Spring plays hide and seek, one minute its there, the next its gone

The sales tables are full and the gardens are emerging after their winter sleep. Bulbs are popping up and early spring flowers are appearing.

The gates will be open from Saturday 8th March with our usual hours of Wednesday to Sunday, 10am to 5pm. We have lots of lovely plants growing on here in the nursery to sell; old favourites and lots of new varieties to tempt you with. Trees, shrubs, fruit, perennials, shade plants, wildflowers, bamboo, conifers and grasses (herbs and alpines will be out later in March once the weather improves and water plants in April).

Snowdrops in the sales area

Lots of colourful conifers

This year I am again doing a feature with Scotland Grows Magazine where I recommend 5 or 6 plants for each issue. You can subscribe to the online magazine which is all about growing and gardening in Scotland. There are lots of very useful articles written by Scottish gardeners, whether you are a seasoned gardener or just starting out, each issue is packed with events, advice, plant recommendations and garden chat. You can subscribe on the Scotland Grows Magazine website.

The last delivery for our wee shop arrived and its now fully stocked with lots of new items and old favourites. I love the recycled glass vases, the new blue and white vases and the sheep and chicken wool holders for nesting birds

In our wee shop

Our first looking good in the garden for 2025

Can you tell it was windy?

Last week in the nursery - was manic and it ended with the beginning of our 2025 season. But first….. we got the sales area filled up ready for opening with lots of colour and interesting plants for spring and the wee shop filled with lots of goodies. We also started the stock beds with Isabel starting the grass stock beds, weeding, cutting back, top dressing, feeding and cleaning the ground cover fabric underneath. Meanwhile I started at the other end with V’s in the perennial stock beds. Its such a rewarding job, like the gardens, going from winter messy to spring tidy ready for this years growth.

~ Gnorman the gnome has made an appearance after his winter break.

~ David worked through a bad cold to get our new entrance and bridge finished ready for opening day. This accessible entrance takes you through a new gate and across the stream via a new bridge where you get a different view of the stream garden than before.

~ We also put a metal mesh covering on the two woodland bridges to stop them being slippy, speaking of the woodland garden, we have native primroses establishing them selves naturally on the stream bank, I am so excited about this 😊

~ Fiona was back in on Saturday, the Quercus team is back together again. She got all the annual seeds sown and put away in out new tunnel. These will be used to fill in spaces in the nursery gardens over summer.

~ Crocus 'Barr's Purple' is flowering in the orchard along side the snow drops, I’m hoping these will establish over time.

~ Finally and by no means least I would like to say a massive thank you to David, a man that encouraged me to buy my own nursery not realising how involved he would become lol :D I couldn’t do it without him and he generously gives his time to build things, small and big, problem solve together, listen to me complaining and stressing and by quiet osmosis has absorbed plant names and will find himself saying oh theres a so and so when we are out and about. He has mastered tunnel building, serving customers, building fences, gates and now he can add bridge building to his list of accomplishments. This is alongside running his own business, being one of Scotlands top bat specialist, a glider flying instructor and published novelist (book 2 coming later this year).

Team work absolutely makes the dream work here at Quercus

Maisie the nursery dog waiting on her fan club

Gnorman

Starting to tidy the stock beds

Progress

David on his new bridge

Our new entrance

Anti slip on the woodland bridges

Annual seeds sown

Crocus 'Barr's Purple'

David and Maisie

At last I’ve finished my snowdrop painting, only taken 2 weeks, what with being so busy getting the nursery ready for opening, health stuff on my mind and not having the right light to paint in the evenings (sorted, bought myself a big bright lamp!) SO here we have all the snowdrop varieties I have growing here at home.

Today we headed up to Torwood to visit the Tappoch Broch (think we are now at 8 broch visits but this was Maisie’s first). There’s not much left but there are a couple of lintels still in place and a set of steps. The path to the Broch has been obliterated by tree felling so there was a bit of scrambling over brash to the top of the hill and the broch. After investigating the broch we followed another path along the ridge of the hill to pick up a path to our next destination, Torwood Blue pool. It really is blue, the photos have not been edited! A nice wee path along the edge of the woods and field brings you to a break in the forestry plantation, across the dry stone dyke and up the fire break and there is the pool on the right. Such an odd feature in what really is th e middle of no where. We then went back the way we had come until we got to TOrwood Castle where we followed the road back out to the main road and the car. Stopped off for some lunch and then visited betty for a coffee on the way home, great to catch up and admire all the flowering bulbs and Rhododendron in her garden. Despite both of us under the weather with another cold, it was good to get out some where different on our day off.

I had a lovely day in my own garden, a dry and sunny day, lately days off have been taken up with other things or wet! I finished off the border I’d widened a couple of weeks ago and planted a few more plants, gave the front and back garden a wee tidy and top dressed the raised herb border. I also planted up my new half barrel in the parking area, greening up that area too small gardens make you creative with your planting ideas. Some grass seed sown to patch up the bits Maisie has destroyed with her ball chasing and enjoying the spring bulbs. We discussed where a greenhouse might go and watered the put door pots, yes it has been that dry!

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