Ask for recommendations for good doers, then go on looks. Don't get too hung up on exact named forms. If as a beginner you'd like to grow a few, Mary advises trying the easier-to-grow alpines, rather than show varieties. You must keep them shaded and moist, and dry them off in the winter.
The pots should be topped with grit after planting.
Once they've finished flowering, it's a good idea to repot into new well-drained, gritty compost – four parts loam-based John Innes No 2, two parts leaf mould and one part grit. In the early summer she moves her collection to outdoor window sills on the north side of her house where they stay cool until the following January. Her auricula year starts in January, when she feeds them with a general all-round fertiliser for a couple of weeks to get them growing well, then moves on to something rich in phosphates for the rest of their main spring growing and flowering season. As Mary says – protect from rain in the winter and spring and sun in the summer. As alpines, they can cope with snow-melt wet, but it needs to drain fast. Mary's building has a glass roof – good for growing – but this has to be shaded in the hot midday sun as these plants thrive kept in light shade, cool and well ventilated (as alpines, they are happy with their roots frozen solid) and moist, but with excellent drainage. Arrange them instead in a rough set of dice fives, with each plant above the gap in the line below. At shows, the plants are often arranged in straight vertical columns, with each plant directly above the one below, but this makes them look heavy. Mary's auricula theatre is tiered on wooden staging in the old outside loo, with layers of 3½in terracotta pots stretching from one side to the other. That's why they are traditionally grown in the shelter of a theatre, half outside, half in. The show varieties, in particular, which have the floury covering to their flowers and leaves, immediately mark with a drop of water and they hate baking sun. Auricula theatresĪuriculas prefer the cool of outside, but not the wet. She has an auricula theatre, not one lined in black – as you'll see at garden shows – but painted a warm, soft lime wash in a pinky-mushroom colour. I went to visit Mary Keen, the garden designer and writer, who writes for Telegraph Gardening. Because of this I wanted to visit a gardener's collection, rather than a nursery, to work out which are the best stayers and find someone who has been growing auriculas for years – for the pleasure of looking at them, rather than making them new. People tinker with their breeding all the time, coming up with ever more varied colour forms.
They are the collector's plant par excellence. Just when you find one you particularly like, it is superseded by another quite similar, said to be a better performer. Auriculas are one of those frustrating groups of plants that are continually evolving.
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