal, aromatic and decorative — and still considered one of the most photographed small herb gardens in the West Midlands. The humble nasturtium was Kim’s particular favourite, valuable leaf, flower and seed in the kitchen, and was chosen as the emblem plant of the nursery.

Open Days and Services

The Cottage Herbery was not open on a daily basis; visits were by pre-booked group arrangement or on advertised Special Open Days, with the nursery also offering a long-running programme of illustrated talks and demonstrations given by Kim or Rob, complete with slides and fresh plant material. Past audiences have included the Kew Gardens Society, RHS Pershore College, NCCPG groups, the Hardy Plant Society, the Cottage Garden Society and the Herb Society, alongside food festivals, floral art societies and museum events. Kim’s later book Hidden Histories: Herbs: The Secret Properties of 150 Plants draws together the medicinal, culinary and folkloric stories behind one hundred and fifty herbs. Following the nursery’s closure in September 2023, Kim and Rob have since turned to a new wild-plant-focused project of their own, with updates shared through their Instagram channel.

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