Thank you to the lovely team at Devon’s Country Gardener Magazine for a wonderful write up on our 90th anniversary.
Free copies of the pubication are available from both our garden centres or you can read the online version here (flip to page 32).
Author Archives: Tammy Falloon
Plants for Bees
Thank you to Dani Furlong for a brilliant question sent to our plant doctor today. Dani asked, “What plants can I put in pots to attract bees?”. We answered as follows:
There are numerous plants for bees you could plant in pots but the balance you may have issue with is between plants for bees and looking good for you. By this I mean that nearly all flowering herbaceous plants are loved by bees but as they are perennials the plants die back in autumn/winter only to reappear again the following spring/summer and so for a number of months your pots will look bare. One way to overcome this is to have a herb planter which is great for everyone and added benefit of being edible in the kitchen! Herbs like Rosemary, Borage, Nepeta, Lavendar and chives would be great.
Alternatively to get the best result for everyone I would suggest using one large bee friendly plant in the centre of your pots (a shrub or perennial) and then underplant with seasonal bedding (annual plants) for interest to the eye. Though these annual plants will need replacing after the season. Alternatively you could underplant with flowering bulbs that depending on the variety will either give you spring, summer or autumn flowers.
The main rule of thumb for bees is to look for a simple open flower. The less fussy the flower the better as it means the bee can get to the pollen and nectar. White and yellow flowers are also better at attracting bees than other colours.
As a starter, I would recommend the following for your consideration:
Helleborus foetidus – a herbaceous plant that has winter flowers
Erica x daryleyensis or Calluna vulgaris (heathers)
Skimmia Japonica – a shrub that would be a good centre piece
Astrantia major rubra – a sumer flowering perennial
Lavandula angustifolia (English lavender)
Eryngium planum – a summer flowering perennial
Nepeta x faassenii – a perennial
Stachys byzantia – a tall perennial
Spiraea japonica – a shrub but this will grow quite large
Aster novi-belgii for autumn flowers (a perennial)
Gardening rant
Well this weekend has been beautiful and we know many of you have spent the weekend gardening. If, however, you are daunted by the word gardening and think of it as hard work then step this way to our little summer gardening rant…
“Gardening” is for everyone. The benefits of gardening are proven – need we say more about physical exercise, fresh air, relaxing impact on the body etc. To what level you do gardening is entirely up to you. Our aim, is to help you make the most of your garden and to help you create a garden you can enjoy. Our customers range from experts who could give Monty Don a run for his money to young non-gardeners who claim to kill everything they touch, but want their garden to look pretty.
The secret to getting the garden you want is to ensure you don’t plant anything ‘beyond’ your required level of input. For example, there are certain plants that beyond the first few weeks of planting require very little attention. Such garden staples (as we like to call them) include slow growing conifers, the evergreen shrub euonymus, perennials such as aquilegia and ornamental grasses.
We understand that there is a lot of ‘jargon’ used in the world of horticulture so we want to help the non-experts understand and get the best from their garden. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE do not be afraid to ask a member of our plant team for advice. They LOVE gardening and many of them have either years of practical or technical training. It is their job to help you and there is no such thing as a stupid question. For this article, we will focus on the jargon of annuals as this can be a common cause of disappointment to beginner gardeners.
The term annual refers to plants that will only flower for one year/flowering season. These plants are usually brought to add a little dash of ‘wow’ to flower beds, pots and hanging baskets. But sadly most annuals will die off in the winter and will need to be replaced the following year. So if you’ve tried growing something like a marigold, lobelia or petunia and it died in the winter, it’s not you – it’s the plant!
Some gardeners don’t like to buy plants for such a limited flowering period but the truth is that annual plants are so “showy” that few can resist them. However, if you want to plant once and have repeat flowering year after year then you need to look at herbaceous perennials. Perennials look like they have died off in the winter but don’t dig them up as the following spring they will start to emerge and once again re-flower the following summer – year after year.
