March is marching on through all the weathers

As the year accelerates and we seem to be speeding through March and all the weathers a Scottish spring brings work continues in the nursery. The focus moves from the gardens to the nursery with seed sowing creating some of the coming years new stock and starting to tidy the stock beds. Behind the scenes the unseen mass of admin that runs and trips up a small business continues including updating the plant pages on the website. The fruit, tree and shrub, conifer, climber and bamboo lists have been updated and this is the most up to date our plant lists will in the year. You can find links to all the pages on this page here: Plants at Quercus

The photo is a display I did of snowdrops in vintage pots a few years ago, they look so cool in their own wee sections of an old wine box. Finding creative ways to display plants is always fun, especially using bits n bobs I have lying around. A few vintage terracotta pots and an old wooden wine box, a couple of sticks, some moss and some snowdrops. A creative way to spend a rainy half hour.

We are now stocking these fabulous seeds. They come in cardboard sleeves which are covered in really useful and interesting facts and tips from growing the seeds, care of the plants once growing to snippits about the plant itself. I've chosen a selection of herbs and annuals to tempt you to grow your own veg, herbs or maybe even a set herbal teas. They would also make a lovely gift for someone, not only are they useful but they look fantastic too.

We have a bigger selection of fruit plants available this year. So its time to get planting in preparation for all those jams, jellies and pies later in the year

Varieties include:

Bramble / blackberry 'Merton thornless'

Blueberry in 3 varieties

Boysenberry

Gooseberry Hinnonmaki red'

Gooseberry 'Invicta'

Grapes

Honeyberry 'Blue treasure'

Loganberry ly654

Raspberry 'Autumn Bliss'

Raspberry 'Glen Clova'

Rhubarb in 3 varieties

Redcurrant 'Red Lake'

Redcurrent 'Jonkheer van Tets'

Whitecurrant 'White Versailles'

Blackcurrants 'Ben Hope'

and strawberries coming later in the year once rooted through

Well that was a week of weather – snow, sleet, rain, strong winds – all I can say is not only are our plants hardy so are our customers. Thank you so much to all that braved the more winter than spring weather this week.

A week that saw us starting the next big job in the nursery year – tidying, top dressing and feeding the plants, labelling and potting new stock to fill up the stock beds. Isabel starts in grasses and I start in v’s and sometime in summer we meet in the middle. The weather has been questionable with strong winds, rain and sleet so its great to have a second covered potting bench on site in tunnel 2 so we both have somewhere to work in bad weather.

I gave Lonicera henryi a haircut. This is a great evergreen climber, enthusiastic in its growth so if you want quick evergreen cover this is the one for you. By summer you will never guess it had such a short back and sides.

Fiona got about half of the perennial seeds sown, the smaller quantities that go in pots. She has put them in tunnel 4 to germinate and the rest of the seeds will get done next week, always an exciting part of the year when we get the seed sowing under way, most are collected here in the nursery gardens and some we buy in.

We’ve been getting orders ready for customers to collect, enjoying the spring flowers that valiantly keep going even when the weather is coming in at a horizontal angle! I’ve been potting up plants into large pots and putting them in the tunnel to bring on for our first family wedding in summer, exciting and taking time to notice the small details like the very pink roots of Verbena longifolia.

We are moving into Primula season. I love primulas and so many of them are super hardy and many love our wet clay soil. Primula 'Gigha' is the first of our primulas to flower, swiftly followed by the denticualta varieties (drumsticks). Then there are the native primulas, the primrose which is flowering now and the cowslip which flowers into April heralding true spring as our wildflower banks cover themselves in a joyful blanket of bright yellow, enough tho brighten even the dullest day. You can find them in our sales area and stock beds and also listed on our website if you want to read up about them

Picture is of P.'Gigha' in one of our new cast iron urns in the wee shop.

Its great to get back to filling up the what's looking good test tubes. This week it was a chance for the snowdrops to shine before they finish flowering for this year.

We still have pots of common snowdrops for sale and this is the best time to plants them. Planting them now while they are what's known as "in the green" means you will have far more success than planting bare bulbs in autumn. There are 3 or 4 bulbs in each plant, making an excellent wee clump to get going. Find them in the sales area when you visit.

Wednesday to Sunday, 10am to 5pm. See you then :)

A relaxing two days off, finally. David and I are beginning to get over this awful lurgy we’ve both had and we managed a short walk along the river yesterday and today. In between dentist and hairdresser I’ve been catching up in the garden and house. Finally I’ve finished giving the gardens their spring clean and the bubble wrap and fleece bags are off the greenhouse and plants on the patio. The climbers got a good prune on the back fence which just leaves all the pots to be fed and topped up.

Now we are feeling better and back to a more normal routine now the nursery is open we can get on with house renovations, longer walks and days out.

It was great to finally get the back garden tidied when I was off earlier in the week. All the bubble wrap and f;eece has been removed from the greenhouse, plants and pots and the last of the borders tidied. I also got all the climbers cut back and tied in. Its all looking much tidier. Come on spring, lets go.

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