Posts by Emma Emmerson
Garden Centre Opening on 5th April
Good news at last! The Garden Centre will be re-opening on 5th April, so we are now busy making sure that your return to Woodside will be the best possible experience. We have been busy unpacking new stock for some weeks now. To allow us to fully prepare, the call and collect service will be ending on 31st March. However the grocery shop will be open every day, including all the Easter weekend. From 5th April we will also be offering a takeaway service from the tea room for drinks, cakes, scones, sandwiches and soup. Our summer opening hours of 9:00am to 5:00pm will also start on 5th April.
Garden centre stock
We are delighted to be offering an extended range of potting shed essentials this summer – these include the new range of bamboo pots and seed trays – an excellent sustainable alternative to plastic plant pots that will last approximately 5 years and are then compostable. Another new product are the Vigoroot planters – these are fabric planters that enourage vigorous rooting, helping them be resistant to harsh weather, pests and diseases.
We have also had a delivery of pots and planters from Errington, Reay and Mims and it will be so much easier for you to chose the perfect pot once the garden centre has re-opened. Last year we introduced a range of Green Man wall plaques which were so popular we have extended the choice this year.
We have some excellent starter shrubs in stock as well as rockery plants, bedding plants, bulbs and seed potatoes.
If you would like to receive regular updates on new stock as it arrives, plus offers, please sign up to the newsletter.
Ornamental Trees For Sale
This coming week is a big one for us as Spring arrives and new stock of plants are arriving daily. I’ll be sending out emails as and when stock arrives, so if you would like to receive this information please sign up to the newsletter if you haven’t already done so.
The current varieties of ornamental trees for sale are listed below. Please note some trees we only have 1 per variety, so once its’ gone that’s it. Our garden centre is temporarily closed due to Government Covid Restrictions, so please phone in all orders on 01835 830315 and have your card details ready.
Acer griseum £44.99 (Paperbark maple)
Acer pensylvanium £44.99
Amelanchier Snow Flakes £44.99
Amelanchier Ballerina multistem £125.00
Betula dalecarlica £54.99
Betula jacquemontii £54.99 (White stemmed Birch)
Betula Snow Queen £54.99
Castanea sativa £44.99 (Sweet Chestnut)
Cedrus deodara Klondyke £49.99
Fagus Dawyck Gold £65.99
Fagus Dawyck Purple £65.99
Ilex argentea marginata £42.99 (self-fertile female holly)
Ilex aquifolia £42.99 (Common holly)
Ilex Handsworth New Silver £44.99 (self-fertile female holly)
Malus Crimson cascade £49.99 (Weeping Crabapple)
Malus Golden Hornet £39.99
Malus Gorgeous £49.99
Malus Indian Magic £49.99
Malus Royalty £49.99
Physocarpus Diablo (tree form) £52.99
Prunus amanogowa £49.99 (Flagpole Cherry)
Prunus avium £44.99
Prunus padus £44.99
Prunus Hokusai £49.99 (Classic Japanese Cherry)
Prunus Jaqueline £44.99
Prunus Trailblazer £44.99
Prunus tibetica £44.99 (Snalebark Cherry)
Sorbus aucuparia £49.99 (Native Rowan)
Sorbus Croft Coral £49.99
Sorbus Eastern promise £49.99
Sorbus Glendoick Spire £49.99
Sorbus Red Bird £49.99
Sorbus Sunshine £49.99
Sorbus Rose Queen £49.99
Special Offer Alnus glutinosa were £44.99 now £29.99 – last years stock and needing to be planted out.
Also in Stock
We have had a new delivery of seed potatoes and onion sets. For vegetable and flower seeds please ‘phone us with your list and we will put together your order.
We have a full range of compost and fertilisers for you to start preparing the garden for spring.
To order any garden centre item including trees, compost and seed potatoes please call 01835 830315 and have your card details ready for payment – we can then make a timed appointment for you to safely collect your order. We cannot accept orders via email or social media – phone orders only please.
