Good cooks prefer shallots to onions as they know that the taste is far superior and lifts any full flavoured savoury dish that otherwise would include onions. They're delicious peeled and pickled too and the perfect accompaniment to good cheese. Shallots are easy to grow in most garden soils and just need a sunny spot - plant a single bulb and it grows and divides through spring and summer giving as many as 6 or 8 new bulbs to harvest at the end of summer. The green foliage is also tasty used in summer salads but use sparingly to make sure of the best bulb harvest! Dry and keep indoors, using when needed, shallots keep really well and often last through to spring. Any you have left can be planted back so keeping your own stock over the years. Golden Gourmet is a favourite garden variety giving a heavy crop of round brown skinned shallots with a great taste and which are very good keepers.
One of best red-skinned shallots available, 'Red Sun' is renowned for its superior flavour, high yields and good storage quality after harvesting. The rotund, slightly elongated bulbs have firm orange-brown skins with flushes of burgundy beneath, and solid, juicy white centres. Shallots generally have a milder, more subtle flavour than onions, and 'Red Sun' is no exception. Its mellow yet slightly spicy taste, along with its superbly crisp texture, means it is perfect for eating raw in salads and sandwiches and is an ideal candidate for pickling. Use in stews and other savoury dishes in place of onions for an interesting twist - add them whole to your cooking for that extra flavoursome 'bite' to your cooking. Easy and rewarding to grow, shallots will thrive in most garden soils when planted in a sunny position. Shallots grown from sets will mature faster, be more vigorous and produce more plentiful crops than those raised from seed. The bulbs will swell and divide through spring and summer, giving as many as 6 or 8 new bulbs from each set to harvest from July to September. The green foliage is also tasty in summer salads, but use sparingly to make sure of the best bulb harvest! Supplied as 15 sets of planting bulbs. Ideally plant them as early as you can from February to April for cropping from mid-summer to early autumn. After lifting, clean and dry them, and store them in a cool, dry place indoors for using when needed; they will keep well and often last through to spring.
Who could resist touching the fluffy red cylindrical flower heads that drip from the branches of this evergreen shrub during late spring and summer? Not many. But this native of Australia has more going for it than just its 'stroke me' qualities. The tiny leaves that cover its arching branches release a delicious lemony scent when brushed, and its arching branches provide all year round interest. Wherever you plant it its perfect as specimen in the lawn, grown against a wall or fence, or planted in large pots. A real sun lover, give it the brightest spot possible. You need to water a bottlebrush for its first season, but when established plants are extremely drought tolerant. Protect it in harder winters by covering with fleece or grow in pots so it can be moved indoors (a shed, front porch, garage or conservatory would be ideal).
This is a fabulous new colour addition to the amazing Bottlebrush family. No prizes for guessing where they get their name from - their classic spring flowers zing with intense colour. Usually red, this is the first widely available pink, and what a neon-pink it is too! Each flower is made up of thousands of thin stamens, each pollen rich, so become a mecca for bees and butterflies early in the season. Flowering in spring and early summer, it is great to attract early season pollinators to fruit - and sometimes has a mini flush of flowers again in autumn. Grow in a pot in a warm and sunny spot, in a well-drained mix. A half-hardy shrub, give winter protection in colder, windier spots, as early leaves and growth can be damaged.
Ballerina apple trees are the original and best columnar fruit trees as their unique, virtually branchless habit is a genetic trait and not just a result of intensive nursery training and pruning. This means they are sure to keep their shape over the years without further skilled pruning. Reaching only 2m height after 5 years, Ballerina 'Flamenco' are the easiest trees to harvest as the apples naturally occur on small spurs close to the main stem. As well as being productive fruit trees, Ballerinas make spectacular garden ornaments when grown in a large pot. They are superb patio plants and look wonderful displayed either side of a doorway or garden gate where you can really appreciate their lovely white spring blossom followed by a good crop of juicy red apples. Raised at the famous East Malling Research Station in Kent, they are perfectly suited for the British climate, making them easy to grow and reliable - perfect for novice gardeners or those strapped for time. Supplied as a 90-110cm tall established plant in a 5L pot ready for immediate planting.
Save yourself years of painstaking work by buying this ready made topiary specimen - already crafted into a dramatic '3 ball' shape by expert nurserymen! Creating a real show-stopping feature, this topiary cypress is the perfect plant to grace a handsome pot and place by patios, terraces or in front gardens as a centrepiece, or plant in pairs and place either side of doorways, gateways, pathwys and entrances, bringing the plantsmans art to your garden to be admired for years to come. This form of Thuja occidentalis 'Smaragd' or Emerald Cedar as it is more commonly known, is dense and slow growing so keeps its shape well once trimmed. Easy to care for, there's really very little to do, just give an occasional light trim to maintain the shape to your taste, taking particular care to remove shoots from any bare stems. It will really flourish in a both a sunny or lightly shaded spot. Delivered as a mature pruned plant in 10L pot. Feed regularly during growing season.
