Posts by Emma Emmerson

It’s the time of year when our gardens are looking bright and colourful, with many herbaceous plants at their best. They are doing particularly well this year after enjoying a warm and sunny spring and the early summer rain.

At Woodside we have a great range of herbaceous plants – these are flowering plants that die down for the winter and then come back year after year. Some of my favourites are recommended below:

Hemeracollis – Day Lilies. These are some of the easiest plants to grow and have masses of showy lily like blooms. We have available Cathy’s Sunset (Orange), Parden Me (Crimson), Edge Ahead (Pink) and Stella d’Ora (Yellow). Plant in a sunny spot in any garden soil that doesn’t waterlog.

Hardy Geraniums – these are looking wonderful in my garden at home just now, and are a perfect trouble-free plant for all gardeners. The bigger varieties can be chopped back after flowering to produce a second burst of flower later in the year. Our selection of large varieties includes Orion (Blue), Red Admiral (Deep reddish pink) magnificum (Blue) and psilostemon (Magenta pink with dark eye). Shorter varieties suitable for smaller spaces and rockeries include Orkney Cherry (dark purple leaves with a small but pretty pink flowers) and sanguineum Max Frei (low growing with pink flowers). Hardy Geraniums are a personal favourite of mine.

Astrantia Gill Richardson – a robust plant that flowers for weeks on end. This particular variety has ruby red papery flowers, and is highly recommended and makes a change from the usual cream and pale pink varieties

Erigeron – Fleabane. Ignore the rather unappealing common name – these are attractive plants with masses of daisy-like flowers. We currently have the popular sprawling variety Erigeron karvinskianus “Profusion” in stock, as well as the upright growing “Adria” which has pink flowers.

Aster laterifolius “Lady In Black” – this one really caught my eye this week. This unusual type of Michaelmas Daisy (now sometimes called Symphyotrichum) has black stems and purple leaves and masses of tiny pinky-white flowers in summer. Really worth adding to the garden.

Ageratina altissima “Chocolate” – another purple leaved plant to give some foliage interest in the garden; this one has fluffy white flowers which contrast beautifully with the leaves

Cephalaria gigantea (Giant Scabious). This really is a giant, easily growing to 5 feet or more when in the right place, so a good back of border plant. Lemon coloured scabious type flowers are produced in summer. A real statement plant

These are just a few of my very favourite herbaceous plants – there are many more to choose from including a good selection of ferns, Hostas and grasses, and we also have fig plants in stock just now for the greenhouse or conservatory (or for a south facing wall in a sheltered spot if you’re lucky enough to have this).

Do come and visit Woodside to appreciate our full range of plants for sale, and for inspiration on how to fill any gaps you might have in the garden. Planting conditions are very good just now, with some welcome rain forecast.

With the continuing good weather it is still really busy in our plant centre and tea room. We have new deliveries of plants arriving almost daily to keep up with demand, so I can’t really give you a list of what we currently have in stock because some lines are being sold as soon as they are off the pallet!

What I can say is that we continue to have an excellent selection of bedding plants, vegetable plants, aquatic plants and plenty of herbaceous perennials to fill your borders. I would highly recommend that you come along and see for yourself  – you are sure to find something that takes your fancy. Whilst you are here, why not spend some time exploring the walled garden and admiring the plants that benefit from the sunny aspect? You will see some lovely fruit trees and if you search enough you will find our secret wildlife garden, complete with a lovely pond, where you can sit and relax for a few minutes.

We have also re-vamped the outdoor area around the tea room, so there are even more places to sit and enjoy coffee, cake or one of our lunches.

We are open all bank holiday weekend and anticipate that it will be very busy – we are so in need of rain that I am not sure whether the slightly damp forecast will put anyone off. If you want the best selection of plants it might be worth coming before the weekend if you can.

We are now fully stocked with summer bedding plants, with one of the best selections we have ever had. Look out for bedding packs of:
Ageratum, Begonia, Cosmos, Gazania, Geranium, Impatiens, Lobelia, Marigold, Mesembryanthemum, Mimulus, Nemesia, Nicotiana, Pansy, Petunia, Salvia, Stocks and Verbena.

In our Tub and Basket plant range you can choose from:
Bacopa, Bidens, Brachyscome, Calibrachoa, Fuchsia, Helichrysum, Trailing Nepeta, Petunia, Surfinia, Verbena and trailing and non-stop Begonias.

