As spring finally appears the garden explodes into colour

True friends, like ivy and the wall both stand together, and together fall - Thomas Carlyle

Ivies often get a bad rap these day and with some of the larger growing, invasive ones rightly so. But there are a whole collection of smaller growing ives which are perfectly well behaved and deserve an invitation to your garden.

We have 9 varieties of ivy in stock, all propagated from our own plants growing here in the nursery. From tiny leaves of Hedera helix 'Minima' to the large leaves of Hedera colchica 'Dentata Variegata', from plain green to gold or silver variegation, the splotchy leaves of Hedera helix 'Fantasia' or the butter yellow of Hedera helix 'Buttercup' and of course my namesake Hedera hibirnica 'Rona'. Tall ones, miniature and smaller height ones, we have an ivy for everyone for evergreen ground cover or up a wall or fence, to cover tree stumps or an ugly shed, ivies are versatile and worth growing . Great for wildlife as a habitat for birds nesting, homes for bugs and beasties and if you have flowering mature ivy, the flowers provide food for bees and flies.

The herbs are out and the water plants are in.

Did you know we have 59 varieties of herbs out on the herb table, and more we couldn't fit on! Culinary, household and dye herbs grown here in the nursery from the plants you see growing in our herb garden.

We now have a full selection of water plants including many more marginals, oxygenators and waterlilies.

As you can see the sales area is looking fab, thanks Isabel for helping refill all the tables. Why not pop along for some perfect plant purchases.

Wednesday to Sunday 10am to 5pm

See you soon

A contrasting orange and purple combination which you can see flowering in summer on the top terrace in the nursery gardens. Sitting in a small border between stock beds these plants proved interest all year round. The Carex (and you can use any of the bronze carex) is evergreen or everbronze giving colour right through winter. The Aquilegia formosa comes into flower first in early summer followed by the Trifolium with its feathery flowers. Alongside these, providing dark purple foliage first then white flowers in early summer is the Ravenswing cow parsley. Finally in the later summer months into autumn the sedums provide fantastic colour right into autumn and the butterflies and bees love the flowers. I’ve used Sedum ‘Dark Jack’ but you could use any of the summer flower darker sedums. These plants are available to buy in the nursery most of the year (no ravenswing at the moment, waiting on seeds germinating )

We were lucky to be offered the opportunity to buy two collections of vintage terracotta pots last year. They have a fabulous patina, character and some have the original sankey stamp on them too.

But what to do with them once you've purchased them? Here are some of the things I've done with my vintage terracotta pots both in the nursery and at home.

We've also grown some sempeviviums to put in the teeny weeny pots, they look so cute now Fiona has potted them up

Just a quick one this week, as we are nearly in a new week, after a busy weekend and a busy couple of days off at home getting my own garden finally under control and the house work and new car shopping as my old car has reached the point of being on its last legs or should that be wheels? I am trying to catch up on admin before I am back in the nursery on Wednesday and can start a new week with an empty inbox and no outstanding admin……. Who am I trying to kid!

Work continues preparing our fabulous hardy plants for you to buy. I am working through all the herbaceous alliums and summer interest plants in tunnel 1 so they are ready for selling when the time comes. I’m also getting through P’s in the stock beds surprisingly quickly, have I missed some :D On Sunday I got all the alpine troughs and planters out the tunnel where they have been over winter. After a tidy up, feed and top up of gravel if required they got put out along the ends of the stock beds, ready for another summer. A few new plants planted in them too. Isabel has been keeping the creeping thistles under control in the gardens and working through the shade stock beds. There’s lots of potting of new plants for there too. Its all beginning to look vert tidy and organised especially with even more new plant description cards.

Fiona was potting up all the young semerviviums we propagated last autumn to sell with out vintage terracotta pots, they loo fab, then she was back to working through all the cuttings needing potted.

With a new delivery of water plants and getting the herbs out the tunnel, alongside all our other fab plants, the sales area is looking awesome and full of spring colour.

The weather this week is to be proper spring like so we hope you will come along and enjoy a wander through the gardens and purchase some fab hardy plants, pots and maybe a wee treat from the wee shop.

See you soon 😊

Valerian phu Aurea

The Woodland garden

Rheum palmatum v. Tanguticum

Using our vintage waterlily baskets for the oxygenators

Early morning in the orchard cutting the grass

Getting the alpine planters out for summer

Narcissus 'St Patrick's Day'

The future is red. Sadly its time to retire my wee black car. In 9 years its taken us to the very north east, north West, north and as west as you can go in Scotland and out to Skye and Coll. To the very south, south east and south West of Engeland, the furthest north West and south west of Wales and everywhere in between. This shiny red one gets picked up on Thursday with soooo many new gadgets to learn.

After selling my soul for a new car we went for a walk at the Kelpies nearby, a coffee and exercising the mouse dog including seeing a heron catch an eel in the canal. Stopped off for a coffee with Betty on the way home, great to have a catch up and see all the lovely colour in her garden.

It was time to get the houseplants queued up in the hall to go out to the potting shed. Here some got a full Repot, some a top dressing, all got fed and a tidy before heading back indoors. As always "helped" by Maisie

In the back garden this week

A day off in my own garden on Tuesday getting the last of the post winter tidy up jobs done and a lot of odd jobs too. A relaxing day with “help” from Maisie repotting my orchids in new bark, feeding Rhodos, sowing seeds, lifting leaves off the patio, cutting the grass, plating new plants, feeding and tidying auricula primulas, alpine troughs and pots. Lastly on my hands and knees tryignt o get as much of the wild garden under the hedge out before it seeds. Unfortunately my neighbours garden is full of it so I have to try and get as much away as possible that I can reach on my side including all the seedlings sprouting in the gravel path. A very satisfying day

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