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.
'Germidour' is one of the most satisfying varieties of garlic you can grow, producing lovely large and compact bulbs with white, papery skins that are attractively streaked with pinky-purple. It has a mild, subtle flavour and delicate aroma - perfect for a wide variety of savoury dishes whether used raw in salad dressings or for cooking. Originating in France, this worthy winner of the RHS Award of Garden Merit is well suited to the UK climate, being virus-free and a reliable cropper with bulbs that typically contain about 10-12 succulent cloves. This softneck type garlic doesn't produce flower stems but will mature earlier than hardneck types and also has better storage properties - up to 3 months or more in good condition after harvesting. The garlic that is most commonly sold in supermarkets is softneck - but don't be tempted to propagate shop-bought garlic as it will be more prone to disease and crop far less efficiently than plants grown from these superior horticultural quality bulbs. Traditionally, garlic is planted on the shortest day of the year (21-22 December) and harvested on the longest (20-22 June), although it can be planted in the autumn or spring. Autumn plantings will produce earlier crops and although winter hardy, may benefit from protection from the cold - or can be grown in a greenhouse or tunnel. If planting in the spring, just wait until the frosts have gone before placing the cloves in the ground. 'Germidour' will thrive in a sunny spot in most well-draining soils. If your soil is heavy, prepare the plot in advance by digging in some well-rotted garden compost, and also some sand or grit, to improve fertility and drainage. Alternatively, grow in good-quality compost in raised beds, trugs or containers. Garlic doesn't take up much room, making it an ideal choice for small-space gardening. It is a good companion plant for roses and other plants or vegetables that are vulnerable to greenfly as its aroma will help to repel those little beasts! Supplied as 2 bulbs ready to split into approximately 10-12 cloves for planting.Grows up to 60cm (24in) height by 15cm (6in) spread.
This Patio Potato Growing Kit means that anyone can now grow delicious, fresh potatoes. You don't even need a garden as a patio, balcony or courtyard will do! Just add compost and water and you'll soon be harvesting your first new potatoes. We have included three popular varieties: 'Charlotte', 'Casablanca' and 'Desiree': 'Charlotte' - One of the most popular salad potatoes in the UK, the instantly recognisable, oval-shaped tubers can grow much larger than other salad varieties and have a firm yellow waxy flesh. Perfect for potato salads or boiled and dripping in butter. 'Casablanca' - is a first early variety, producing lots of small, tasty potatoes. Ideal for boiling and also for roasting and baking. 'Desiree' - Creamy-yellow flesh with red skin, great for chips, roasting, jacket potatoes or simple boiling. These special seed potatoes have been held in cold store until now and will grow rapidly once planted - right up to the end July to give you 'new' potatoes through autumn and even up to Christmas. This is the perfect way to grow your own potatoes and what's even better is it requires no back-breaking digging whatsoever! The Heavy Duty 30 Litre Pots can be used again and again and the Organic Potato Fertiliser can be used all around your vegetable garden. Potatoes will be packed in the bottom pot, underneath the other two, in order to protect them.
'Patio Star' is definitely appropriately named! This fast growing, heavy cropping courgette will crop all summer long with regular harvesting. It's neat and compact habit makes it ideal for growing in pots or containers as well as in the vegetable garden. The glossy dark green skins are very thin, which makes these corgettes idea for cooking whole. For the best flavour, harvest as baby courgettes at about 10-15cm (4-6in) long. If not eaten immediately, they will keep well for a few days stored in the fridge. The bright yellow flowers are also edible, use them as soon after picking as possible for best results. Try adding them to salads for extra colour and interest. These easy to grow, attractive plants look great in the garden or on the patio, with their exotic looking flowers and temptingly tactile fruit drawing you eye. Supplied as 6 plug plants, ready to grow on and plant out when the risk of frost has passed.
An enduring favourite and holder of a coveted RHS Award of Garden Merit, 'Defender' crops early and has a picking season that can be twice as long as other varieties, producing heavy crops of delicious and firm, mid-green courgettes. Harvest time is from July right through to October and the fruits should be picked when they're 10-15cm long. The plants will grow to 45cm high and 90cm wide.
Simply Stunning! Garden Glamour Repeat-Flowering Rose Bush Collection... Fully Fragrant Flowers For Non-Stop Summer Colour Every Year! This sensational Garden Glamour collection has been specially selected and features five multiple award-winning varieties, three of which have been honoured with the prestigious title "World's Favourite Rose"; 'Pascali', 'Queen Elizabeth' and 'Peace'! All are proven performers, guaranteed to produce masses of fragrant classic-style flowers. Each bush repeat flowers from May to October for a non-stop display of spectacular colour and scent - plant now for the best flowering displays next year! Perfect for pots, patios or borders, they reach 60 - 90cm in height and spread - perfect for all gardens, and easy to keep too. • Incredible fragrance from each flower• Repeat displays - masses of blooms from May - October• All disease resistant, proven performers in British gardens• 60 - 90cm high - perfect for patios, beds and borders Supplied as dormant, bare root roses in autumn and winter, ready to plant straight out, and they will shoot away the following spring as temperatures warm up - will flower in first year after planting.
