New Plants and Products

We only have one new hedging line, this being Rosa virginiana, sometimes known as rosa lucida, the Virginian Rose. This is a fast growing variety with an upright habit, so is ideal for hedging. It is outstanding in the autumn when its light to mid-green foliage turns to wonderful shades or orange and red toning beautifully with the spherical orange-red hips. In summer it bears pale to bright pink cup-shaped fragrant single flowers.

Amongst the ornamental shrubs we have added a new Smoke Bush, Cotinus coggygria Young Lady. This is a compact form with the great advantage of bearing masses of pink blooms at a very young age. We have also added three stunning Weigelas, Cappuccino, Minor Black and Monet each in its own way an asset to any garden, and at only £3.49 each you could treat yourself to one of each.

Many of the herbs and strawberries already available to visitors to the Garden Centre are now available through the Mail order service. Five new varieties of apples have been added, some old varieties and some new. We now have Braeburn which we find grows well in this country, so you will be able to grow these yourselves rather than depend on imported stock. New Zealand grown Braeburns are one of the better imported apples, but English grown ones are even more delicious. Traditional varieties of greengages can take years to fruit and even then they can be erratic or not heavy yielding. However, there is a superb new greengage, Stella’s Star, which produces delicious greengages from a young age. We are also stocking one new Plum, Excalibur which is a very prolific red-fruited variety.

A new star attraction is the Peach Avalon Pride which is the greatest advance in peach breeding in many years as it is the first variety to be resistant to peach leaf curl. The attractive pink flowers are followed by delicious, large, juicy fruits. Its only disadvantage is that the cost is £28.95, but surely it is worth it to have a disease free plant?

There is a new blackberry Karaka Black which produces enormous (up to 3 inches long), easy to pick glossy fruits which are sweet, juicy and have a good aromatic flavour, so harvesting your fruit for the blackberry and apple crumbles will not take so long. A new blackcurrant cross Ben Connan combines the good qualities of both its parents, Ben Lomond and Ben Sarek. It will bear high yields of very large, easy-to-pick, full-flavoured berries and it has the double advantage of being resistant to mildew and leaf curling midges.

The bare-root bearded iris continue to be a popular line so we have added three stunning new varieties, Frost and Flame (white and flame), Jane Phillips (a classic intense flax-blue) and Rajah (a dark burgundy). Irises are such reliable, easy to grow plants it is well worth finding plenty of places for them in the sunny parts of your garden. And finally a sure talking point would be to find a good damp spot or even shallow water to put in a Corkscrew Rush, Juncus effusus Spiralis. This evergreen has cylindrical leaves which spiral up in shapes varying from tight curls to perfect spirals and corkscrews and with a height of only 1½ft and spread of 2ft it should be possible to find a place for it.

Sections in our catalogue:
Hedging, Trees, Conifers and Shrubs - Ornamental Trees & Shrubs - Ornamental Grasses
Climbers - Ground Cover - Ferns - Fruit - Bees and Ladybird Nests - Accessories