More wild bees in the garden

There are bees everywhere at the farm vegetable garden just now and in larger numbers than last year. Last week I found the eggs of leaf-cutter bees, but now other species are turning up. The nest of wild honey bees (Apis mellifera) in the wall of a cottage next to the garden, that I watched last year, seems to have grown. The two photographs below were taken exactly a year apart show the difference in bee numbers. Although the bees have been using that spot for many years, I’ve never seen so many around the entrance. It is a heartening sight.
Read more

Easter Additions

It's been a very busy start to Easter and great to see many of our regular customers down in Betws y Coed. Earlier this evening we took receipt of some new stock grown here in North Wales. This will be available in the nursery from Saturday morning (23rd April):

PAEONIA 'Bowl of Beauty' - Grows to a height of 100cm with aspread of 80cm. Produces pink single outer petals with cream double centre. Best in full sun in any reasonable soil. £4.99

PAEONIA lactiflora Karl Rosenfeld' - Grows to a heightof 80cm with aspread of 60cm. Produces dark wine red flowers in early summer. Best in full sun and rich humus soil. £4.99

CAMPANULA 'Takion Blue' - Hardy clump forming perennial, dwarf habit, large cup shaped blue flowers. Easy to grow in moist, but well-drained soil in sun or partial shade. Flowering time is June to Sept. £2.95.

Hope to see you over the holiday.

Supports for Climbing Beans and Peas

Vertically growing plants are an attractive feature of many vegetable gardens as well as being an excellent space-saver. Climbing peas and beans (especially runner beans / pole beans) can be some of the most productive plants you can grow in a small space with two 6 foot rows providing ample harvest for several weeks. However, providing strong supports for these plants is essential. When the seedlings first emerge they may seem small and delicate but by the time the vines have wound their way up to six feet tall with a thick mass of leaves and pods the supporting structure will have to be strong enough to take the weight and sturdy enough to survive winds.
A huge variety of supports can be bought or built for these crops and the best option will depend on materials, time, budget and personal preferences. For ornamental gardens it will be important to consider the aesthetic aspects as vertical supports often draw the eye in a garden and can make a big difference to the appearance. At the other extreme, on allotments and community gardens practical recycled solutions often rule and with a little ingenuity all sorts of ‘junk’ materials can be used to make good supports.
Read more

Raised Bed Gardening

If the idea of growing a year’s supply of healthy, organic vegetables and herbs appeals to you, but the thought of digging through compacted, rocky soil does not, consider growing your crops as I do: in raised beds. You’d be amazed at how many benefits there are to gardening “on higher ground,” and how easily beds can be constructed. Read More

New Plant Finder now out

Yes, the new edition of one of the most important garden books ever published, the RHS Plant Finder, is now out – both in its print edition and online.


This – I hardly need remind you – is the book that does two very important things. Firstly, it tells you which nurseries stock which plants. In this new edition there are 69,972 plants stocked by 566 nurseries! So whatever plant you’re looking for, the RHS Plant Finder tells you who sells it. And this latest edition contains 3,507 new entries! Plenty of material for this blog!

It’s also the most comprehensive reference to correct names of garden plants published anywhere – in the world. The team of RHS botanists, and their contacts all over the world, cautiously update the names as botanical science advances. All are carefully cross-referenced, of course, and in the online version all the plants that ever featured in previous editions are also included making it uniquely comprehensive.

Read more from Graham Rice's Blog

Clematis are the most lovely – and temperamental – of spring's climbers

Dan Pearson Sunday 17 April 2011


There is a tiny bed at the front of my farmhouse in which the former owner grew some colour. It contrasted with the rest of the farm, which was grazed back to the base of the hedges, the grass being the focus. I have used the bed this winter to line out my bare-root plants while the vegetable garden is being prepared, but in the last week or so I have made it my own. In pulling out the hardy fuchsias and the remains of last year's pelargonium, I came upon a sickly clematis, baked into submission on this south-facing wall and strangled with bindweed at the root. It is not worth saving, but in consigning it to the bonfire, with the fleshy roots of the bindweed, I have begun to ponder on a replacement.
Read more

Read all about it!

The North Wales Extra Daily is out thanks to our friends at Cadair View Lodge. Well worth a read

Filling Up Spring with Garden Lettuce

Fast-growing and vibrantly beautiful, garden lettuce begs to be planted repeatedly for as long as cool spring weather lasts. Gardeners can grow a huge range of colorful varieties that are seldom seen in stores, but we do have limitations. Two types of lettuce – big icebergs and tall romaines – can be difficult to grow because hot weather arrives before they reach perfection.

Yet good garden lettuce does not lack crunch. Two English heirloom varieties that should be on every gardener’s life list include ‘Little Gem’, a miniature Romaine with a cute, upright growth habit, and ‘Tom Thumb,’ a baby butterhead that has been pleasing gardeners for more than 150 years. Many Americans would add ‘Buttercrunch’ to this list, because like Tom Thumb, ‘Buttercrunch’ delivers the perfect marriage of crisp ribs and buttery leaves in a compact, nutritious package.

Read more

Events for your diary

Discover which horticulture events are planned near you in 2011 in the newly updated RHS Show Guide Find out more

Additional stock for Easter

With Easter around the corner we've added a number of additional plants to our extensive stock. Many of these plants are more difficult to find and we've brought them in at the request of our regular customers. We do hope you'll find them of interest. Remember we're open from 9.30am-6pm throughout the many bank holidays on Holyhead Road, Betws-y-Coed.

ECHINACEA purpurea 'Magnus Superior'. Upright perennial with lance shaped, dark green leaves and large intensive carmine red flowers and orange/red cone centre. Darker blooms and stem colour, plus more consistent growth and larger cones are improvements on the standard. Need humus rich soil, well drained in sun.

LAVALERA thungiaca 'First Light'. A long blooming perennial producing clusters of cool white blooms with a hint of pink over fuzzy, grey-green lubed leaves. Hardier than many of the notable Lavatera hybrids like 'Barnsley', 'Rosea' and 'Burgundy Wine'. This new introduction is undemanding, drought tolerant and requires little but well drained soils and full sun to partial shade. Will drow to only 50cm in the first two years before eventually maturing to a stately 120cm in its fifth year.

COREOPSIS grandiflora 'Domino'. A hardy perennial with golden, black brown centred daisy type flowers. A dwarf variety growing to 40cm. Requires full sunand well drained soil.

DIGITALIS purpurea Camelot Series (Foxglove). Upright, fully hardy perennial growing to 120cm with especially large bell flowers on dense spikes, healthy and uniformed growth. Will grow in most conditions but prefers semi shade and moist but well drained soil.

MALVA moschata 'Appleblossom'. A hardy perennial producing soft pink, long lasting bowl shaped flowers. Flowering period June-September. Grows to a height of 50cm. Thrives best in full sun and well drained soil.

HELIANTHELLA quinquenervis - Aspen sunflower. A summer, hardy flowering perennial earlier to flowwer than Helianthus produces large yellow sunray flowers on 100cm stems. Prefers sun and well drained soil.

POTENTILLA atrosanguibea var. argyrophylla 'Scarlet Starlet'. Clump forming perennial producing large bright pure scarlet red blossoms, over silky hairy foliage, white tomentose beneath three segmented and toothed basal leaves compact habit, dense foliage clumps. Height 30cm.

ECHINACEA purpurea 'Magnus Superior'. Upright perennial with lance shaped, dark green leaves and large intensive carmine red flowers and orange/red cone centre. Darker blooms and stem colour, plus more consistent growth and larger cones are improvements on the standard. Need humus rich soil, well drained in sun.