Everyone knows and loves a Buddleia for their sheer flower power and magnetic allure for butterflies - hence their common name The Butterfly Bush. Here is a new twist on a much-loved favourite - 3 separate colours on one. Our clever growers have skilfully matched 3 different coloured plants - one white, one pink and one purple blue - and grown them close together in one pot. As the plant develops, the stems intermingle, creating a most intriguing mixed colour effect which will get the neighbours talking! Retaining their magical attraction to butterflies, you can look forward to peacock and tortoiseshell butterflies aplenty this summer - and for years beyond. Buddleia is one of the most robust and easy-care shrubs to grow requiring almost no maintenance - we suggest a simple hack back to about 30cm each spring before new leaves appear, but hey, if you forget, it will be fine too! Very hardy, and disease free, grow in sunny spots or large pots.
A long-flowering, semi-evergreen shrub that looks fabulous in a mixed border, Abelia 'Tricolour Charm' (R) has attractive, glossy, multi-coloured leaves and fragrant white flowers. Ideal for a cottage-style garden, this shrub is remarkable due to its tricolour foliage in shades of green, cream and pink, tinged with yellow in spring. Its perfumed white flowers appear from July and last well into September. Compact in habit, Tricolour Charm forms a neat shrub that is perfect for growing in a pot on the terrace or balcony in a sunny, sheltered position. Easy to grow and hardy to -12°C, it's best grown in the shelter of a wall or towards the back of a border to encourage it to hang on to its leaves. Supplied as an established plant in a 9cm pot, ready for immediate planting.
Now, through using the right varieties, you can grow fresh Nectarines here in the UK too. 'Flavour Top' is a large frutiing variety and slow growing, suited to smaller gardens and large pots, it will only reach 7-8ft in 10 years or so. We suggest growing in a pot, as it can be moved indoors in Spring to avoid peach leaf-curl by keeping the foliage dry, and also you can then let it develop over the Summer where the fruits can be seen and easily picked too. It is self-fertile, and a heavy cropper - producing fruit in the first two or three years, with bigger crops in years 5 onwards. Some people report such heavy crops they need to thin the fruitlets down! It produces classic red fruits, very juicy, that easily leave the stone when eaten. Nectarine 'Flavour Top' really is hard to fault.
'Morello' Cherry is often referred to as 'The Cooking Cherry' because it is the variety most frequently used for making the delicious fragrant pies and jams we all know and love! The fruits are packed with juice and the skin colour is dark red. It is one of the most reliable croppers of all the sour cherries because it is self-ertile, late flowering and so less susceptible to frost damage, plus it is incredibly disease resistant a real winner for any garden! 'Morello' Cherry is also a great tree to grow on a north-facing wall because even in a cooler position with low light levels it will still grow and thrive and fruit as normal you can usually expect to pick the fruits from late August onwards.
Make Christmas more fun by growing your own non-needle drop Nordmann Christmas tree from these cute starter plants. This 3 year old tree has been nurtured from seed, trimmed twice already to get that all important shape started, and grown in its pot for a year, so is now bursting to romp away in its new home. Perfect for planting into a larger pot such as a 20-25cm (8-10in) diameter pot for 2 years or so, or popping straight into the garden soil and growing it outside for a few years, you can watch this tree grow year after year. Tough, evergreen, very hardy and easy to grow. Perfect for celebrating a new home, a new member of the family, or just so the children can learn a lot growing fun trees.
Cambridge Favourite is one of the most popular garden varieties grown in the UK, and these British bred plants are totally hardy and will provide lbs of strawberriesthroughout their lifetime. The strawberry runners are ready to plant now and will burst into flower and fruit this summer onwards. Nothing compares to eating sweet, juicy and delicious strawberries picked from your garden, and Cambridge Favourite reliably produces bumper crops of medium-sized orange-red fruits throughout June just in time for Wimbledon! Each one has a deliciously sweet flavour and if you can resist eating them fresh from the plant they are perfect for making jams and puddings! Each plant can produce up to 400g (1lb) of strawberries this June and more in subsequent seasons. They will be supplied as frozen runners so no need to worry about late frosts. They dont look pretty, but each one will have a small bud waiting to burst into life and loads of potential to grow and bear delicious fruit! Supplied as a pack of 20 Class 1 runners.