After the past two weeks of terrible weather it looks like we may finally see some sun. The temperatures are set to fall making it feel much more seasonal out there. We’re busy cheering ourselves up with our Christmas open evenings and unwrapping our first deliveries of Christmas trees – We all smell piney fresh or of mulled wine at the moment!

There’s plenty going on despite the weather in the centres. Its offer change week and I’ve found some great offers for plant lovers. Camellias and Magnolias will make great gifts and ours are sourced locally from our favourite nursery in Wimborne - British grown all the way!

We’re gearing up the houseplant areas to make sure we’ve got some lovely indoor gifts too, our Poinsettias are also British grown and we have the classic Red ones on offer, one for you and one for a friend – See our main website for more details.

It’s quite scary how the last couple of weeks have flown past! Next week we are expecting our first deliveries of Christmas trees in time for our ever popular Christmas open evenings. We all really look forward to the open evenings as it’s a chance to get into the yuletide spirit with all of our customers both old and new. Everyone is welcomed with a complementary mince pie and cup of mulled wine or juice, the atmosphere is completed with local carol singers, bell-ringers or both if we’re really lucky and the coffee shops put together a special meal offer. Staff in each centre really go to town to make everything look festive and sparkly. We always have terrific fun and we reckon our customers must too as so many of you join us every year!

BBQ Time!

This week-end much to my surprise my husband decided to cook our Sunday roast on the BBQ! Despite the cold and rain he wanted to try out his new Weber poultry roaster and off he trooped down the garden, well wrapped up, head torch on, into the dark to get the BBQ lit and ready to roast. Ever the sceptic I was interested to see if we would have to order pizza for dinner but he persevered and 2 hours later we had one of the best roast dinners I’ve ever had. The poultry roaster has a dish into which you can put beer, wine or any other liquid and seasonings. You then pop the chicken on top and it kind of bastes it on the inside whilst it cooks, infusing the chicken and adding to the delicious smoky BBQ flavour. It really was delicious and now my poor husband may have to spend a few more winter days outside cooking!

Whilst writing my last blog about wild birds, one of the girls suggested I do a bit about hedgehogs... Hedgehogs are famously beneficial to gardeners for eating slugs and snails – Yum! But as with birds their ideal habitats are rapidly disappearing, in part our tidy gardens and security requirements are to blame as they can end up with no comfy piles of leaves to hibernate in or access in our out of gardens in which to forage. So how can we help? Leave an area of the garden untouched with somewhere comfy and protected where they can hibernate (usually between November and March) ensure that fences or walls have sections that a hedgehog could easily squeeze under and if you really want to encourage them leave out some special hedgehog food, now almost as commonly available as bird-food - I was surprised to find that its apparently very popular in our centres – fresh water but not milk or bread which can leave them with upset hedgehog tummies.