New Sweet Pea looks Perfect on the Patio!

We've just taken this pic of our new Sweet Pea Patio Perfect. This large pot has about 10 plants in it. The light blue flowered a few days before the other colours and the display is now a real treat as you can see. As a bonus the warm weather is really bringing out the fragrance which seems stronger than last year.

Lots of Lovely New Plants

We've just returned from visiting the annual flower trials in Holland. It's held every year and is the 'shop window' for a large number of the best plant breeding companies. It gave us a chance to catch up with new introductions and also meet many old friends. There was much to see! We found some great new fuchsias and a very interesting sweet pea. Other highlights included super scented Nemesias wich we are now trialling here on the nursery.

Our own trials are growing very nicely now and we'll post more here soon.

Sweet Pea Trials Planted

Our Sweet Pea trial has just been planted. We grow it in an open sided poly tunnel to be sure we get plenty of flowers whatever the weather. That means that any promising new varieties get the best chance possible. We limit ourselves to 120 varieties whicm mean we have to forgo quite a few but always ensure we monitor our best sellers. We've also got quite a few newcomers sent from the best breeders.

The trial doesn't look much at the moment but will soon be leaping into growth. We'll post here regularly giving progress.

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.