Plants

As some of you may know, my parents have a nursery in Somerset.  They specialise in growing hardy perennials but they also sell shrubs, trees and some seasonal bedding such as primulas and violas.

My Dad visited their supplier of seasonal bedding yesterday because they’re trying to source some plants for a client who wants something a bit different for the table decorations at their daughter’s wedding.  My parents are also growing pots of tulips for the wedding so we’re all keeping everything crossed that they’re looking spectacular on the day!  But I digress…

Due to the late arrival of spring, they’re literally throwing away thousands of plants that aren’t being sold.  My parents normally sell out of primroses but this year they’ve hardly sold any.  I think what makes it worse is that the weather has been continually bad for the last year so each season has been much the same.  It must be soul destroying!

So we need to support our local garden centres and nurseries as much as we can otherwise they just won’t be there when we do need them.  Now that the spring seems to have made an appearance, you’ll all be starting to think about the garden.  Hardy perennials and shrubs can be brought now and if they’re properly grown and well rooted, they’ll be fine to plant out in the ground.

It’s warmed up significantly over the past week, everything has sprung into life again, so it won’t be long before you can plant up your pots for the summer.  Buy the plants now and keep them protected for a while.  Throwing some horticultural fleece over them at night is often enough to keep them cosy.

I hope you had a great weekend… Read more

It’s no wonder that the English are famous for talking about the weather.  Last week I was out planting on Tuesday and Wednesday in short sleeves, Thursday was wet and I was working in waterproofs, covered from head to foot in mud, and then yesterday we had blizzards and bitterly cold temperatures! Read more

This month’s Garden Flowers post, which I write with Rona Wheeldon of Flowerona , features the popular spring bulb, the muscari. Read more

I went to The Garden Press Event a couple of weeks ago and one of the products that caught my eye were these flower seed collections by Nova-Flore, distributed in the the UK by Meadow in My Garden. Read more

Trees add depth and dimension to any space but it can sometimes be challenging to choose a tree for a small space.  Often people worry about planting trees in close proximity to their house but as long as you’re sensible about what you plant, there shouldn’t be a problem. Read more

This month’s Garden Flowers post, which I write with Rona Wheeldon of Flowerona, features the  winter jasmine, which is also known as Jasminum nudiflorum Read more

If you read my blog post on Friday you’ll know that I love the snow when it first arrives and transforms the garden into a landscape that is akin to Narnia.  But, pretty as it may be, the snow can cause damage to your trees and shrubs. Read more

This month’s Garden Flowers post, which I write with Rona Wheeldon of Flowerona, features Viburnum x bodnantense ‘Dawn’. Read more

This month my Garden Flowers post, which I write with Rona Wheeldon of Flowerona, features Salvia involucrata. It’s a wonderful tall herbaceous perennial that has vibrant pink flowers which appear in the summer and continue well into the autumn. Read more