**Please don’t just turn up for garden centre items- we cannot serve you at this time and there is no access to the plant centre**
Spring Flowering Bulbs
Add some colour to your life with our spring flowering bulbs – £2.50 each or any 5 for £10.
- Anemone blanda Blue
- Chionodoxa luciliae Blue, Pink or White
- Crocus Cream, purple, or yellow
- Dwarf Daffodil Rip Van Winkle, February Gold, Jetfire, Minnow or Tete a tete
- Daffodil WP Milner
- Fritillaria uva vulpis or meleagris (Snake’s Head Fritilliary)
- Hyacinth City of Haarlem (Primrose yellow), Delft Blue, Miss Saigon (violet purple) or Pink Pearl
- Dwarf Iris reticulata Cantab, Harmony or JS Djit
- Muscaro armeniacum (Grape Hyacinth)
- Scilla white or blue
- Tulip Calypso, Candy Prince, Flair, Kikomachi, Purissima, Purple Prince or Tarda.
- Winter Aconite
These are all suitable for planting directly out into the garden or into pots and tubs, or you could bring them indoors to brighten up your home.
New spring flowering bulbs this week
- 6 pack of dwarf daffodil Tete-a-Tete £5.99
- Carry packs and pots of bluebells – £4.99
Compost Update
In stock now:
- Multi-purpose Compost with Added John Innes £6.99
- Ericaceous Compost £7.99
- Tree and Shrub Planting Compost £7.99
- John Innes Numbers 1,2 & 3 £4.99
- Standard growbags £3.25
- Organic Farmyard manure £5.99
- Decorative Mini Bark £6.99
- Dalefoot Wool Potting Compost £7.99 (Peat Free)
- Dalefoot Wool Double Strength Compost £8.99 (Peat Free)
- Dalefoot Wool Tomato Compost £7.99 (Peat Free)
- Dalefoot Wool Compost for Salads and Vegetables £7.99 (Peat Free)
- Dalefoot Seed Compost £5.99 (Peat Free)
- Dalefoot Lakeland Gold Claybuster £7.99 (Peat Free)
New Horizon Peat Free Multi-purpose Compost will be with us next week, so we can take advance orders for that. If you have already ordered this, we will phone you to let you know when it comes in.
As all Scottish Garden Centres are currently closed to visitors, please use our Call & Collect service to order all bulbs, plants, seeds, seed potatoes and compost –
01835 830315
Feeding the Birds – hints and tips
Although frost and snow may be pretty for us, our garden birds have to endure these chilly nights and by feeding the birds we can give a helping hand to make sure they are receiving enough energy through their food to keep them warm. Here are a few hints and tips as to what is best for our feathered friends.
- In winter weather all birds need to eat around 40% of their body weight every day. They need as many calories as possible, so feed with the highest calorie foods possible. The best food is Sunflower seeds, either as hearts or as seed with the husks. They are quickly digested and converted into energy. Suet pellets, suet blocks and fat balls are also of the highest fat content. Peanuts are also good, but are not as efficient at converting into energy as the other choices. Peanuts can go “off” quickly when outside, so only put out a weeks supply at a time.
- Seed can be given all year round. We use a seed mix in all our tube feeders as this attracts a good variety of birds, but remember to give high calorie foods as an extra in bad weather
- Not all birds can perch on the hanging feeders, so don’t forget to provide food for the ground feeders such as blackbirds and robins. Our new bird food range includes a mealworm feast mix which is perfect for ground feeders or table feeders.
- Avoid giving bread – not only does it attract vermin, but it has little or no nutritional content for the birds. Birds can actually starve to death eating bread as it fills them up and makes them too lethargic to go hunting for nutritional foods
- Feed the birds as early in the day as possible – remember they have been huddling all night against the cold and they need a boost as early as possible to give them the energy to forage for more food.
- Feed the birds all year round as they depend on us to compensate for habitat loss. Peanuts should always be placed in a mesh feeder to avoid birds and fledglings choking on whole nuts.
- Bring birds up to your window to give you something to do and watch during lockdown. Our stick-on window feeders or high strength window hook will enable you to watch the birds up close.
