So my blog will unashamedly feature plants the majority of the time you’ll find in most garden centres at the right time of the year.
However as a commercial nursery there are some plants that for some reason get dropped off the radar that are actually good commercial plants. And there are probably thousands of really good plants waiting to be turned into good sellers. So we do look around each year at everything that comes out and we do keep an eye out at the RHS shows and the National Plant Collections (I'll do a post on that one day!). Its also quite enjoyable of course!
Osteo Silver Sparker - great Osteo with lovely leaf varigation which unfortunately this photo does not show clearly!!
We've just relaunched ‘Osteospurnum Silver Sparkler’. This was a plant that's listed in the RHS Plant Finder and is still available but not in major garden centres. Its a specialist plant really now. Its a hardy Osteo and has great varigated foliage, with a nice white flower. Its one of the very few Osteo's with a varigated foliage. We saw it in the Osteo National Collection in Cheshire and we've spent last year bulking up. So it will be availabe in most major garden centres accross the UK and its from us! So thats a good example of a nice plant being re-found and bulked up to commercial levels.
So a good little catalogue is Derry Watkin's 'Special Plant Seeds'. http://www.specialplants.net/.
The flower above is Mentzelia decaetala. Now the flower above is different to the one I saw in Derry Watkin's catalgue but it did catch my eye. I 'googled' the plant name and turns out its a native US plant ans its not at all commercial. Its too stangely and has no real form and I'm not sure you'd want it in your garden. So I guess once you see something you like the look of, always research it before you order it. See if you like the form of the plant and if it could actually survive in your garden.
Anyway I'm interested in the Papavers and the Thumbergia 'African Sunset' from Derry's seed collection. I just love Thumbergia but again more of that later in the summer!
Interestingly we're always being told that white flowers don't sell. Except within London where white appeals to the trendy minimalists ! (What do minimalists do with all their clutter. Everyone has clutter.)
Hey ho!!