Feeling inspired? Pop down to one of our garden centres this week and get some inspiration, who knows maybe next weekend you’ll be doing some gardening.
Brightening up Topsham Train Station
Congratulations to a small group of Topsham residents who have volunteered to form a group responsible for the plants on the platform of Topsham train station. The ladies then got a group of volunteers from Plymouth University to help weed the area and then prepare the planters for their new plants – kindly donated by St Bridget Nurseries.
Commuters using the station will no doubt get great pleasure from their hard work.
A write up on this can also be found in the Exmouth Journal : http://www.exmouthjournal.co.uk/news/students_help_maintain_topsham_railway_plants_1_4091513
How to be a show garden winner!
News just in – we’re remaining champions at the Devon County Show – a large gold medal and the winner of the Midmay-White Perpetual Challenge Trophy for the best exhibit in the Flower and Garden Show.
Well done to the team involved Gary, Rob and Tammy.
Above is Gary’s masterpiece – letters and numbers created from sempervivums on a bed of helexine to celebrate our 90th anniversary. For those of you unable to go to the show this year, here are some photos from our display:
How to create a show garden – day two
Well we’ve just spent another 9 hours out at the Westpoint show ground completing our display. It’s hard to know where the time goes as at first glance we had most plants in place at the end of last night but believe me, no time was wasted!
Our first job was to moss around visible pot covers and position cork around the edges of our display to hide the plant pots. In doing this job you inevitably create spaces, find gaps and switch things around. Fairly soon Gary, Rob and I (Tammy) were whisking our remaining plants away from each other to fill our gaps! Despite believing we had brought too many plants out we were soon left with none. James from our Clyst St Mary garden centre gave us a hand too in the morning and soon found himself getting the idea of stacking and packing the plants in.
Mid-morning we had a visit from Brian, our tractor driver, to say goodbye as today was his last day before he enjoys retired life. Brian has worked for us for 40 years and so saying goodbye was not easy for any of us. Good luck Brian!
Brian our tractor driver – who retired today.
Back to our show garden, we decided to substitute the bird table for a dove cote. Nothing but the best will do and we’re glad we did as it stands out much better. We labelled all the plants, dead headed flowers, watered the plants, put up rope around the perimeter, added props to our table set, topped up the pond, finished stocking up our sales area, raked the grass and had a coffee! Meanwhile everyone was asking us, “what is the wooden frame for at the front of the stand?”…well Gary kept this little nugget a surprise until the end. I’m not going to reveal all on here now – come back tomorrow for the final photos!
So that’s it, judging is at 7am tomorrow morning and the show opens two hours later. For those of you who would like to meet the creators of the stand Gary will be there tomorrow and on Saturday and the full team will be there on Saturday. We hope you like it and most importantly get inspiration for your garden. All the plants look amazing (biased I know but they really do) and they are all grown here in Exeter by our amazing nursery team.
How we create a show garden
Today was our first full day setting up our trade stand at The Devon County Show. But months of planning have taken place before now. Gary on the nursery has been gathering and caring for hundreds of plants in the lead up to the show and Rob has been digging up large specimen shrubs and trees from the open ground fields. Some plants like Azaleas have been placed in large fridges to hold back their flowering whilst others have been brought into the greenhouse to bring them into flower. Lists have been made, labels printed and lorry loads filled.
When you first enter the massive flower and garden marquee it is quite daunting. Effectively a field in a tent our stand is quite like a brand new garden, a completely blank canvas! Step one (which we actually did yesterday) is to positin and level our water feature and power it. After that we position and re-position the key focal plants, mark out paths with canes and try not to panic! By now our stand looks something like this
With a bit of structure we now try to mix textures, blend and complement colours and hide pots. Some plants are lifted to give a bit more height and some plants are grouped together to give the impression of one larger established specimen. There’s a lot of ‘tweaking’ and plants will be placed, removed and re-placed as we debate their appropriateness for the gap in question with a bit of stand up comedy to entertain anyone passing by.
