Show us your gardening purchases 2025

Plants have arrived.

The straw packing kept them upright, but crushed the stems unfortunately. They may recover and become lovely plants.

It is a shame it is currently bucketing with rain and blowing a gale.

 

Another B and Q trip and another Fern. Cost me £1.75p, happy with that!

 

I hope they do @ViewAhead, after a bit of intensive care .

 

I got these the other day at an alpine meet , they were a nurseryman there selling and giving a talk so I pre ordered these for collection . I am not really to interested in alpines but plants are plants
2 phlox subulata bavaria and a varigated one called Nettleton
Aster prostratus
Clematis moonbeam - looks very nice and the aster I'll be growing these on top or in some crevice in a dry stone wall

And a geranium planum variegated bought off another member selling a few plants

 

Bargain! I wish there was a B&Q here. Maybe it will take over the now closed Homebase site.

@Perki, do you find alpines are delicious to slugs? Most I’ve tried have been quickly munched.

 

Very much wanted myrtle communis baetica arrived today:

 

Now that does look bursting with health, @Alisa!

 

I am amused but also (mostly) annoyed. I got one of my plant deliveries today. Part of it was 2 x hostas Love Pat, 1L pot... I guess TECHNICALLY it is correct

 

@CostasK are they really just 9cm pots? They should simply have sent you a refund for the size difference!

 

They are!

The size difference would only account for very little money, probably around £5. It's not about that, but I find the whole thing baffling.

EDIT: After questioning myself, following measuring the pots accurately and finding them a bit bigger than standard 9cm pots, I got this reply from the nursery:

 

It is now also contemplating it's existence next to the other Fern I bought half price. I bought a plastic bucket for £1 and have drilled holes into to make it suitable as a temporary planter .

 

Despite the back & forth with that recent order, I couldn't resist and made another online order (from a different nursery) for:

• 2 heucherella "Brass Lanterns", 2 L pots
• 6 lithospermum (lithodora) Grace Ward, 9cm pots

These were pre-planned purchases (same as the last one) and going for small pots for the lithodoras has helped with the cost.

 

I must admit @CostasK , I'd be frugal, get one lithodora and hope I could take cuttings! When I buy plants at nurseries, I'm always looking for ones that could be divided or otherwise propagated
But if you want them to make an impact more quickly, I guess you have to buy more.

 

That would be the smart thing to do, but I never claimed to be amazingly smart I am impatient, so even going for the 9cm pots instead of bigger ones was a compromise. I don't have expensive habits in general - I don't care much for fancy clothes, cars or nights out with binge-drinking (plus I don't have kids and my house is not in an expensive area therefore the mortgage is low), so I allow myself to indulge a bit regarding plants.

 

I am also an impatient gardener and tend to buy plants in 2L sizes or larger - I want impact as soon as possible . Being able to divide some larger plants either then or the following year reduces my feelings of guilt. I don't have space for a greenhouse or the patience to nurture seedlings and then see them collapse overnight .