Its all about nursery tasks to start with this week, hopefully back to garden tidy ups at the weekend. I spent Wednesday and Thursday sorting out lots of lovely, lovely plants to fill up the sales area. We are now fully stocked with trees, shrubs and conifers. I’m just so frustrated we can’t open as planned on the 6th March and you can't browse them yourselves. The plants in stock are on the website with descriptions too. Remember you can email quercusgardenplants@gmail.com to do click and collect.
These are just dreamy with their double flowers and soft colours. They are in 2 litre pots at £10.95.
Helleborus orientalis - Single pinks, purples and white. Plant in partial shade and moist well drained soil. H 45cm, S 45cm.
Helleborus ‘Ellen Picotee’ - Creamy white petal is variably spotted, and edged with a deep plum-pink, thus creating delightful bi-coloured flowers. Plant in partial shade and moist well drained soil. H 45cm, S 45cm.
Helleborus ‘Double Queen Mix’ - Large, ruffled & speckled blooms in double flowered forms and a mix of colours. Plant in partial shade and moist well drained soil. H 45cm, S 45cm.
Positives about ending the day with deliveries on the way home, its bringing in much needed business for the nursery, I get to go a different way home and see a different view and I get to see sunset 
On Friday the Railway garden got it’s spring clean, why is it called the railway garden you ask? For those of you that are new to the page or haven’t visited the nursery, we have 16mm narrow gauge garden railway on the middle terrace. I come from a long line of railway men, at least 5 generations of grandads worked on the railway, ending with my Dad who was also hugely involved with the Scottish Railway preservation Society at Bo’ness. He was one of the founding members back in the 1960’s,
drove and fired steam engines, was Chairman and so much more. He also build model engines and waggons. So it seems railways are in the blood, I’m convinced its genetic as all three of my sons are railway enthusiasts. They have all built several model railways each, and the youngest also builds engines and rolling stock. So it seems the logical thing to have a garden railway, and where else
but the nursery where we have the space and can run it for visitors through summer. Once David and Daniel had finished the railway, I was tasked with designing a garden around it. I’ve loosely based it on a Prairie style garden, in the fashion of my design hero Piet Oudolf. Using a lot of his recommended plants but on a smaller scale. I know Quercus conditions are vastly different from the dry plains of the Mid-West, but half the fun of gardening is experimenting, and this is the driest part of the nursery gardens! I was excited to see all the Echinacea, Liatris and Patrinia scabiosifolia have survived (yay). Other plants are bulking up already and the narcissus I planted last year are throwing up flower shoots. It was encouraging to see that the Penstemon serrulatus I planted has survived this particularly cold winter very well. After a tidy and re-edging the grass path, I put down more grass seed to fill in the bare bits.
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| Rheum maximowiczii |
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| Before |
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| Helleborus foetidus |
The last part of my christmas present from David arrived today, a carved slate plaque celebrating our wedding 
We
have several tables of shrubs in the sales area, all filled up and looking fab.
Evergreens, deciduous, tall ones and short ones, narrow ones, wide ones,
flowering and non-flowering. There is something for every one and every garden.
They are now all on our website on the tree and shrub page with descriptions
and prices. Worth looking at are Salix gracilistyla 'Melanostachys', Skimmia
japonica 'Kew Green', Skimmia japonica 'Rubella' , Gaultheria procumbens and Viburnum
'Eve Price'.
My
favourite though is Corylus avellana 'Contorta' and it’s red leaved cousin Corylus
'Red Majestic'. They make fascinating tall shrubs / small tress with their twisting
brabches and contorted leaves. Catkins appear in spring and the leaves drop in
winter leaving the striking twisted bare stems to make an interesting focal
point in winter. Both are in 5 litre pots @ £30.00. They are 4 feet high and
multi branches, lovely looking plants.
Everything
is available by click and collect, email me what you are looking for and we
will get it sorted out.
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| Mahonia 'Charity' |
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| On Sunday I was tidying the herb garden, me and my supervisor! |
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The herb garden before tidying
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Looking the other way
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| The checkerboard tidied |
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| All done |
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| Allium fistulosum, Welsh Onion |
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| Angelica |
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| Destroying a bean stake! |
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| Hellebore niger in the medical borders |
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| Herb garden winter interest |
On our day off my car had to go into a garage as it blew its exhaust on the way home on Monday so we had a walk along the Tweed at Abbotsford, we are loving discovering more new local walks. The take away coffee from the converted horse box in the car park was great. Not a good start to the day, woke up with the start of a panic attack, which I haven't had for years, feeling everything crowding in and getting on top of me. But, a walk, chat and dog entertainment, getting my car fixed straight away and re-adjusting my mind set I am finishing the day in a better frame of mind. We are all in this sh*t together, it affects us all differently, some days are better than others.
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| Plane tree bark |
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| Primroses in flower in the woods, early! |
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| A peek through the gate into the walled garden |
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| Abbotsford House |
So another week done, how has it been for you? I just want to see my kids, give them a hug, see family and friends and go different places, oh and open up my business to customers! But it feels this is going on for ever.
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