- Why not get the whole family involved in spotting the birds feeding in your garden. Our garden birds species guide for just £1.25 will help you recognise some of our most regular visiting birds.
Feeding the Birds with Woodside Bird Food mixes
We are working with a company called Red Barn to produce a new range of Woodside branded bird food, and our range will include:
Woodside “Honeysuckle” Mix which contains: kibbled maize, micronized naked oats, sunflower hearts, white millet, red millet, black sunflower seeds, red dari, pinhead oatmeal, cut wheat, chopped nuts, micronised maize, raisins, hemp seed, banana chips and soya bean oil. This deluxe mix is suitable for a tube feeder or bird table, and we anticipate it will be a best seller due to the variety of ingredients in the mix to attract a wide range of garden birds.
Woodside Blue Tit Feast which contains: white dari, red dari, white millet, red millet, black rapeseed, mealworms, suet pellets and sunfllower hearts. This is suitable for a tube feeder and will attract not only blue tits, but also other small billed birds such as coal tits, great tits, long tailed tits and finches. This replaces the product we used to sell as Feeder Seed.
Woodside Robin & Blackbird Giant Mealworm Feast which contains: mealworms, giant mealworms, micronized naked oats, pinhead oatmeal, naked oats, sunflower hearts, kibbled maize, micronized wheat, raisins, chopped nuts, millet, micronized maize, hemp seed, soya bean oil, berry suet, insect suet and nut suet. This is for ground feeding or for bird tables, and is for blackbirds, robins and thrushes.
We will also be doing our own brand range of peanuts, niger seed, fat balls, mealworms, sunflower hearts, black sunflower seeds, suet pellets and suet logs, with feeders to match for each of them if required. We’ll also be stocking “flutter butter” which is a peanut butter with no salt specifically developed for wild birds, and packed with energy.
Please remember our plant centre is currently closed due to Scottish Government restrictions on trading, so all garden centre items, including Bird Care can only be sold through our “Call and Collect” service. Please phone your orders any day 10am – 4pm on 01835 830315 and have your card ready to make payment. We will then organise a suitable time for you to collect. Only phone orders can be taken, – we cannot accept email orders or by social media due to limited staff.
Seed Potatoes and other gardening stock now available
Some of our deliveries for new gardening stock have arrived earlier than expected, so we are pleased to be able to take telephone orders for delivery or collection. There is no access to the garden centre at present, so we can only accept phone orders: call 01835 830315 – please leave a message if there is no answer. The grocery shop remains open daily, 10:00 to 16:00
Seed Potatoes:
We now have the following available at £3.99 per bag (apologies that we can’t split bags at this time)
Arran Pilot – 1st Early with white flesh and a firm waxy texture which holds its shape when cooking
Duke of York – 1st Early with a dry mealy texture. A very popular variety for Scottish growers
Epicure – 1st Early which matures early and makes renowned “new potatoes”
International Kidney – 1st early also known as Jersey Royal
Pentland Javelin – 1st Early waxy new potato for salad use and boiling
Rocket – 1st Early which matures early and has good disease resistance
Sharpes Express – 1st Early with pale lemon flesh which is excellent boiled as a new potato
Organic Colleen – 1st Early with good natural disease resistance making it suitable for organic gardening
Charlotte – 2nd Early which is our best selling variety, suitable for a wide range of uses, and is well known to all cooks
Estima – 2nd Early and one of the most popular all round UK varieties, makes good baking potatoes
Nadine – 2nd Early – one of my favourites for picking early for new potatoes or leaving longer for a good all-rounder
Vegetable Seeds:
Our 2021 range of vegetable, herb and green manure seeds is now in stock. There are too many varieties to list, so the best thing to do is to call on 01835 830315 and tell me your list and I’ll let you know what varieties we have and will pull an order together for you. Please note that I’m still waiting for my delivery of onion and shallot sets but hope these will be in soon.
