Dicksonia antarctica

TREE FERNS have arrived at the nursery. They are priced at £27 per foot of trunk and we have hundreds available in sizes from 1ft to 6ft (to 5ft for mail order).

New Arrivals

New Arrivals
Cardiocrinum giganteum bulbs in stock.
Flowering or near flowering size.
£8.50 per bulb or 3 for £22

A Very Happy New Year to You.
Thank you to all our customers last year for keeping us afloat and allowing us to indulge our passion for plants. We hope that in the process we offered good plants and good service and we are looking forward to the new season with excitement.

The New Year has kicked off with the arrival of the Cardiocrinum bulbs from India. We have been importing and growing these amazing plants for several years now but still get a huge buzz with their arrival at the nursery. After Christmas and New Year slouching this is our wake up call for the start of the new season.
A flowering Cardiocrinum is a sight to behold. A thick, sturdy stem arises from the centre of the huge, fabulously glossy, heart-shaped leaves and produces numerous, white, heavily scented, trumpet-shaped, lily-like flowers – 12ft tall isn’t unusual! After flowering the seed pods swell like fat Kiwi fruits and split to release hundreds of papery seeds (these take seven years to reach flowering size plants). Even during winter the stems and seed pods give interest and a group of these look like a sculptural installation in the garden.
Plants being plants we can’t guarantee that they will flower in their first season – not always a bad thing. We have found that bulbs that flower in their second season produce the tallest stems and more numerous flowers after having a whole year to establish. The bad news is that after flowering the bulb dies – the good news is that they produce offsets that take a couple of years to reach flowering size. Planting bulbs every year for 3 years ensures flowers ever more. These are extremely hardy plants and provided they are planted in soil that isn’t waterlogged they will survive extremely low temperatures.

Bulbs can be ordered from the website now for £8.50 each or 3 for £22. Potted, rooted bulbs will be available in 3 litre pots later in spring.

The next arrivals should be the container of New Zealand Tree Ferns including Cyathea medullaris, Cyathea dealbata, Dicksonia squarrosa and Dicksonia fibrosa, closely followed by a container of palms from Spain. More news on this later.

Sale Ends

New year sale ends on Sunday 13th January 2008

NEW YEAR SALE

NEW YEAR SALE

50% OFF ALL PLANTS

Nursery closed 24th - 28th December inclusive

Starts 9am Saturday 29th December 2007 (open every day including New Years Day)

We would like to wish you a Wonderful Christmas and a Very Happy New Year.

We are having a clearance sale to make way for spring arrivals.
ALL PLANTS HALF PRICE including –

Trachycarpus fortunei 160/170cm trunk £405 £202.50

Restios 3Ltr pot £9.50 £4.75

Dasylirion longissimum 80/90cm trunk £989 £494.50

Dasylirion serratifolium 60Ltr pot £366 £183

Phyllostachys nigra (black Bamboo) 15Ltr pot £43 £21.50

Phyllostachys vivax aureocaulis 15Ltr poT £43 £21.50

Cordyline australis 2.5m £115 £57.50

Large Olive trees 2/2.5m £265 £132.50

Small Olive trees 25/30cm £10.50 £5.25

Strelitzias (Bird of Paradise) 15Ltr pot £37 £18.50

Callistemon citrinus 90/100cm £25 £12.50

Agave Americana 90Ltr pot £103 £51.50

Chamaerops humulis 1.6m £167 £83.50

Brahea armata 140/150cm £370 £185

Butia capitata 2m £288 £144

Ferns 2Ltr pot £5 £2.50

Sculpture and new border

We have been working on the new woodland garden, clearing scrub and dead trees and making paths and borders. A new sculpture graces the entrance, moulded onto a reclining tree, and was created by a local chap who goes under the name of ‘Nosey Potter’. It’s been named ‘Lord of the Trees’ and is excellent at scaring young children. A few coats with unmentionable stuff should promote aging and moss growth.

You may have noticed we’ve re-vamped the website and would appreciate any feedback. It functions the same as the old website but after 5 years we got fed up looking at it and felt it needed sprucing up. A bit like redecorating the lounge really.
The acers are looking really smart now and are ready for sale. For details please see website.
End of season clearance sale on grasses – all £3, even those in 7.5 litre pots! (nursery collection only).

Head of vermin control and other things

Monday morning and the main topics of conversation have been rising food prices, the end of easy credit, global warming, predicted petrol price increases, Gordon Brown and who drank most over the weekend. Wind and rain have forced me into the office to write this update. Pip the dog (head of vermin control), who usually doesn’t like to get her hair messed up in this weather, and who, as she gets older tends to prefer lazing on a chair, only becoming animated when the fridge is opened, is instead outside, being driven to distraction by baby squirrels. Having chased one up a tree she seems to be under the impression that if she yelps and yaps long enough it will do the decent thing and surrender itself. Not a chance-when will she learn? Squirrels have been a huge problem at the nursery in the past, digging up bulbs and hiding acorns in pots and, more seriously in the crowns of tree ferns. A germinating oak tree can play havoc with emerging crosiers so don’t forget to regularly check tree fern crowns over autumn and winter. Having caught one a couple of weeks ago she was barred from bringing it into the office so instead, insisted on dragging its bloody corpse around the nursery in full view of customers – not a pretty or welcoming sight.
The weather has reminded us that winter is just around the corner and so our thoughts are turning to dull things like glasshouse repairs and moving tender plants into winter quarters. No need to rush to move tenders at home just yet but we have so many to move, we have to make a start about now.

