Weekly catch up with garden & propagation

This week in propagation with Miya

Although the heavy grim skies are looking down on us, it has been so cheerful to welcome customers back in the gardens and the nursery. The snowdrops are at their peak and there is sign of early spring everywhere. There is no turning back from now. The team haven't stopped thinking of season ahead, propagation is all about timing, quality plants begin with quality materials!

Quite a few dry condition plants come up on my prop schedule this month. The garden team has been busy working on the gravel garden. It is the perfect week for Kathy and me to join them as their guidance help us on deciding which patches can be used for the nursery while they are editing their pictures of Gravel garden. We have lifted plants such as Geranium malviflorum, Verbascum bombyciferum, and Prunus tenella, Erodium acaule.  Rosa spinosissima 'Falkland' will be on the list next week.

Debbie is out and about with a wheelbarrow filled with root cutting materials. She has been going through a lot of root cuttings. This includes Stokesias, Crambes, Macleayas. New fresh shoots of perennials are coming through on stock beds. Not too long until she is working on softwood cuttings at her supersonic speed.

Emily has also made root cuttings of Pelargoniums. Many Pellies are propped by cuttings, some by seeds but this special one requires root cuttings. P. 'Ardens' is a favourite of mine. It is a slow grower, but it is absolutely worth the wait. The scarlet rouge flowers are borne on delicate stems. A gorgeous collection of Pellies adored by Beth and Emily will be available again this year.

Sean and Annie have been dividing Phlomoides tuberosa 'Amazone'. Sean also brought beautiful Hazel catkins to add to Annie's beautiful nursery displays.

Thank you very much for ordering many snowdrops, perennial plants and coming to see us at our first plant fair of the year at Fullers Mill. Steve has been diving into the sea of snowdrops in the garden, busy lifting specials for the fair. We will be back again at Fullers Mill on 25 February.

Our plants are tended and sent out with care. Kirsten and the rest of the team have been checking our stock, ensuring every plant is excellent. We hope our plants will be something you look forward to after these prolonged rainy days.

This week in the Garden with Malin

Another week of cutting back in the gravel garden - we are slowed down by the never ending rain this year, February hasn’t offered us a single day without rainfall.

When the sun peaked through the clouds for a couple of minutes on Thursday we almost didn’t recognise that big bright thing in the sky! We are working our way through the area, cutting back, raking, weeding and topping up with gravel as we go. It’s very rewarding to see crocuses, scilla and Anemone pavonina pop up in the newly tidied beds.

Mattie did a great job pruning the Wisteria on the wall of the Visitor centre, we look forward to seeing an abundance of flowers later this spring. At the beginning of the week me and Scott spent a day digging snowdrops that had been ordered, as more varieties pop up in the garden they’ll be released for sale on the website.

If you haven’t been to see the garden in February, do! The woodland is absolutely covered with bulbs and hellebores at the moment, and it’s a joy to walk through the scented Sarcococca.