This is year we have a larger sales area and will be selling more than just plants. So we had a team from our Clyst St Mary garden centre working along side us, creating a stunning garden centre within the marquee.
By the end of the first day, we have most of both displays in position. Time for a quick water and tidy before an early start tomorrow.
Sensory Garden ideas – smell!
Mother Nature is clever. Did you know that plants tend to have a scent for a reason? The strong smell of marigolds detracts insects from eating them (hence why they are good companion plants to plant near tomatoes) whilst in contrast lavender’s sweet scent attracts bees and butterflies to aid pollination!
Certainly for our senses, scent is perhaps one the greatest joys of any garden. To help you get the most from your garden follow our top tips:
1. Do you want your garden to invoke certain feelings? The use of essential oils goes back to ancient civilisations for therapeutic reasons and since all aromatherapy oils are derived from plants, your garden can be equally therapeutic. For example lavender is known to make you feel calm and relaxed while jasmine is a more exotic scent that can make you feel more awake. If you plant these plants near paths you are more likely to brush past them and release their perfume.
2. Rub flowers between your fingertips to really release the smell.
3. Plants herbs. Not only do they smell nice in the garden but they can be used in meals too!
4. Plant some roses. Even if you don’t have a big garden, roses can be planted in containers successfully just choose small compact varieties and use a deep pot as roses like to go down with their roots. The scent of roses can vary greatly from old fashioned musk to myrrh and fruity perfumes. Come to one of our rose field tours in July to have a good sniff at the hundreds of different varieties we grow and choose your favourite.
Fill up your pond with plants
The month of May is time to focus on your garden pond.
Start by thinning out established aquatic plants. You can do this by either cutting them back or lifting them out and dividing them (literally use your hands or a spade to break the plant down, you’ll see the natural opportunity to make lots of smaller plants from the one big one). If you have any gaps that need filling then pop out to our Clyst St Mary garden centre and stock up. We have some wonderful lilies in stock. Plant vigorous varieties in plant baskets to contain their roots and growth and place a layer of gravel over the compost surface so that fish don’t stir it up.
Don’t forget the marginal areas too or if you have a very moist area of the garden make a bog garden.
If you have any blanket weed the best way to remove it is like candy floss – get a rough stick and twirl it through the water then use a net to get any duckweed and other floating weeds out. If you put the pile of weeds next to the pond for a day it will allow any trapped wildlife to return safely before you dispose of the weeds.
Once you have established all your new plants and providing you are going for a more ornamental look rather than a wildlife pond, then it will be time to stock up with fish.
Sensory garden ideas – sound!
We are going to write a series of articles giving sensory garden ideas, We all take our senses for granted but what if you loose one of your senses? Research shows that your other senses become stronger. In the garden we can add elements to appeal to all our senses and everyone can benefit from them as it leads to good mental and physical well being,
Today we are going to focus on adding sound to your garden.
Bringing sounds into your garden is simple. Here are our top tips:
1. Add a bird feeder to encourage garden birds to come into your garden and have a sing!
2. Add water. The sound of water can be very calming as well as attracting wildlife. SO add a water feature. You don’t have to have a large garden – you can make a pond from a container and many self contained water features are quite small. Visit our Clyst St Mary garden centre for further inspiration on this.
3. Think about planting plants that rustle in the wind. Plants such as bamboo are perfect or the hardy bottlebrush plant has bright red flowers that turn into seed heads that rustle in the wind. This plant can grow quite big so don’t be afraid to trim it to the size you want.
4. Add wind chimes. Test them out before you buy as they have different pitches. Choose the one that relaxes you the most.
So next time you are out in the garden, sit quietly and listen to the sounds. How many sounds do you hear? Bees buzzing, birds chirping, plants rustling….
