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Hello and...
A warm welcome to the latest newsletter and a special ‘Buckingham
Nurseries’ welcome to Steve Bowyer, our new Garden Centre
Manager. Steve says: “ I am writing this after just completing
my first full week with Buckingham Nurseries & Garden Centre.
It’s been an entertaining week getting to know the team and
getting involved with all the different areas of the business. I
have already got to know quite a few customers and I am looking
forward to meeting and assisting you all when you next visit us.
I have worked in the garden centre industry for 15 years and will
look to use this experience to make sure that we continue to offer
you the products and service that you have come to expect. Above
all, my main goal will be to ensure that your visits to us are as
enjoyable as possible and I will be happy to hear from you about
your experiences.”
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Bedding and Hanging Baskets
We should be looking out the window to June sunshine but instead
there are grey skies and intermittent rain! Oh well, that’s
the summer season for you! However, this is good news for the plants
as we have had some warm weather as well so everything appears to
be growing really well and it should be safe to get those bedding
plants in. So as the adage goes, ‘Don’t cast a clout
‘till May is out’ we can get planting and there’s
so much to add to our beds, pots and baskets.
Talking of baskets, there’s plenty of choice to be found
under the canopy area at the garden centre, including the gorgeous
Petunia Million Bells and Surfinia range. These are true tender
perennial petunias and cannot be raised from seed.
If you’re looking for some good filler plants then don’t
forget to add the more unusual variegated Felicia amelloides ‘Variegata’
with its bright green and white contrasting leaves and intense blue
flowers. Felicia ‘Read’s Blue’ is another one
to look out for as it is extremely floriferous in bloom.
 If
you still have baskets to fill, it’s not too late to get them
re-planted at the nursery; please drop them off when you next call.
We aim to work to a two-day turnaround and we like to keep them
under glass (to settle) for a week. Traditional wire (or plastic)
baskets are furnished with excellent quality Welsh moss, which is
also available to buy in the shop.
There’s plenty to tempt you with our home-grown range, including
Salvia ‘Strata’ (intense neon blue flowers against strong
foliage) and Salvia ‘Summer Showers’, a wonderful mixed
form.
Easy and reliable to grow include Rudbeckia ‘Rustic’
and R. ‘Toto Yellow’. Wonderfully colourful neither
of these forms grows too tall. For those with a moist spot in the
garden and who like gaudy colours, check out the monkey flower,
or Mimulus. They are perfect in damp locations and will flower for
months.
Good value, too, are the large (and highly colourful) (ex) stock
Fuchsia plants we have on display. We offer a couple of sizes at
£5.99 and £7.99 respectively.
If you’ve got gaps to fill, why not consider the New Guinea
Impatiens and Double Flowered Impatiens (pictured). For the windowsill
and conservatory, don’t miss our home-grown gerbera and pelargoniums
guaranteed to add a splash of vibrant summer colour.
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Grow for the Good Life
There’s nothing like home produced vegetables, and we’ve
seen a sharp rise in the sales of plants this year. There’s
still time to get planting and reap a welcome crop later in the
year. Choose from a diverse range of tomato varieties available,
including ‘Alicante’, ‘Marmande’, ‘Totem’,
‘Tigerella’ and ‘Sweet 100’. If you like
your salads, you’ll love our Lettuce Pack. It contains 12
plants in four varieties – ideal to give more variety as they
mature at different times. Spare space is the greenhouse? We’ve
three cucumber varieties on offer – ‘Diana’, ‘Petita’
and ‘Perfection’. These are all-female varieties and
are easy to grow – remember to plant them on a pyramid of
compost to avoid watering problems! For those hot dishes, go for
pepper varieties even Jamie Oliver wouldn’t be without! Select
from the varieties ‘Sweet pepper’, ‘Jalepeno’
and ‘Apache’.
On the veg plot, replace early potato crops with the likes of
sweet melons, watermelons, courgettes, aubergine, celery, celeriac,
Brussels sprouts, as well as various cabbage varieties, purple sprouting
and cauliflower. All our vegetables are sold in convenient cell-pack
trays to ensure minimum root disturbance.