Fruit trees:
Fruit trees are going to be very difficult to get hold of this year, but I’ve managed to get hold of a batch to keep us going for a while:
Apple Bramley
Apple Charles Ross
Apple Katy
Apple Discovery
All apples are on a M26 semi-dwarf rootstock
Damson Merryweather
Gage Cambridge
Gage Oullins Golden
Pear Conference
Pear Concorde
Pear Catillac
All pears are on a QA semi-dwarf rootstock
Plum Czar (St Julian A)
Plum Opal (St Julian A)
Plum Victoria (St Julian A)
Plum Victoria (Pixy)
These are all lovely looking trees and are ready to be planted out, once the ground conditions improve.
Compost
Our new season delivery of compost is due in next Monday (weather permitting) and I have ordered a bigger load than usual so that we don’t end up running out like we did last year. Demand is likely to be strong again this year, as we are all champing at the bit to get growing and get gardening, so I’m happy to take pre-orders. I know it seems early for items like growbags and seed compost, but I do recommend purchasing in good time so that you’re all ready to make a start once spring arrives.
We will have:
Peat free multi-purpose compost
Multi-purpose compost with added John Innes
Ericaceous compost for acid loving plants
Seed compost
Dalefoot Wool seed compost (Peat Free)
Farmyard Manure
Growbags – 2 different sizes
Dalefoot wool compost (peat free)
Dalefoot wool compost tomato planters (peat free)
Dalefoot wool compost for salads and vegetables (peat free)
Vegetable compost
Tree and shrub planting and potting compost
Decorative mini bark
Composted bark for mulching
Soil Improver
Lakeland Gold Claybuster
Eco-Friendly Firelighters and Coffee Logs
In addition to logs and kindling we have extended our sustainable fuels to include coffee logs and eco-friendly firelighters.
Eco-Friendly Firelighters
Many of our customers have been requesting these, so we are now stocking eco-friendly firelighters from manufacturer Dr Heat. These are made out of a grass called Miscanthus, and combined with waste candle wax, they make super efficient firelighters. Here is some information about them:
Miscanthus is a high yielding grass grown specifically for energy production. These crops are grown in Somerset and harvested in the Spring when they are naturally ripe. Therefore, reducing the need for further drying, and removing the use of fossil fuels to do so, unlike some other wood firelighter products on the market.
Each tonne of Miscanthus burnt, in replacement of coal, will prevent the emission of up to two tonnes of carbon dioxide. An additional benefit of growing Miscanthus is its ability to actively sequester carbon within the crop’s roots.
Miscanthus is recognised as the number one energy crop by the biggest power producers in the UK, as a carbon neutral replacement to coal.
- High dry matter yield
- Efficient use of available nutrients
- Efficient water usage due to deep rooting
- No recognised pests or diseases
- Requires no Pesticides or chemical fertilisers
Coffee Logs
Coffee logs are made from waste coffee grounds collected from cafes across the UK, and turned into compact “logs” with a long burn time, intense heat and good flame, along with a slight coffee scent when you open the bag. These are for use on closed stoves and burners only and are not suitable for firepits or open fires.
The Grocery
Our fresh batch of fruit and vegetables has just been delivered, along with stock cupboard food items, such as curry sauces, naan breads, brioche baguettes and rolls, driied mushrooms (NEW), gnocchi, basmati rice, olive oil, granulated sugar, local honey, free range eggs, polenta, semolina, organic oatflakes, lentils, split peas, dried fruits and chocolate ginger and much more. We also have frozen ready meals available too, just in case you fancy a break from cooking!
January is the time for marmalade making and we have Seville oranges in stock now.
Call & Collect Update:
As I’m sure you are aware, all garden centres and cafes across Scotland are currently closed, and new restrictions have now been put in place for collection services. However I’m pleased to say that garden centres and plant nurseries are still permitted to offer collection services, and you can still place your orders by calling 01835 830315 10am – 4pm daily (just leave a message on the answerphone if no reply). Please note that I cannot accept orders through social media, so phone calls only please for all garden centre products, including wild bird feed, RHS Wildlife Flower seed mixes, and our fabulous SHOWA range of garden gloves. Don’t forget you can collect items when shopping for our groceries too.
