A great choice of plants down at Springrowth Landscape and Garden Centre in Derry
The Mayflowers are out brightening up the hedgerows and
plant growth is in full swing. I’ve been cosseting my young plants in the
tunnel for a bit too long I think as some of them are becoming very leggy,
especially after last weeks heatwave. It has been sunny but I thought the cold
winds might scorch the fragile leaves of young plants but that wind passed a
while ago.
My chamomile plugs especially are forgetting they are
supposed to be groundcover and are doing their best to stretch out, way over
their suggested height.
It’s time to take the plants out of the tunnel and allow
them to enjoy the true nature, and toughen themselves up outside where the wind
and rain can blow and strengthen the leaves.
Living too long in the tunnel can make plants soft and susceptible to
pests and disease as they have no adversity.
I admit to even gently brushing my hands over the tops of
the plants in the morning and evening to emulate a bit of wind so they at least
form some sort of resistance. My lad says I’m wasting my time but in the case
of the chamomiles the procedure does emit a gloriously relaxing smell of
apples. I’m even doing it now the plants are finally outside. It’s therapy for
me even if the plants don’t need the attention.
We’ve actually managed to plant up some summer bedding this
year. I invested in a few large pots and took a trip over to SpringrowthLandscape and Garden Centre on Springtown Industrial estate in Derry to get a
few choice plants.
Summer Bedding Plants
I’ve mentioned before that Cyril (formally the Buncrana town
Gardener) set up the centre and this year he has made some super sturdy, custom
built covered display areas for the ever growing range of bedding plants,
shrubs and ornaments. He also
specialised in gravel and bark for low maintenance gardening but it’s the huge
range of annual bedding I was interested in.
All of Cyril’s plants are locally sourced and have a look of
maturity and quality. One key factor I am finding now is that the larger
supermarkets who sell bedding don’t care for the plants upon arrival and don’t
water them at all. They will discard the plants when they wilt and die after a
couple of days and I assume this is something to do with the shops health and
safety policies about leaving wet patches on the floor.
At Springrowth Cyril does a fine job of making sure the labelled
plants are in great condition before being sold and cares for them constantly. I didn’t want this to sound like an
advertorial but sometimes when someone give such a great caring service you
just have to shout it from the rooftops. The centre is also open on Sundays
from 2 till 5 which is handy.
It was Julie who did most of the plant choosing as I was too
busy having a gardening natter with Cyril.
Julie made some fine choices and we came away with a mixed selection to
fill up the four large pots.
For one centrepiece we got rosemary. These plants are
generally trouble free and with a bit of cutting back every year it should be
able to stay in the pot for a long time. I think herbs perform better and taste
stronger if they are grown in poorer, dry soil which is more like their natural
environment. This year though the rosemary will have company as we also have
lobelia, surfinias, impatiens (busy Lizzie) petunias and begonias. The other
pots will incorporate more trailing plants as we have trailing fuchsia, begonia
and bacopa, the centre pieces of these are upright geraniums, which are always
a favourite for me as you can neglect them for ages before they complain.
Mixing these plants together will add a lovely dash of colour to the garden and
most of them are getting ready to flower now so it won’t be long.
We did have some fuchsia plants in the garden, which until
this week actually looked dead. It’s
only when you break off a small stem you see they are still green inside which
means there’s life in them yet. I’ve
heard of a lot of people digging theirs out this year thinking the frost had
killed them only to find the new growth is coming from the base of the stem. If
you have done this yourself then it’s really just a case of popping it back
into the hole and tamp it down. They are sturdy shrubs so will have vigorous
new growth on not time.