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A new plant is born...
 It
took Chelsea Flower Show by storm a few weeks ago, being the star
of many of the display gardens. The plant, Sambucus nigra 'Black
Lace’, is what we are talking about and it is the first ornamental
shrub to come out of a special breeding programme at Horticulture
Research International East Malling in Kent. Yes, the very same
location where many of our popular fruit tree varieties have been
raised.
Sambucus nigra 'Black Lace’ is a new ornamental elderberry
with superb dark foliage, much darker and more intense purple /
black than any other form (such as ‘Black Beauty’, another
popular elderberry variety we stock). If that’s not all, each
plant produces contrasting pink flowers that have a sweet lemon
fragrance followed by attractive (and edible) purple/black elderberries
that form in the autumn.
The good news is this plant holds this incredible colour from
spring until autumn with flowering taking place in June. Best of
all, its totally hardy and tolerant of a wide range of soil types
and enjoys full sun or partial shade. Worried about its size? It
grows up to 3m (10ft) within 8 years but it can be pruned to whatever
size you wish.
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Something completely different...
 Although
Digitalis 'Anne Redetzky' has been around in small numbers for some
time, it has now been bulked enough to make a move to the mainstream
garden centre market and is now available to our customers.
Apparently, this stunning plant was found first in 1993 in Lincolnshire,
and looks likely to become a classic in years to come.
During the TV coverage of the Chelsea Flower Show last month, Rachel
de Thame picked it out as one of her floral favourites. So, why
is it so desirable? Well, unlike most foxgloves, Digitalis 'Anne
Redetzky' has shredded and split flowers giving a lovely soft effect
and the flower is pure white with no spotting.
Interestingly, the discoverer of the plant, Brunhilde Holland
named it after her Lithuanian grandmother!
Health check
The swings and twists in our weather over recent weeks seem to
have sent many plants go into a spin! It’s all down to stress!
High temperatures, prolonged dryness at the roots and humidity can
play havoc with the leaves, stems and roots of many plants. Plants
under stress are far more likely to be hit by pest and disease problems.
So precautionary tactics certainly will help.
Here are a few tips to get your plants in tip-top form…
- Spring flowering shrubs will benefit from a trim back now (until
the end of June). Balance any pruning with a feed of Vitax Q4.
Apply around the root and make sure it is watered in well. Repeat
this feed the following month because it is crucial you get feed
into the plants at the time they are gearing up for producing
the embryo flower buds for NEXT spring.
- Leaf curls tend to be symptoms of sap-sucking pest attack,
nutrient shortfalls or dryness at the roots. Over ornamentals
spray with Provado Ultimate Bug Killer to control the aphids.
Foliar feeding (feeding through the leaves) is an excellent way
of boosting your plants. Use either a soluble plant food, such
as Phostrogen or Miracle-Gro. Better still; use a natural bio-stimulant
such as Maxicrop Seaweed Plant Food to really get things working.
When applying water, especially to newly planted stock as well
as hedging, do allow the water from the hose to ‘flood’
the area you intend to water. Allow between 15-20 minutes for
this to ensure the water has reached the entire root system. Small
amounts of water applied to stock, on a regular basis, can actually
do more harm than good – it encourages the roots to grow
to the surface.
- After a long period of rain, mulch your plants. If you didn’t
manage to mulch your plants (both new and established) earlier
this season, there’s still time. Never mulch dry soil –
you’ll make the conditions worse! Mulch materials can be
home-produced compost, mushroom compost (not suitable for lime-hating
plants) and bark chippings. A generous 2-3in layer will give you
the best results and as well as looking good and retaining valuable
moisture, it will also keep the weeds down too!
Finally, don’t panic! Stressed plants normally do recover;
what’s important is that you watch them early and apply
a generous amount of TLC to coax them. Watering and feeding usually
does the trick!
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New Giftware Range
Located in the House Plant area are new ranges of personalised
(female names only) ceramic candles from History & Heraldry.