New Opening Arrangements
I’m sure that you’re all still reeling from the weekend’s shock announcement that tighter restrictions will be in place throughout mainland Scotland from Boxing Day, meaning that all non-essential shops, pubs, and cafes must close, along with other businesses.
The good news is that Garden Centres have been reclassified since the initial March 2020 lockdown, and are now in the list of essential shops, which means that Woodside Plant Centre can stay open!
The bad news is of course, that our delightful tearoom must close from Christmas until restrictions are lifted again. Currently we do not plan to offer a takeaway service as we feel that this would have very limited appeal in mid-winter, but we will keep this constantly under review, and we may change this decision if we feel that there is sufficient customer demand.
For now though, it is “business as usual” until we close for our Christmas Break on Christmas Eve, so do come along this coming week to support us. Here are our revised opening times.
Until Christmas Eve, our tearoom is offering the usual range of soups, sandwiches, fresh scones, cakes, baked potatoes, pigs in blankets rolls, mulled non-alcoholic wine, and hot and cold drinks.
Our Plant Centre is well stocked with Christmas decorations, wild bird food (and we’ve just had a delivery of feeders too), garden tools, garden ornaments, and plants. Don’t forget that we stock a good range of fresh fruit and vegetables, as well as dried food products. Our current highlights are – pomegranites, fresh cranberries, figs, chestnuts, Pink Fir apple potatoes, Conference pears, red cabbage, Bramley apples, chocolate coated peanuts, raisins and ginger and much more. Shopping for food at Woodside is a much nicer experience than supermarket shopping, particularly at this time of year, so do come and have a look at what we do.
Our Grocery Section
As our regular visitors will know we have added a grocery section to the plant centre. We sell a great range of fresh fruit and vegetables and we have a delivery twice per week. The selection is seasonal, so may include, potatoes, leeks, celeriac, parsnips, carrots and onions – all perfect for warming soup. We also have broccolli, sprouts, beetroot, squash and salad items available and apples, pears, bananas, oranges and satsumas.
Our grocery section also includes local honey, free range eggs and stock cupboard items such as nuts, dried fruits and pulses.
Christmas deliveries
There always tends to be a bit of a rush to get fruit and vegetables in the run up to Christmas. We will be getting a delivery on both Tuesday 22nd and Tuesday 29th, so you can stock up for the two holiday weekends.
Our grocery section means that you can get your weekly fruit and veg shop at the same time as you do Christmas shopping for gardening friends, treat yourself to something fort he garden and pop in for a Christmas lunch. If you are hardy you can even meet up with another household in our outdoor seating area – blankets are provided!
An Invasion of Rabbits
As you can see we’ve had an invasion of rabbits! Luckily not the living breathing sort, but attractive garden ornaments to bring a smile to your face. We’ve also now got back in stock birdbaths, slate planters, statues, chickens and ducks. These are all lovely additions to the garden and would make welcome Christmas gifts.
Bird Food
A couple of years ago we stocked locally produced bird cake pillars made with ground corn. I’m pleased to say that Adam, who makes them, has gone back into production with them again, and we have them back in stock. They were really popular when we had them before, both with customers and with our hungry wild birds, and with the weather turning chillier and the nights drawing in, the birds will be grateful for the warming energy boost that these fat pillars offer. They are priced at £9.99 for a pack of 2. We’re also well stocked up with all kinds of bird food to help our feathered friends keep condition over the autumn and winter months that are ahead of us. Remember our bird seed mixes don’t contain corn, so you’ll not get a lot of wastage and mess.
Garlic Doocot
Our first delivery of this Scottish bred and grown variety sold out in record time! More has arrived today, along with some lovely garlicky food items, such as mayonnaise and oatcakes. Our planting garlics are £1.50 per bulb or 3 bulbs for £4. Each bulbs contains on average 5 cloves which are planted individually. You can find full planting instructions on our website here.
New in the Tearoom
Now it’s getting colder we are offering hot jacket potatoes in the tearoom to either sit in, take home or take out into the garden. We still are only able to have limited indoor seating due to social distancing measures, so please be prepared to sit out under the shelter of one of our gazebos. You may want to consider putting on an extra jumper to deal with all this sitting out and outdoor queueing that we have to do at the moment!