The amazing Urban Jungle Sale 2007 starts Saturday 25th August at 9am!

This is our biggest sale ever and there are some amazing bargains to be had at the nursery including -
Alocaisas/Colocasias/Gingers and Cannas reduced by 50%
Palms reduced by up to 50%
Grasses reduced by 75%
Ferns reduced by 25%
Bamboo reduced by 25%
Trees and shrubs reduced by up to 50%
Perennials reduced by up to 75%

Sale ends 5pm Monday 3rd September.
Offer applies to nursery only. Sorry – this offer isn’t extended to mail order.

Every cloud has a silver lining and one good thing about this weather is that we have been freed from the constant tyranny of summer watering, giving us time to concentrate on ‘projects’. We are creating a woodland garden and walkway at the nursery and will be bowing to parent pressure and incorporating a children’s play area. The planning of this is bringing out the big kid in all of us and we have whittled the ideas down to a ‘Tarzan and Jane Jungle Tree House’ or a ‘Slime-filled Swamp with precarious rope bridges’. We’ll probably go with the former – a broken arm is one thing but parents aren’t going to be too happy with gunge-covered kids in the car. Spoil sports. At least this should keep the little darlings in one place rather than using the whole of the nursery as an adventure playground.

Weather forecast for bank holiday weekend looks pretty decent so hope to see you at the sale.

Bamboo

We are taking delivery of bamboo this week including more Phyllostachys vivax ‘aureocaulis’. This is our most popular bamboo, producing massive rich buttery yellow culms and dark green leaves.

New Zealand Tree Ferns
New Zealand Tree Ferns will be arriving at the nursery next spring (2008). Gone are the days when suppliers could cut a container load of tree ferns, load up and have them on the water within days. Because of new DEFRA (formerly MAFF) legislation the harvested tree ferns have to be grown on in a nursery for 6 months to ensure they are free from pests and diseases. The other advantage of this is that the ferns will be rooted. Although bare rooted trunks have never been a problem with the Australian tree ferns (Dicksonia antarctica), past experience has taught us that New Zealand ferns resent root disturbance. The upshot of this is we will have a quantity of rooted NZ Tree Ferns in spring, including Cyathea medullaris, Cyathea dealbata, Cyathea smithii, Dicksonia fibrosa, Dicksonia squarrosa – from potters to 6 footers. We will be accepting reservations so email us if you wish to put your name on one in advance.
We have Cyathea medullaris and dealbata in 3 litre pots at the nursery – available now. Please refer to website.

Dicksonia antarctica
A container of Australian tree ferns should be arriving about the same time!

Weather
For anyone obsessed with weather forecasts (and who isn’t this summer?) go to http://www.metcheck.com/. It’s a really useful, informative and sometimes humorous website. Their daily forecasts are spot on and their long-term forecasts (up to 14 days) have been excellent although rather bleak. We’re addicted and regard ourselves somewhat as experts on the Jet Stream, Azores et al.

Acers

We have received the Acers from New Zealand and these should be ready for sale in late autumn.The varieties are Aureum, Baldsmith, Bloodgood, Crimson Queen, Fireglow, Inaba Shidare, Katsura, Koto-No-Ito, Ozakasuki, Pendulum Julian, Pixie, Red Emperor, Sangu Kaku, Seiryu, Shin Deshojo, Shirazz, Skeeters Broom, Sumi Nagashi, Tamuke Yama, Ueno Yama and Viridis. If this doesn’t mean very much to you at the moment we will be adding full descriptions and pictures to the website soon or better still, come and take a look at the nursery. They are leafless at present (it’s still winter in New Zealand) but should begin putting out leaves in a few weeks. Nice, big specimens.

Trachycarpus fortunei

We recently stripped a Trachycarpus fortunei at the nursery and although I know we are not the first to do this, it has generated lots of interest. From the enquiries we have had, I would imagine there are a fair few Trachies being liberated of their woolly coats this year. Stripping this particular palm of its fibrous covering isn’t harmful to the plant and doesn’t affect its ability to withstand frost. The method for stripping is quite simple although a little time consuming. Take a sharp bread knife and begin at the bottom of the trunk. The bottom of the trunk is the toughest and once started you may at first wish you hadn’t, but rest assured, it does get easier the further up the trunk you get. Simply pull, tease and cut the fibres at the base where they are joined at the trunk. The result is a smooth, pale coloured trunk that becomes a rich, glossy mahogany colour in time. Probably not recommended for trunks under 120cm.