We also have trailing and zonal variegated Geraniums and Regal Pelargoniums, so plenty of choice for your borders, beds, pots and hanging baskets. Remember to use a Container Compost which has added nutrients and water retaining granules to help keep your plants strong and healthy. Or you could add water retaining granules to Multi-purpose compost and slow release fertiliser tablets or granules to make your own mix.

Vegetable Plants
As far as the vegetable garden in concerned, we have a huge choice of young vegetable plants:
Cabbage
Calabrese
Cauliflower
Chard
Kale
Kelsae onions
Kohl Rabi
Leeks
Lettuce
Onions
Oriental leaves
Pak Choi
Runner Beans
Shallots
Sprouts

Tomato plants are selling very fast, and are likely to sell out this weekend, so please do call in and pick out what you’d like. Our varieties are: Ailsa Craig, Alicante, Beefsteak, Gardener’s Delight, Golden Plum, Shirley, Sungold, & Tumbling Tom. We are struggling for space just now so we can’t hold tomato plants for you, so please come in and collect. Other vegetable plants available are: Chilli Peppers, Sweet Peppers, Courgettes and Pumpkins.

Other Plant Centre Highlights
Elsewhere in the plant centre we now have a batch of Verbena bonariensis ready. That’s the really tall mauve flowered plants that really comes into it’s own in late summer and early autumn. These are just young plants at £3.50 each, but are very fast growing and best treated as an annual in this area.

Two new varieties of Cotinus (Smoke Bush) are also available – Magical Torch and Magical Red Fountain. Both have pretty dusky purple foliage.
A fresh delivery of pond plants and cold water fish have also just arrived, including water lilies and marginals.

Our selection of Rhododendrons and Azaleas is looking amazing with masses of bud and flower. Remember to plant in ericaceous compost to maintain their required acidic conditions.
Paeonies are also looking really good – our varieties are Duchess de Nemours and Bowl of Beauty, as well as a good choice of Tree Paeonies.

For shady spots we have a great choice of ferns and Hostas all looking fresh and green. Remember to protect Hostas from slugs and snails.

Now that spring is well and truly here (isn’t it wonderful?) our aquatics department is now open for the summer. We stock coldwater fish, pond plants, self contained water features (including solar options), pumps, liners and everything else needed to make or maintain a beautiful pond feature.

This is always our busiest time of year, so apologies that we haven’t been able to send out a decent detailed newsletter to everyone on the list – suffice to say we are having frequent deliveries to keep you well-supplied for your garden. here are some of this week’s highlights:

1. Vegetable plants are now in stock including tomatoes, cucumbers, lettuce, cabbage, cauliflower, kale, and sprouts
2. New season’s climbing plants are ready – clematis, jasmines, honeysuckles and climbing hydrangea
3. A new range of garden statues and wall plaques has just been delivered.

For a list of the many jobs you can be doing in the garden this month, take a look at our guide to Gardening Tasks for April

We look forward to seeing you soon.

We are delighted that you can now buy wild flowers from the plant centre at Woodside. The wild flowers all require different growing conditions, depending on the variety, but they are all hardy varieties which should do well in the Scottish Borders.

Our wild flower selection includes:

• • Betony
  • Red & White Campion
  • Cowslip & Oxslip
  • Foxglove
  • Ragged Robin
  • Teasel
  • Honesty.

Strawberry Plants

We also have a good choice of potted Strawberry plants ready for planting out. Choose a sunny well-drained spot and make sure that it is weed free. Add plenty of well-rotted farmyard manure or compost and plant about a foot apart in rows about 2-3 feet apart. Be careful not to plant them too deep – the crowns should be level with the soil. Existing plants should be fed with Potash in Spring and you may need to net them when fruiting to prevent the birds from stealing all your fruits. Layering straw underneath the plants when they come into flower will help keep the developing fruits dry, clean and out of the reach of slugs.

Our varieties are:
Honeoye – an early variety with heavy crops of fruit that freeze well for later jam making
Cambridge Favourite –  a reliable and well-known mid-season variety
Elsanta – a mid-season abundant variety with good storage qualities
Eros – heavy cropping mid-season variety which is good and hardy
Pegasus – a mid-late variety with exceptional disease restistance, including mildew
Sophie – a late variety with delicious uniform dark red fruits
Florence – a late variety with a very sweet flavour and good disease resistance

Our strawberries are all potted with a good root system and are UK grown.

