Show us your gardening purchases 2025

I’ve seen the ‘shop’ in Carmarthen and for ages I’ve been wondering whether their actual nursery would be worth the long drive (50 miles). I’m very tempted!

 

Controlled purchases from Farmyard Nurseries
Rhododendron Princess Anne (£10 in sale, a bit stressed by the colour, but lots of buds)
Primula Francisca (lost mine, so I was willing to pay £6.99 for the pot which can be divided into 3)
Lobelia tupa
Feverfew (for a friend with migraines, apparently it can help reduce them)
Impatiens omeiana Pink Nerves (so many shoots coming out of base of pot already!)
Tricyrtis Dark Beauty (again, shooting madly)
Callistemon Honeypot (looks like a good yellow)
The lot cost £37 so with the first two being £17, that's £20 for 5 nice plants

 

Phew! You didn’t snap up any of the plants they are supposed to be sending me.

 

@Golarne definitely! At the moment a lot is dormant, but the building where they keep the stock plants they are using for their hellebore breeding program is worth a wander on its own. Plan to have food in Llandysul because they only have a summerhouse with free tea and coffee. (There is a customer loo too)

 

@ViewAhead they do seem a bit short staffed at the moment - probably taking holidays before the early spring blitz of propagation.

 

Fair enough … plus, being half term, maybe some staff were on leave. I do not begrudge nurseries down time.

 

Thanks Caroline, that’s really helpful, I’ll start planning a trip!

I would have gone to their event last weekend, but we were a bit too far away - East Anglia!

 

I've just bought the following plants (online):

• 2 Calamagrostis 'Karl Foerster' grasses (thanks again for all the advice in the other chat @Plantminded)
• 2 hosta 'Love Pat'
• 1 hylotelephium 'Cherry Triffle'

As they are all deciduous plants, they won't look great initially...but I didn't want to wait

 

Cherry Trifle? Who thinks up these names?

Now, I wish to issue an apology. I found an email in my Junk last night from FN, sent last Wednesday. Apparently one of my choices is out of stock, so they wanted to know if I’d like to select a replacement.

 

I also need to apologise, turns out it's "Cherry Truffle". I must have been craving dessert while typing the previous message

 

Ah, so not cherry red and custard yellow flowers then? Red flowers and chocolate stems maybe!

 

The stems turn burgundy later in the season and the flowers are a warm pink. Very pretty (I already have 3) but not nearly as scrumptious. If only the stems were actually made of chocolate...

 

@CostasK some of these silly names actually put me off buying the plant! Although I got past one idiotic name monarda "purple gumball" - and I'm glad. It's an excellent plant that flowers for ages and doesn't seem to get mildew like other monarda.
Hostas seem rather prone to daft names...

 

Agreed @CarolineL Those descriptive names can be rather daft.

You can however sometimes have a bit of silly fun with the official names. A few years back, my partner and I bought a hebe 'Andersonii'. We named it Pamela. Pamela Andersonii.