Joyous June in the garden

Sticking with inspiration for shady corners. I first developed this collection of plants in pots for shade at the nursery where you can still see it. Many of our customers have areas of garden where there is no soil to plant into, courtyards, against house walls and basements (especially if you are in the center of town, ie Edinburgh) and so this fabulous collection of mainly foliage plants was born. I love flowers, but I also love foliage and it has such a great part to play in our gardens. When you look at the texture, form and colour of some foliage, especially some of those big leaved perennials such as rodgersia, darmera, hostas and Astilboides. You'll have seen this in many parts of the nursery garden. Any hoo back to this shady plant display.

This was the first gardening thing I did when we moved into our house 3 years ago. The back wall of the house is north facing and gets no direct sunlight and is under the over hanging eaves of the roof. It is also paved so I put together this pot collection and it does perfectly here, those hostas and ferns are just so lush 💚

Adiantum aleuticum 'Imbricatum'

Adiantum venustum

Dryopteris wallichiana

Helleborus 'Double Black'

Hosta 'Devon Green'

Hosta fortunei var. 'Albopicta'

Hosta 'Francis Williams'

Hosta 'Tall Boy'

Polystichium minutum

Polystichium setiferum 'Plumosomultilobum grp

Rhododendron 'Snow Lady'

Skimmia confusa 'Kew Green'

Fabulous foliage for shade

Helleborus 'Double Black'

Shade pot collection in the back garden

Now that the weather has warmed up the nursery and gardens really are full of bugs, beasties and wildlife. We saw the first damsel flies of the year during the week, there are plenty bees and frogs, toads and newts every where. We are very much a wildlife haven.

Thursday is filling up and tidying the sales area day. Removing plants past their best and putting them away to recover, weeding, dead heading and filling up the tables with lots of gorgeous, interesting, tough and hardy plants.

Alpines, herbs, trees, shrubs, water plants, fruit, shade, wild flowers, climbers and grasses are looking summer ready to give your garden a lift or a blast of colour.

Pots, willow plant supports, peat free compost, string in ever colour, indoor pots, string lines, nail brushes, soap, wee garden ornaments, plant supports, vases, bird nesters, bug hotels, toad aboads - a gift for a friend or for yourself, we will have something to fit the bill.

The nursery gardens are full of colour with lots of summer flowers and great foliage, inspiring ideas and benches to sit and enjoy the sun and bird song.

Open Wednesday to Sunday 10am to 5pm

See you soon

This corner of the garden at home, though a very small border, a metre square, has been the star of the garden for the past three weeks and is still fabulous. The smell of the Clematis is incredible. In shade in the morning and sun in the second half of the afternoon this border packs a punch for such a small space all year round. I have packed quite a few plants into this corner and it works well with the ground covered most of the year with all year interest from the pulmonaria, viola and Heucharella. Spring bulbs pop up from March onwards and then the Camassia and Clematis put on a show. Bergenia and Hakonechloa carry the border through late summer into autumn.

Clematis montana 'wilsonii'

Camassia leichtlinii 'Plena'

Bergenia pacumbens

Hakonechloa macra

Heucherella 'Brass Lanterns'

Liriope 'Big Blue'

Primula alpicola

Pulmonaria

Viola cornuta 'Alba'

This corner of the garden at home has really settled in now after creating it earlier this year. The colour of the Acer 'Bloodgood' is fabulous, I've had it for over 25 years now, I guess I've sort of bonsai-ed it in a way. Its perfect in the corner. Now I just have to perfect the flow of the fountain so it isn't so loud and making us want to run to the loo

Saturday morning quiz time along with your morning coffee.....

What is this wonderful contraption donated to our tool collection by a lovely customer?

Thanks every one who had a guess - so its a device for making soil plugs for planting into, so those that guessed similar were close 

Another corner of the back garden at home that has come together and I'm really pleased with. A fusion of dark purples, lovely pinks and matching foliage with scent from the roses and Dianthus. Those poppies!

Dianthus 'Lovelyness Improved'

Rosa 'Cardinal de Richeleux'

Papaver orientalis Pizzazco Purple

Sambucus 'Black Lace'

Veronicastrum virginicum 'Erica'

This week in the nursery there has been lots of potting and propagation which everyone has been involved in. Erin has potted more stock from 9cm into 2 litres for sale next year and into the new stock beds 🪴

I’ve been doing more tidying in the stock beds but not as much as I’d like, but there are always a million other things to do too 😊 I’ve finished tidying and propagating all the grasses that stay in the tunnel and along with shrubs and climbers that live in the tunnel have been sorted, potted, fed, propagated and are now looking fab in their new home in the new tunnel so that’s a big job ticked off my list ✔️

Its been very mixed weather for June, and the rain means less watering, and the gardens are nursery are looking fab, this is when I think it looks its best and then in July, August, September 🌦☀️🌬

Isabel has been planting plants in the gardens to fill in gaps and potting up seedlings from the garden to add to stock, always a great way to increase stock when the plants do half the work for us, so generous. She has nearly finished the shade stock bed tidy, yeh, and it all looks so much better, lots of new plants potted and out to grow on ready for selling and labels added and weeds removed 🌸

We also had a visit from Robyn from Royal Botanic Gardens Edinburgh to chat about our transition to be peat free here at Quercus. It was great to recognised for this and to be able to contribute to the project RBGE are doing in conjunction with the Scottish Parliament and Climatexchange. It was lovely to chat to Robyn and show her around the nursery and gardens to see what we are doing here at Quercus.

Fiona has been working through more of last years cuttings, potting them into 9cm for next years stock and ran the show when I was off ill on Sunday 🏆

Helping customers, watering, weeding and always planning and more jobs to be done, its been another busy varied week here at Quercus :)

Looking good in the garden at home this week, the roses are fabulous, especially Constance Spry which has now been joined by the wonderful Vilchenblau. The front garden is slowly recovering from its trampling by the roofers and we are eating the first strawberries, brought from my last garden, the good old Cambridge variety. Every day something else comes into flower and it’s a colour and scent heavy garden. Today I’ve been recovering from whatever felled me yesterday by sitting in the summer house, over looking the garden and being serenaded by all the wee birds in the garden.

Man and beasts in and about the garden this week.............

Our grand old lady, 19 year old Poppy

The sofa has eaten the dog again

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