At last the weather seems to be warming up and it seems like spring. We've still got plants available for quick despatch and there's still time to plant. Hurry if you want to plant the best!

It's one of our busiest weeks of the year! We've been waiting for Fuchsias - held back this year by poor weather in February - and they are finally ready. We've been hard at it sending these and also Sweet Peas to all parts of the UK and some a good deal farther afield. We've had orders from as far apart as Greece and Lithuania, some of these from returning customers. We are re-assured by the good condition that our plants arrive in after their European travels. We put this down to the quality of plants that we ship and our specially designed transit packaging.

Introducing...Sweet Pea Patio Perfect!

We often asked which Sweet Peas we would recommend for growing in patio pots or hanging baskets. The answer has been that there none are truly suitable. Spencers and Grandifloras are fine if using a wigwam in a large pot but do need space to climb and Cupid is really compact and never really trails in a basket properly.

When our Sweet Pea trial came into flower last summer we were really excited therefore, to see that one of the new varieties we were looking at had all the attributes of the perfect patio Sweet Pea. The plants grew strongly to about 3 feet tall and became covered, top to bottom, in large spencer like blooms borne on strong 6-9in stems. Although grown up netting we the plants had sufficient strength in the stems to partially support themselves. There was certainly some fragrance although we could not say this was strong.

We were confident that we were looking at a big improvement on other patio types and immediately commissioned a crop of seed.

Now we are delighted to launch Patio Perfect. Plant it in patio pots supported, if you like, by a couple of short canes or grow it unsupported either in troughs or in a border, letting it scramble and just do it's own thing.

Or you could follow us and plant in hanging baskets, we've not seen it grown this way but feel sure it will have enough strength to fill the centre of the basket yet be lax enough to tumble over the sides - and there will certainly be plenty of flowers.

Pelargoniums from PAC Elsner in Dresden

We've recently added Pelargoniums to our online range (although we have grown them for years). All our varieties are from the distinguished PAC range, developed by the Elsner family in Dresden, Germany. We've visited Dresden on several occasions to view the summer breeding trials and have some good friends at PAC Elsner - we regard their varieties as being best of all. On our visits we've been lucky enough to see parts of the beautiful old city - once seat to the Kings and Queens of Prussia - which have been restored to their original state after the firestorms of World War Two.

Not only do we commend the Pelargoniums of Dresden but we also thoroughly recommend a visit to this beautiful and friendly place.

Our pictures show the pelargonium breeding trials and also some of our 'tourist' photos.

Plants are growing quickly now..........

In spite of the almost relentless cold since the start of the year our overwintered sweet pea plants are in the rudest of health and they've been in the poly tunnel since November where the soil has been frozen solid most weeks. We'll be despatching these at the end of the month - certain that are fully hardened off!

Elsewhere we're working hard on our fuchsia production - here Margaret is busy snipping the tops out to 'stop' the plant. This will encourage side shoots and give us nice bushy young plants in a few weeks.

Latest additions to our plant range

We've just added Tumbelina Double petunias to our web range and they are already in demand! We know these plants very well as I used to work with the breeder David Kerley when we were both at Unwins. I remember David showing me his first double one summer - nine months later we had sold over 100000 ! David and his wife Priscilla are gifted plant breeders and have some excellent sweet peas to their name too. Their petunias are some of the best around and they have also raised Belarina Primroses and Candy Drops Cape Fuchsias. See more at http://www.kerley.co.uk/

Back on the nursery we are busy as ever and work has resumed on the new glass. The cold weather delayed us but we hope to have a roof on by mid Feb.

Next project on the web is pelargoniums and we hope to have something to show in a week or so....

Looking Forward

Still very wintry here but we are definitely looking forward now! Plant production continues apace and we've already made quite a few deliveries to wholesale customers.

To offset the winter blues have a look at a couple of the more interesting varieties we trialled last summer - a very interesting fuchsia with simply masses of tubular flowers and a great new intermediate sweet pea which bears loads of blooms and grows strongly to a height of about 3ft.