Show us your gardening purchases 2025

Oh I buy there! @ViewAhead , @Plantminded - I can spend HOURS in their poly tunnels! When I bought a blue corydalis there, they had a really good selection in flower so I was able to go around sniffing them to find the best perfume. I found "Tory MP" to be the most fragrant. They grow so many different things that it gives you a chance to compare. For example loads of tricyrtis varieties, or their different roscoea, or their collection of gingers...

 

I thought you would know them @CarolineL . A good recommendation, thank you.

 

Thank you, @CarolineL. There’s a teensy part of me that baulks at the idea of buying a variety named Tory MP … though, of course, it is not the plant’s fault someone landed it with that moniker. It is about 5th on my wish list. I am not keen on its proneness to summer dormancy. The Corydalis that do that tend, in my experience, to be the most fragile in terms of lasting from yr to yr.

 

@ViewAhead strangely, this last year has been its best yet for increasing, and it kept green in the "summer". So I feel it needs more protection from sun/dry - which we didn't have. I find it a bit floppy which can be difficult when you're trying to sniff it - and then stand up again!

 

Yes, a wet summer is good for Corydalis. Droughts are their worst enemy.

 

I bought a greenhouse bench/shelf. Will use it outside during the summer and in the greenhouse during the winter.

 

That is why I have failed miserably with it , from pluglets. And I some some seed!

 

I would think your climate would be tricky for it unfortunately, @Victoria.

 

My treat for the month to Me! Have a few dotted around our garden already and some seedlings ready to move on into 7cm pots. This one is ‘Frostkiss Bayli’s Blush from our local Family-run Nursery

 

I went to a not-far-away-town to buy some Snowdrops because they always sell them potted in the green, in the market there. I got two pots.

On my way to the said not-far-away-town I called in a garden centre and bought two cacti. I had to have them because they were new to me !

On my way home from the said not-far-away-town, along a different rout, I called in another garden centre and got some seed potatoes (Marris Piper) and Roma tomato seeds and Onion seeds (Bonus F1) They don't grow very big and store well.

I blame the sunshine

 

I think your car deserved a stopover at those garden centres @Michael Hewett after you whizzed past on a couple of former occasions .

 

The car wholeheartedly agrees

 

I get notifications on Facebook from my two favourite Garden Centers so off this morning to get pots and flowers ...





I specifically went for the Leptospurmum scoparium and the Lewisias ... but can never pass up Geraniums and Dianthus.


I think it is Ruby Glow ... they are not good for naming things here and the flowers are smaller than I thought.

 

I bought a Winter Jasmine in Aldi - my mum used to love it.

 

I love the Dianthus colours which I will plant tomorrow in the pot with the Avocado tree pot/