Backhouse Rossie Estate

Book Online or send payment by cheque made payable to ‘The Professional Gardeners’ Guild’ to Colin Carmichael, Selma, Old Crieff Road, Aberfeldy, Perthshire PH15 2DH.

PGG visit to Backhouse Rossie Estate

Come to the Spring Festival featuring the only National Scientific Collection of Narcissus in the UK (see the RHS The Plantsman magazine). With unusual Heritage varieties raised by the current owners’ Backhouse family ancestors, information about the raisers is on display.

The Backhouse narcissi were bred by three generations of a botanising Quaker family from the mid 1800s to the mid 1900s; their work included the first pink trumpet cultivar to flower reliably, two of the first triploid cultivars, the first Barrii, the first division one cultivar with a red trumpet and most importantly the first tetraploid cultivar ‘Weardale Perfection’ from which so much stemmed.
You can also visit a walled garden, fernery, spring flowers, and a woodland daffodil walk to the Covenanter’s ruined tomb.

Programme

10.00-10.30am. Meet at the cafe in garden. Tea/ coffee on arrival, followed by self-guided tour of the gardens which are well labelled.
12.30-1.30pm. Lunch – the BackhouseKitchen serves delicious home baking and light lunches, incl. gluten-free and vegetarian. Try their own great barista coffee and Backhouse teas. Buy your own lunch. This meeting is a social occasion so the lunch may be long and leisurely as we catch up after the winter.
4.00pm. Garden closes.

Directions

Halfway between Auchtermuchty and Collessie Village, turn off the A91 (south side of road), at the Charlottetown sign, go down the slight hill on a single-track road for 200 meters only, then turn right at the Backhouse Rossie sign on to a gravel track with newly planted lime trees either side, then bear left into car park. If you are travelling from the west, the sat nav will attempt to take you down the first drive which is closed.

Cost

£8.00 per person. Free parking. Dogs on leads can be exercised along the woodland walks but are not allowed in the walled garden or gardens.

Booking

Book Online or send payment by cheque made payable to ‘The Professional Gardeners’ Guild’ to Colin Carmichael, Selma, Old Crieff Road, Aberfeldy, Perthshire PH15 2DH.