Spring is doing its best to push through; daffodils are starting to bloom and filling our plant areas with various shades of yellow. Very soon we will be absolutely spoilt for choice for plants of all types as they start to put on growth again. Some of my favourite shrubs on the Garden centres now are –
Camellias – Coming into full flower now, you just cannot beat a Camellia for the ‘wow’ factor in your garden. With the added benefit of being evergreen they’ll give you year-round structure in your borders too.
Chaenomeles – Commonly known as Japanese Quince, these shrubs can be trained against a wall and produce pretty little flowers in February and March going on to develop edible fruit in the Autumn. Good doers these shrubs will grow pretty much anywhere.
Skimmias – Neat evergreen shrubs with panicles of green/white or red flowers on the female plants that hold well through late winter until the weather warms up. The buds then pop open into full flower releasing a wonderful musky scent. If yours are looking a bit yellow, give them an Iron tonic and watch them green-up within weeks.
We also have the starter range He rbaceous perennials coming through now. These are great for adding colour to your borders and ‘in filling’ around shrubs. Many people make the mistake of buying lots of different types and ending up with the ‘fruit salad’ effect. If you want real impact in the garden choose fewer varieties but lots of each, odd numbers (in the trade ‘landscape’ numbers) in 5s, 7s and up look more natural and when planted in swathes can really do you proud. If you’re canny, do some research on varieties before making a decision. This will enable you to co-ordinate colour and timing so your borders look their best all season. We will be offering these plants at 5 for £10 through March and April which makes the above technique very affordable.
