Here we are at the end of October already and the end of our open season here in the nursery and gardens. We will be open by appointment only from 30th October until Saturday 3rd March 2018. If you wish to purchase plants or to ask advice please email rona@quercusgardenplants.co.uk and we can arrange to be open. This will allow David and I to have a well earned break after a very busy and successful season here at Quercus. We'd like to thank all our customers and visitors to the nursery for helping make it a great year, for your custom, great reviews and positive feedback, it's very much appreciated. We have lots of exciting plans for the nursery and gardens in 2018 and hope to see you back to enjoy the next part of the garden development and all the new plants we will have for sale.
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A Hellebore in the nursery gardens flowering amongst the autumn leaves,
it's certainly been a warm October |
I haven't really been blogging consistently for a while, I've got lots of ideas and things to chat about but not much blogging mojo. We've been busy in the nursery wrapping up for winter and closing up and personally our heads and hearts are full of heart ache as my sister's health declines. Cancer for me is difficult to talk about without feeling angry and wanting to swear a lot. It took my Dad ages 62, a man in his prime and with so much to give life and his family and now it is taking my sister aged 45. With weeks left she is truly inspiring in her attitude and strength and I am so proud to have her as my sister. She has been making the most of time with her devoted husband and three children, making memories they will treasure for ever. More than ever I am so pleased she managed to make it to our wedding in August for a couple of hours. We've also been down to visit her in Birmingham where she lives in the past week, spending precious time together.
While we were visiting my sister managed out for a couple of hours and we went out to a local plant centre called Akamba which specialises in African plants. The cafe is like sitting inside a hut on the African plains with
Ladysmith Black Mambazo playing in the background, outside under the palm trees are all sizes of animals built from metal. It's quite a place. We enjoyed coffee and cake, reminiscing and had a few laughs and tears too. Leaving to come home was painful.
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| A visit to a reclamation yard in Ayrshire |
It was a busy week, we were down in Birmingham Wednesday Thursday and on the Monday and Tuesday we were also out and about. We went to visit eldest son and take him and youngest out for dinner. On the way we went to Gibbs of Galston, a reclamation yard and animal food supplier. There were lots of great items in the yard and very tempting to spend money for things for the nursery, but in the end we came away with a bag of bones for Bracken!
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| Great Victorian rope edging, I'd love these |
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| Faces only a mother could love, serves me right for asking them to smile! |
On Tuesday we took my youngest and Davids son down to Hadrians Wall. They've both developed an interest in history and especially roman history, which delights David and I as we both love history. We drove down on the tail of storm Ophelia and fortunately the weather improved as the day went on. We visited Vindolanda and Housesteads and had a short walk along the wall, this gave the boys a real feel for Roman Britain. I am going to write a separate blog about our trip back to Roman Britain shortly.
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| The temple at Vindolanda |
Back at the nursery the gardens still have a lot of colour so if you feel your garden is lacking in colour into autumn and winter, now is a good time to come and see what is flowering here in the nursery gardens and purchase those plants for your own garden. Persiacaria are still going strong along with tall Asters and the Aster-like Boltonia. In the herb garden we're still picking nasturtium and Calendula flowers for use in the Whitmuir kitchen, though the sunflowers have toppled in the latest storm. This time o fyear is when grasses come into their own, With the golden stems of towering Molinias glowing in the Autumn sun, fluffy Miscanthus flowers work well with the pinks and purples of Asters and the glorious silver plumes of Cortaderia add height and interest right through winter.
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Persicaria and Cortaderia in the
nursery gardens |
We've had all sorts of weather recently, warm short sleeved days, very windy and wet days, over cast and dramatic cloud and sundays and the odd rainbow thrown in for good measure. It's no wonder some plants are confused and having a second flush of flowers.
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| Sun on the trees and dark clouds around the nursery |
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| Rainbow over the nursery, I sent David and Bracken to find the gold, but Bracken was only interested in finding bones |
I've been getting the nursery prepared for winter, putting away any plants that require protection over winter into the tunnels, putting away the seats and ornaments to prolong their life and protect them from the worst of the winter weather. I've potted up the last of the propagation and finished off lots of other tasks. Whilst I've been doing this David has been working hard on our new boundary fence. This has been a job we've talked about doing since we first bought the nursery and finally it's done. It didn't even take David as long as he thought is would and it looks fab. There are several reasons for putting up the fence, mainly to keep the farms Houdini sheep and pigs out and the new rabbit problem. We haven't had rabbits before now and this year they have eaten so many plants in the stock beds and garden so David has added in rabbit netting along the bottom of the fence. We also want to define our boundary and space with in the farm and mark ourselves out as a different area and business, the fence will help do this. We get a lot of people wandering through looking for a way to the farm walks so the fence (and new signage we have planned) will help guide them to where they want to go and also hopefully keep the unaccompanied children out that run up from the cafe and all over the gardens and nursery. Time will tell.
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| The fence along the top terrace |
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| Nearly there |
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| The last bit, should be finished by this weekend, yeh! |
Over the past two weeks I also got a new border dug over and planted. This has also been on the cards for a while, I even had all the plants ready for ages. Having de-turfed the area its had a good dig over, with as much weed removed as possible. This is very clay soil, but I will add in our home made compost in spring which will help. This border will have all year interest with shrubs (Prunus and shrub roses), perennials (Hemerocallis, Persicaria, Sedum and Aconitum), Tulips and annuals. I'll put a planting list on the website page soon. You can see planting lists so far here
Nursery Border Planting Lists
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| The new border at the end of the stock beds |
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| Still flowering - Sweet Rocket |
Sweet rocket or Hesperis matronalis has beautifully perfumed flowers in whites or shades of purple. I always think this plant is one of the traditional 'Cottage Garden' plants and well worth growing. Mixed with other summer blooms in a vase and it will scent an entire room. Although a perennial, it is best grown as a biennial when it will remain in flower from June to September. I use it to fill in spaces in the border until shrubs and perennial have matured and filled their spaces.
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| Bulb planting season! |
On Monday this week I went into the nursery to plant 50kg or Daffodils and 2000 crocus up both sides of the drive at Whitmuir. This will hopefully make a lovely display in Spring to welcome visitors into the farm and businesses there. Thankfully I had Val and Dee to help for a cople of hours each. Four hours later it was done. We still have lots of bulbs for sale in the nursery, so get your bulbs now and get planting this autumn for next spring.
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Sometimes we choose cheeses
by their names! |
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| It's also porridge time of year |
On Tuesday we didn't have a day out, but a long lie, then we went to Lanark to do some errands and had lunch at Hickety Pickety which we've been planning to go to for ages. We had a lovely lunch, the food was great and good service too. Home to get the last of the big pots into the greenhouses for winter and a few other garden chores done before some coffee and cake baking.
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| Bracken keeping warm in the greenhouse |
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| Bracken's idea of helping on the garden! |
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| Bracken is ready for halloween |
I hope you are having a good week and enjoying autumn. See you soon.
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All contents and photographs © Rona, unauthorised reproduction & use of these images is strictly forbidden, thank you
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