Another two week blog in order to keep up, the past month has been super busy and I've also been quite exhausted. Our open season is well into the second half which is hard to believe, next week we are in August which is crazy, which means there’s only 3 months left to visit and if you want to see the nursery in its summer glory, now is the time to visit.
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| Rosa 'Blanc Double de Coubert' |
For many of us, plants are not just plants, they are companions through life, from garden to garden, celebrating the highs and lows of life.
Whether they have been long searched for treasures, gifts from family and friends, a celebration of important moments in life we have taken them from garden to garden as cuttings, seedlings and plants.
In this album you will find a few of my treasured plants which I've had for a very long time, either the original plant or their desendants as a many times great cutting 
And some of them are available to buy in the nursery, so you can be part of their story too. Find them on the link below:
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| In the herb garden |
Just getting started in gardening? Here are five easy plants I'd recommend to get you started. You can see them growing in the nursery gardens and they are available in the sales area..
Buddleia - great for polinators and summer interest, grow in sun and any decent soil. We have three different varieties in stock.
Sanguisorba - We have 19 cvarieties in the nursery, so you can tell they do well in our often challenging conditions, from 20cm high to 2.5m, pink, red or white there is one for everybody.
Blackcurrents - a great plant to get started with fruit growing. Its hardy, makes a great hedge by the way and fruits copiously so plenty jam, jelly and cordials.
Carex 'Evergold' - colourful, evergreen, hardy and does great in a border or in a container. A zing of colour even in the darkest winter days.
Sedum - the herbacious sedums are fab for insects, bees and butterflies go crazy for them in late summer and autumn, which means they also give a great display at the end of the season as many other plants are starting to go over.
This week it is Rona's turn to choose her pick of the sales area and she's gone for fabulous fruit in our fruit display in the sales area. ~ Strawberries – my favourite is ‘Cambridge Scarlet’ and I’ve grown it for over 30 years and still do in my current garden. At the moment in the nursery we have Strawberry ‘Toscana’ which I can confirm has a lovely sweet berry so well worth growing.
~ Black currents – a very hardy soft fruit growing on a good sized plant which also makes a very hardy dense hedge, especially if you live some where cold and exposed. We sell Ben ‘Hope’ a good old Scottish variety which produces good sized berries, perfect for jams, jellies and cordials. We also have red and white currents for sale too.
~ If you are somewhere a bit warmer or have a large greenhouse what about a fig? There is nothing nicer than a fresh fig straight off the tree, reminding us of holidays in hotter climates, tho given the current heat wave that could be here! This variety is ‘Brown Turkey’ and propagated from my son and daughter in laws fig through in the west of Glasgow. Worth growing for the large leaves even if you don’t get any fruit. I grow mine in a large terracotta pot which goes in the unheated greenhouse for winter due to our hillside aspect. The flowers are insignificant, but if planted on a sunny warm wall or grown in a greenhouse you will hopefully get lovely fresh figs. H 3m.
~ Grapes – in a sunny greenhouse or conservatory you can get edible grapes in Scotland. My ancient grape has produced edible grapes in the past, small but edible. After a few years of being moved around in a pot its now in the poly tunnel and looking amazing with so many grapes! Quercus wine? Who knows, watch this space. We have lovely grape vines for sale which are putting on plent long tendrils.
~ Rhubarb – always a great fruit which you can do lots with and ready earlier than most fruits. Looks good in the garden and you can get several pickings from it until early summer.
Hello and welcome to all our new followers and customers! 
Thank you for all your wonderful feedback about Quercus, our nursery and garden. Whether you've visited us in person or simply enjoy following along online, we really appreciate your support.
I'm Rona, owner of Quercus. With over 40 years in horticulture, I've created a nursery focused on growing hardy plants, inspiring beautiful gardens in challenging conditions, and providing a peaceful, wildlife-friendly space to enjoy. We are a team of five – myself, Fiona, Isabel, David and Maisie the nursery dog and we are committed to creating a lovely place to visit where you can buy hardy healthy plants, enjoy a walk round the gardens and get great advice.
