Nursery times: It’s a lockdown, so now is the time to order your plants online
We can’t go out to our local garden centres any more, says our expert Agnes Stevenson. That means we should turn to the web for our horticultural needs
Easter is a time of renewal and never have the shoots of new life been more welcome than they are this year when the sight of a bud unfolding or of daisies scattered among grass provide hope of better times ahead.
Road noise and pollution levels have fallen, making the air cleaner and the birdsong brighter in gardens and, as people have retreated indoors, wildlife has become bolder, stepping out from woods and hedgerows to explore our towns and cities.
The soil is warming up, making this the ideal time to add new plants to the garden. And you still can as, even in lockdown, nurseries are still taking orders.
If you’ve never bought plants by mail order before then now is the ideal time to discover the impressive range on offer.
Many nurseries are specialists, amongst them Edrom in Berwickshire and Ian Christie in Kirriemuir, both renowned growers of alpine plants. At Growild Nursery near Cumnock in Ayrshire you can discover a whole world of hardy perennials from Japan, China and North America and Rumbling Bridge Nursery near Kinross has a wide range of woodland plants as well as dwarf shrubs you are unlikely to find anywhere else.
There are more high-quality shrubs and alpines available from Abriachan Garden Nursery on the banks of Loch Ness; Macplants in Pencaitland offers a wide range of perennials and grasses while if you are looking for something unusual, there is lots to tempt you at Cally Gardens in Gatehouse of Fleet.
These are just some of the many nurseries that are still operating and have large stocks of wonderful plants ready to send out. So go online and browse through the catalogues or phone the nurseries and talk to them about what’s on offer.
You’ll be buying plants that have been bred here and raised in our climate, which means that they won’t suffer a setback when planted out. And you’ll
be helping support the horticultural industry, which has been hit hard.
It would be a great shame if some nurseries are forced to shut up shop, because these growers have an irreplaceable wealth of knowledge and experience and by encouraging us to grow more unusual species they help preserve our plant heritage.
As I get on with renovating the borders, I’ve been making lists for nurseries in my area and among the plants recently delivered are several different varieties of Persicaria and Veronica as well as hardy geraniums that I’m going to grow in drifts among tallergrowing plants. Meanwhile I’m making the most of what’s already growing in my garden, splitting up clumps of primroses and snowdrops and spreading them out.
This is also the best time to split hostas, so I’ve been reducing mine to good-sized chunks, sawing through their tough roots with a sharp knife.
It seems brutal, but very quickly they will recover and I’ll have lots of lovely new plants.