Colour is returning to the nursery, lots of beautiful spring flowers are putting on a display for us.
this Cyclamen pseudibericum is beautifully delicate, hardy and appears early spring above its heart shaped mottled grey, green leaves. It does well in shady parts of the garden, under trees and shrubs. Bringing cheery colour at this time of year. It also looks lovely in containers.
Our perennials are all showing life
as growth reemerges from the pots. Even though we've been growing plants for over 15 years you still always watch, wait - with a mild sense of panic and then jump for joy when new healthy growth appears... I'm not joking we get so excited seeing what has popped up while we weren't looking.
Now is the time to continue with cleaning the plants and getting them ready for this years sales... giving the pots a top dressing (cleaning away weeds, moss and the top surface of the old compost and replacing it will clean fresh compost) and cutting back old leaves. This is a very rewarding job, looking back at the line of plants that have been tidied through makes me smile.
It's also time to pot on plants that are root bound and need more room, which supports healthy root, leaf and flower growth... busy, busy, busy
I've continued to order recycled, recyclable pots and will keep searching for creative alternatives that enables us to reduce our plastic use - this is a very important area for us as horticulture should be so sustainable but yet can be the complete opposite. It is a complete minefield, so baby steps... I'm thinking of using compostable coffee cups for our smaller plants? Feedback on that idea is welcome : )
Exciting news...
we will be this year's Garden Show Ireland in the stunning grounds of Antrim Castle - 29th April to 1st May. We are very excited but also feeling quite nervous and hoping that the plants we plan to be ready are ready! We want to show that our perennial plants are great in containers as well as the garden as they come back year after year, are low maintenance and sustainable - grown slowly, locally with minimal intervention, as nature intended. You can create bee friendly containers, edible containers, cut flower containers and ones for every corner of your garden. Yes, you're right, we are slightly obsessed with perennial plants and how they can be used.