If you'd like to learn more about my journey and the story behind Quercus, visit our website and keep following us here, on instagram, my Quirky Bird Gardener blog and on tik tok for gardening inspiration and updates. 
A great day out on Monday walking another part of the Fife coastal walk. We parked in the carpark at Kingsbarns beach and started our walk along the coast. Just along the way is the wonderful Cambo gardens and it would have been rude not to go in and visit. It was lovely to be in the shade of the woodland path from the beach to the gardens. The walled garden was looking fabulous, the herbaceous borders were at their best with the waving stipa and deep purples and pinks, fabulous, oh and the Dierama and the cutting borders.
From the gardens we continued our walk past the golf course and stopped in a shady cove for our picnic lunch with great views out to sea. Onwards towards Crail 5 miles away. An easy mainly flat walk along the well defined grass path and occasionally over the beach. There were loads of wild flowers in bloom, lots of butterflies and bees. It was warm but great to be out and about making the most of a summer day instead of working. Once we reached Crail we got a bus back to Kingsbarns and walked down to the carpark from the bus stop. Ice cream from the snack van and a walk on the beach, where Maisie and I had a paddle to cool our feet before finishing our picnic for our tea on the rocks on the beach. In all 9 miles walked, great training and a perfect day with hubby and Maisie.
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Quick and short one this week as its all so busy I’m determined to stay up to date-ish and not get (too
far) behind. Lots of photos to share to entice you to visit…….. this week the heat continues and so there for so does the job of watering, its like another full time job on top of everything else lol. The sales area is full of our fabulous plants with lots of interesting unusual plants and lovely plants great for wildlife including buddleias, sedums and Echinacea.
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| lifting viola seedlings to pot |
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| Lots of colour in the stock beds |
Looking good in the gardens
I’ve finished working through propagating the alpines and am doing a quick work through the herbs,
potting up seedlings from the garden and seedlings sown in trays in spring. Tunnel 3 is filling up very quickly already! Fiona got lots of seedlings and cuttings potted on Saturday so our main propagation is well under way producing many plants for next year and beyond.
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A sweet summer treat
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| Potting lots of plants for next year |
The gardens are looking fab and we really appreciate all the lovely comments we have received about the nursery and gardens, it means a lot.
Here is our back garden in all its beautiful, colourful glory over the past month
Last week was mainly about watering and propagation and it was a relief to have cooler temps and some rain, albeit not enough. I’ve been moving older plants out tunnel 3 ready to be potted to make room for all the propagation I’ve been doing which will stay in the tunnels over winter to root through. This includes seedlings from the garden and rooted pieces of plant which go straight into small pots. I’m still in G’s in the stock bed but the end of geraniums is in sight. Fiona finished potting last
the cuttings we did in spring so that’s us all caught up with those which is great and she will start on all the pots of seedlings next.
The gardens are looking glorious with so much colour, butterflies and bees, all enjoying the great
weather and so are the stock beds with more plants coming out every day, there is so much choice from our huge range of hardy perennials grown here in the nursery.
We had the Morpeth Gardening group visit on Thursday which was lovely, they enjoyed their visit
and being able to buy some different plants, they had good weather too. Big thanks to Fiona and David for doing an extra day to help out.
David has started to make a new stock bed through the back to hold more plants we are growing and propagating for sale as we get busier. He is resisting tunnel 5 but field stock bed 9-12 is definitely a help.
Our open season is well into the second half which is hard to believe, next week we are in August which
is crazy, which means there’s only 3 months left to visit and if you want to see the nursery in its summer glory, now is the time to visit.
Wednesday to Sunday, 10am to 5pm
A day off from the nursery to help in Jamie and Natasha’s garden 
great to be able to help and we made great progress in the very overgrown border at the side of their front garden. Planting some of the plants we gave them for their wedding in the spaces we created. Then out for Nepalese to celebrate Jamie's birthday 
Day two of reclaiming Jamie and Natasha's front garden, hard going but what a difference and a trip over the hill to Mclarens in the land-rover for some plants to fill space. We're all knackered but very happy with progress, scoffing pizza before I drive home 
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