Life Changes Forever in Seconds

Autumn continues with much varied weather, though it is still quite warm most days. Some flowers are emerging much earlier than usual, so we get the benefit of them before we close for winter when normally they flower well into November. Slowly we are clearing up and sorting out all the damage of the past few weeks. But life throws you the hardest knocks when you are already down. 

A pretty vase of asters

Lets get back to flowers, perfect for helping cheer us up. I had a wander around the nursery gardens picking some of the Asters (Symphyotrichum) out in flower. They are such good value plants, growing easily in most conditions and flowers at the end of the season brightening up October and November as the days get shorter. You can read about them in my blog by following the link below.

Plant Profiles - Asters, Jewels of Autumn

In the vase we have:

Aster (Symphyotrichum) ericoides 'Erlkönig'

Aster (Symphyotrichum) laeve 'Cally Compact'

Aster (Symphyotrichum) 'Little Carlow'

Aster (Symphyotrichum) novae-angliae 'Badsey Pink'

Aster (Symphyotrichum) novae-angliae 'Herbstschnee'

Aster (Symphyotrichum) novae-angliae 'Septemberrubin'

Aster (Symphyotrichum) novi-belgii 'Blue Gown'

Aster (Symphyotrichum) novi-belgii 'Coombe Fishacre'

Aster (Symphyotrichum) pilosum var. Pringlei 'Monte Cassino'

Aster divaricatus (Eurybia divaricata)

Highlights in the nursery gardens this week - an abundance of autumn! Our sunflowers are flowering at last, better late than never Ferns are looking fab in the shadier areas of the garden and many shrubs are turning brilliant, reds, oranges and yellows. Berries and rose hips, seed heads and fruits are adding to the wealth of interest.

Aster (Symphyotrichum) novae-angliae
 'Herbstschnee'

Aster (Symphyotrichum) novi-belgii
'Marie Ballard' and Artemisia 'Powis Castle'

Bergenia pacumbens

Cornus alba 'Sibirica' berries

Euphorbia palustris 'Walenburg's Glorie'

Helianthus sunflower 'Mongolian Giant'

Polypodium x mantoniae 'Bifidograndiceps' 

Rhododendron Azalea deciduous 'Berryrose'

WINTER HOURS

The nursery will be closed for winter from Sunday 31st October and then open by appointment only from Monday 29th November until Saturday 5th March 2022 when we re-open for the 2022 season.

The opening date in March is speculative at the moment as we still don’t know the outcome of the farm sale and what our future at Whitmuir is. Once I know I will update this post and our website.

If you wish to purchase plants or to ask advice, please email quercusgardenplants@gmail.com.

Thank you so much to all our customers and visitors to the nursery for helping make it a fantastic year, for your custom, great reviews and positive feedback, it's very much appreciated. Your support during our more trying moments this year has really kept us going and we truly appreciate it all It really has been a stressful year with covid, the farm sale, uncertainty about our future at Whitmuir, fallen trees…… we hope it will be a bright and positive future going forward, watch this space.

We are heart broken to have to share with you all that we had to have Bracken put to sleep this morning. Although we were managing his pancreatitis well, his health took a turn for the worse over Wednesday and Thursday and we had to rush him to the emergency vet in the early hours of this morning as he was having seizure’s. The vet found that most of his liver was a tumour, liver tumours metastasize to the brain which explains the seisures. Any treatment would only have prolonged his life a few months with no real quality of life and we had to make the decision to let him go.

I know you will all miss his funny, cute photos, his nonsense and small dog attitude, he made such an impression in everyone’s live. He lived the best life and had so many cool adventures with us, he was an amazing wee dog. We can’t believe he has gone, for a small dog he has left the biggest hole in our lives. We are broken.

Run free fuzzy ratbag doglet xx

Davids weekend was spent mainly fixing things. Mine was spent crying my eyes out over our wee dog. Not that David isn't missing him, he's shows it in different ways. David spent Saturday fixing the damaged fence that was reversed into and knocked over last week. Huge thanks to this wonderful man of mine.

From this

to this

"Dogs are our link to paradise. They don't know evil or jealousy or discontent. To sit with a dog on a hillside on a glorious afternoon is to be back in Eden, where doing nothing was not boring—it was peace." – Milan Kundera, author of The Unbearable Lightness of Being

Bracken and I had many hill and walking adventures. He was the best walking buddy

Rona pretending to be a gunnera leaf

"Nobody can fully understand the meaning of love unless he's owned a dog. A dog can show you more honest affection with a flick of his tail than a man can gather through a lifetime of handshakes." – Gene Hill, author of A Hunter's Fireside Book and Hill Country

We could always tell Bracken's mood by his tail - straight up, happy and ready to go, Wagging - very happy, with a bend at the end, his ? tail - whats going on, does it involve me? down between his legs - not happy, slow wag - not sure if it involves me yet, but it might......

Today's day off has been spent going to Peebles to take Bracken's painting done last christmas to be framed (I know its taken almost a year!) and lunch at the Tontine Hotel Peebles, raising a glass to the ratbag.

"I have found that when you are deeply troubled, there are things you get from the silent devoted companionship of a dog that you can get from no other source." – Doris Day, actress

As someone who does have dark days, sad moments and struggles often, having Bracken come and lie by my side, silently comforting, no judgment, just devoted love and mutual cuddles made such a difference. He always knew and would appear at the side of the bed or sofa, jump up and snuggle in

"Dogs' lives are short, too short, but you know that going in. You know the pain is coming, you're going to lose a dog, and there's going to be great anguish, so you live fully in the moment with him, never fail to share his joy or delight in his innocence, because you can't support the illusion that a dog can be your lifelong companion. There's such beauty in the hard honesty of that, in accepting and giving love while always aware that it comes with an unbearable price." – Dean Koontz, author of False Memory

In memory of Bracken the fuzzy ratbag doglet

August 2012 - 15th October 2021

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