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January ramblings

Where is the time going! I’ve been keeping under the radar for a few weeks to recharge the batteries and have everything ready for the busy season ahead but we really did start the New Year at full throttle and the mild weather has meant that the gardens are all springing into life already.

As I walk through my own garden I see my snowdrops are all nodding their heads gracefully, we have daffodils and tulips planted along the lane on the lead up to the nursery and they are all ahead of schedule with the milder weather too. My garden greets me every day with the scent of my Sarcococca or sweet box which is just such a wonderful smell and I have it planted along the path up to the front door so it catches me unawares every time. My Magnolia buds are getting bigger as are the Rhododendrons and Camellias. My Centauria or perennial wallflower is already starting to flower and the grass seem to be growing already. 

 

We are still in tree planting season though even with the milder weather and now is the perfect time to get your trees and hedging planted, bare root or rootballed as well as potted trees take better and need less minding if planted at this time of year. Don’t forget to get your Malus and Prunus trees planted early enough if you want to see the benefit of this years show of blossom.

Hedging has proved to be particularly difficult this year as we have had the elements against us, some 3 years ago the seed take of Beech in particular was poor and so we only got about 50% of the hedging plant that we would normally get from the same amount of seed, even less in the case of Purple Beech. We then had a very strange year last year with the late spring due to the heavy snow and then the very hot, dry summer meant the growth was exceptionally poor so less seed and less growth meant a much smaller amount of hedging available. We sold out of some items very early and had to buy extra from other nurseries and this has driven prices much higher than previous years across the board for hedging but some things are affected more than others. Portuguese laurel seems have been hit hard, maybe because demand is high for them that the supply had dried up but these have increased in price slightly more than the average. All in all thats not good news for anyone but is indicative that the potted stock for the summer will still remain high.

Purple Beech seeds

For some good news my planning has included a few new additions to the nursery this year and I will be sharing those with you over the coming weeks, so for now back tho the grindstone this nursery doesn’t run itself!

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