March is a funny month in the garden – sometimes it can feel like the start of spring, other years it seems like we’re still in the depths of winter. Even if it seems spring-like don’t get carried away and rush into planting seeds as we’re certainly not out of the woods yet. However, there are many gardening jobs to be getting with on days when the weather permits.

• Plant daffodils “in the green” and dead-head them as the flowers fade to keep them vigorous for next year.
• Plant out hardy summer flowering bulbs such as lilies, crocosmias, nerines and galtonias in containers or in the ground.
• Towards the end of the month you can finish pruning roses by cutting them back hard to a healthy bud. Overgrown climbing and rambling roses can have whole stems pruned to encourage new growth and flowering lower down the plant.
• Dogwoods and willows can also be hard pruned at the same time to encourage attractive new growth.
• Mulch newly pruned roses with a good layer of well-rotted farm yard manure
• Cut back Jasminum nudiflorum (Winter Jasmine) to keep it under control
• Mulch around alpine plants with horticultural grit
• Feed acid-loving (ericaceous) plants such as rhododendrons, azaleas, camellias and pieris with an ericaceous fertiliser and then top-dress with ericaceous compost to maintain the acidity levels of the soil.
• Apply fertiliser such as Growmore or organic pelleted chicken manure to all non-ericaceous garden plants
• Continue tidying and weeding borders taking care not to stand on emerging bulbs
• Plant new trees and shrubs and check tree ties and stakes on existing plants
• Weed around the base of trees leaving about 1m diameter clear of grass and weeds
• Continue dead-heading spring flowers and winter bedding
• Spring clean your greenhouse using a fumigator if necessary and check that the heaters are working
• Pot up overwintering cannas into fresh compost and leave indoors until the frosts finish
• Sow wildflowers in seed trays or modules indoors
• Sow sweet peas into Root-trainers or deep pots indoors
• Plant onion and shallot sets see our handy guide on our website
• Plant Jerusalem tubers, asparagus crowns, soft fruit bushes and rhubarb plants
• Start preparing vegetable beds by weeding and hoeing
• Cut down winter grown green manures, and dig them into the soil
• Start planning a new pond to encourage wildlife and to add a whole new habitat for moisture loving and water plants
• Protect emerging Hostas, Delphiniums and other vulnerable plants from slugs using slug pellets or organic wool pellets
• Replace or repair any winter damaged plant supports and trellising
• Use a patio brush to clean between paving and Jeyes fluid to clean hard paths and patios
• Keep feeding garden birds

The start of the gardening year has officially arrived, and we now have our first batch of seed potatoes in stock, as well as onion sets, shallots and garlics.

Seed Potatoes:

We have a selection of First and Second Earlies as well as Rooster which is our most popular Maincrop variety.

First Early Seed Potatoes:

• Athlete NEW – a salad potato with good blight resistance
• Caledonian Pearl – a very early variety suitable for boiling and eating hot or cold
• Duke of York – a very popular dry mealy variety
• International Kidney – known as the Jersey Royal when grown on Jersey.
• Maris Bard – a reliable waxy textured all-rounder
• Pentland Javelin – a Scottish variety with a waxy texture
• Red Duke of York – a red skinned Heritage variety for general purpose use
• Rocket – a very early variety with excellent yields
• Sharpes Express – pale lemon coloured flesh
• Organic Colleen – medium dry matter, and good disease resistance

Second Early Seed Potatoes:

• Charlotte – our best selling variety, versatile and tasty
• Estima – firm moist texture and high yields
• Maris Peer – creamy white flesh, ideal as a salad potato
• Nadine – another top seller, a reliable all-rounder

Main Crop Seed Potatoes:

• Rooster – a red skinned variety suitable for roasting and chipping

All the current varieties are £4.99 per 2kg bag
(1.5kg for Organic Colleen, except Rooster which is £5.99 per bag.)

 Onion sets, shallots and garlics:

The varieties we have in stock are:

• Onion Centurion
• Onion Red Baron
• Onion Stuttgarter Giant
• Onion Sturon
• Shallot Golden Gourmet
• Shallot Red Sun
• Garlic Marco

If you’d like any reserved for you, just phone on 01835 830315.

Please note we are currently closed until 5th January for redecorating. We will be back open at 10am on Sunday 5th January to welcome you back to Woodside.

Happy New Year to all our customers.