Tree ferns were a firm plant hunter's favourite from Victorian times, a symbol of wealth and travel experiences to Australia. They have maintained this sense of mystique ever since. Now you too can grow these surprisingly easy exotic looking plants too. Harvested under strict License from woodland clearance in Australia and Tasmania, these astonishing plants really will delight and amaze. They grow under the woodland canopy, in the shade, so grow them here in a sheltered spot too. These 'potter' logs are at least 10 years old, and have been cut back and harvested dormant. When you water them via the top crown, they will burst back into life, like it's the new rainy season! Because they grow in leaf canopies, most of their food comes from leaves falling into their giant shuttlecock like fronds, funnelling the goodness into the growing crown. That's hard to achieve in UK gardens so we provide 500ml of concentrated tree fern food, which mimics this feeding method. Even at this size of log at 20-25cm tall, new fronds of almost 1M in length will unfurl spectacularly within a Month or so of you watering it. It's amazing when they come how quickly they grow. The plant is hardy down to -5 in Winter, although the fronds will die back. Cutting these off when they die back is what creates the new trunk, which slowly inches up over many, many years. Keep the crown protected in Winter with a layer of straw to keep cold and wet out. When you get it home, plant it in a big pot, or in the garden soil. It takes almost 2 years to root in, so do not be alarmed by this slow growing beauty.
Add something a little bit different to your garden with these fantastic living willow standards. Their stems, hand-woven into standard form, create a visually stunning centrepiece for any garden, but once they burst into life with growth atop the stem, they can be used in pots and containers as eye-catching specimens or grown in multiples to create unique hedging and screening. The stems will not grow any taller so you can contain the maximum height of the plants, and they can be trimmed, just like topiary, to any shape or size you desire. Over 5-7 ytears the stems will grow togetehr to form an amazing feature 'trunk'. Totally winter hardy and happy both partial shade or full sun, these willow standards are a low maintenance, easy to care for plant that will reward you with an outstanding feature Plant in pots and place either side of doorways, gateways or entrances for a warm welcome to guests, or plant in groups in troughs or borders to separate off areas or create privacy - they're versatile, beautiful to look at and just so easy to grow. When the willow is first planted you can't water it enough! Keep well watered until it has formed a good clump of root.
A flower that is bang on trend at the moment with its striking ombre blooms - light coral-red fades to apricot-yellow towards the base, making this a real head turner in Dahlia colour. An award-winning Dahlia and fully deserving its coveted RHS Award of Garden Merit, you can be sure that this is a proven garden performer, guaranteed to be suitable for UK gardeners at every level of experience. You can therefore plant this in the garden with confidence, for stunning displays for many years to come. Robust, compact plants are ideal for flower borders and pots and are fabulous as cut flowers - pick a bunch of these pastel beauties to bring into your home for amazing colour. Supplied as 6 x plug plants ready for potting up and growing on, plants will grow to a height of around 50cm.
Grown for its attractive, variegated dense foliage, the leaves of Pittosporum 'Silver Ball' are carried on striking dark stems. One of the hardiest pittosporums, it's perfect in a gravel garden or container to which its compact shape is ideally suited. A compact, rounded evergreen with creamy edged grey-green leaves will form a neat mound with very little effort on your part. 'Silver Ball' lends itself well to topiary and its natural shape makes it an interesting alternative to Box balls. During May and June small, honey scented bell shaped darp purple flowers appear, contrasting well against the pale shades of the foliage. Supplied as an established plant in a 9cm pot ready for immediate planting, 'Silver Ball' will reach approx. 1m in 10 years.
'All Gold' was a chance find amongst a crop of the red variety 'Autumn Bliss', so has inherited many of it's excellent traits, but with a superb golden yellow colour, and a seemingly even more intense flavour too! 'All Gold' is a Primocane variety, so it produces fruits on it's new season stems, in September and October. This saves a whole year of growing time in the garden compared to old-fashioned varieties, and means they are more compact and suitable for pot and patio growing, reaching 4-5ft (1.2-1.5M) on sturdy stems. Because they fruit on same year's growth, they are exceptionally easy to maintain - simply cut all shoots back to ground level when dormant in February.
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