These are decorated in floral style - an ideal token gift for your
mum, sister, special friend etc. There are over a hundred names
to choose from, but if your friend has an unusual name there is
always “Best Friend” and “They did not have your
name!” candles. They can be bought with a matching gift bag.
The Ulster Weaver’s kitchenware range, located in the shop,
has proved very popular so we will be shortly adding the “doggy
things” range. Watch this space for details.
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Tools that make light work
As we’re all busy watering our plants (between those heavy
showers), it’s worth making a mention of a product we’ve
been using successfully over the past year in the nursery. The Draper
7 Pattern Spray Gun (£5.99) is robust (part metal construction)
and a doddle to use. Best of all it offers real flexibility in the
spray patterns it produces, so its good for gentle watering as well
as soaking the borders. Well worth a look.
We’ve also a great offer on Yeoman garden tools, namely
the Carbon Steel Spades and Forks. The deal is get two products
(fork or spade) for the recommended price of one! That’s either
a spade and fork for £11.99, or two forks or two spades, all
at this special price. Hurry whilst stocks last!
[Top of Page]
 Adopt
an Artist
The recent ‘Adopt an Artist Week’ was so popular we
have decided to extend the exhibition of Suzanne Hall’s handcrafted
pots.
Suzanne Hall works from a studio at her home in Weedon. Her work
combines contemporary design with traditional hand coiling techniques
to produce an original range of frost resistant large stoneware
pots.
We have three of her amazing pots on display at the moment outside
the coffee shop, together with some information boards of how she
makes them. Do look out for them when you are next in!
Creative plant ideas
Strange how trends, fashions and fads go around in circles and
this is certainly true in gardening. Just a few years ago roses
and conifers were being talked about as, quite frankly ‘old
hat’ - its amazing how TV and the media can bring them back
into popularity.
Roses are back for good this season. All types - hybrid teas, cluster
flowered (the new name for the floribunda) as well as climbers,
patio and ramblers. We’ve some lovely varieties in stock just
now, bursting into colour.
The new spring growth is evident on the dwarf conifer section.
This year-round appeal and good looks make them perfect border fillers.
Many conifers are perfect in patio pots, being slow as well as easy
growing.
BBC’s Ground Force has a lot to answer for when it comes
to creating quick-fix makeovers! Yet impact gardening is still very
much in vogue. So is, thankfully, topiary (pyramids, standards and
spirals) as well as larger plant material to visualise your dream
and put the ‘wow’ factor into the garden. We’ll
be talking more about specimen plants in our next newsletter.
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Alfresco living
We have some superb offers on furniture this summer For people
who ‘live’ outside in the garden, why not splash out
on a Chimenea for those cool summer evenings. There are many sizes
available either in clay, or the now more popular cast Iron style.
What’s more, they can also be used for cooking as well. If
you’re unfamiliar with this product, please do ask for more
information next time you visit.
Also new and perfect to illuminate your evening entertainment
are the latest in solar lighting. Currently we’re carrying
one style, but more designs are available. Do come and have a look.
We now have a range of cast iron planters available from 'Willowstone'
which make a refreshing change to the more traditional styles of
glazed and terracotta pots and planters.
Another item now kept in stock are a couple of designs of the
Tool Store from Rowlinson Buildings. Both are ideal for the garden
or allotment to keep all your precious tools and equipment clean,
secure and dry.
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Are you a good gardener?
Any budding Don’s, Dimmock’s or Titchmarsh’s
reading this might be interested in the chance of competing for
the prestigious title of BBC Gardener of The Year. To find out more
about the competition, write to BBC Gardener of The Year 2003, Room
329, BBC Birmingham B5 7QQ. Alternatively, click on the BBC’s
gardening website at www.bbc.co.uk/gardening
for more details. Good luck!
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And finally...
Catch Buckingham Garden Centre’s own gardening guru, Chris
Day over on BBC Three Counties Radio (tune to 104.5 FM) on Sunday
29 June, between 7-9am. Remember he’ll be able to take all
your gardening questions and queries at the garden centre, if you
can’t manage to get up and listen to him on the radio!
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Read More in our Summer Supplement...
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