We’ve also started to do bacon rolls from 10am – 12pm each day. Perfect to set you up for the day ahead.
New season roses in Stock
Our plants and other garden supplies are continuing to sell quickly, so we are pleased to announce the following new arrivals. 
Roses:
We are pleased that after huge demand earlier in the year we have new season roses in stock. The current selection of roses for sale include:
- Fragrant Cloud, Hot Chocolate and Rhapsody in Blue, which are bush roses;
- a choice of roses with names suitable for present giving, such as Many Happy Returns, The Anniversary Rose, Warm Wishes, For You With Love and Golden 50th.
- Climbing Roses includes Arthur Bell, Compassion, Golden Showers, Handel, Iceberg Climbing, New Dawn and Starlight Express
Perennials:
You all just love your Hellebores, and last week’s batch sold out in no time at all. So we have fresh ones in this week, including Double Chocolate, Shades of Night, Double Cream Speckled, and Smokey Blue.
We also now have Gentians back in stock and the climbing Hydrangea petiolaris which is always very much in demand.
Bedding Plants:
After recent frosts, I expect that many of the summer bedding plants have now finally given up. We have just had a fresh delivery of pansies, violas, bellis and primroses, all suitable for planting out now. We also have bulbs available in the shop to underplant your beds, borders and containers with to plan ahead for Spring colour. We’ve also just had a big delivery of mini cyclamen, as the last batch sold out very quickly. New this week are packs of 6 mini cyclamen which are excellent value at £12.99 per pack. Sinlge plants are £2.99 each, so it’s a good saving to buy the pack. These are suitable for patio planters and do even better in a cool indoor space such as a porch or unheated room. They are really stunning and would brighten up anyone’s day.
Fruit Trees:
I’ve had another delivery of fruit trees and we now have pears back in stock after a few weeks without. Our varieties are Catillac, Concorde, Doyenne du Comice and Sensation. We’ve also got Medlars and Quince Vranja available again.
For those of you wanting to order bare rooted fruit trees our list is now ready and can be downloaded here.You can come in and place your order, or you can post it with a cheque, or email it with a contact number for us to call you back to obtain payment. Whichever suits you best.
Please note that we have taken peaches, nectarines and cherries off our bare rooted availability, as we feel these do better in our area as potted plants.
Bare Root Hedging:
Our bare rooted hedging list is also now ready and you can download it here.
Please note that the minimum quantity per variety is 5. You can place your orders with us in the same way as the fruit list.
If you have trouble opening any of these price lists please let me know and I can either email you in a different format, or you can pop into the shop and use a printed copy.
Compost:
Compost sales continue to exceed expectations, and we are getting a new delivery in on Monday which will include Multipurpose with added John Innes, Peat-free Multipurpose, and John Innes numbers 1,2 & 3. We currently have in stock ericacous compost, farmyard manure and Dalefoot Potting Compost.
Firewood:
We’ve just had another delivery of logs and kindling for your open fire or stove. This is all locally and sustainable sourced, and is available in handy nets to neatly fit in the boot of your car.
And Finally….
Our fruit and veg sales continue to do well. We get two deliveries each week, on Tuesday and Friday lunchtimes, and we now have a big selection of fruit, vegetables and salad items available. This week’s highlights are UK Russet apples ( I tasted one a couple of days ago, and I think it’s the nicest thing I’ve eaten for ages!), local vine tomatoes, Jerusalem artichokes, enormous cauliflowers from Kelso, Conference Pears, also from Kelso, aubergines and leeks. new this week are quinces and sweet potatoes. We’ve increased the amount of baby salad potatoes. leeks and carrots as we ran out last week. Do tell your neighbours and friend about our fresh range, as the busier we are the more we can stock.
Whilst you are here stocking up on fruit, veg and plants why not have a hot bacon roll which are available again between 10 and 12 daily. We know they are appreciated by the hungry cyclists