Spotlight on: Garden design
Spring is when we start to think about our gardens so come and talk to the experts and take a look at their home-grown plants and flowers
Torthworth Plants: established in 2013 by keen horticulturists Tim Hancock and Rebecca Flint, Torthworth Plants grows a range of spring and summer flowers and plants on the Tortworth Estate. There’s a range of spring bulbs such as ipheons, which are part of the alium family, as well as perennial wallflowers and darkly seductive hellebores. Keep an eye out for the arrival of spring flowering alpines, such as mossy saxifrage, pulsatillas and primulas.
Julian Harvard: you have to get up early if you want to take home some of Julian’s seasonal cut flowers and plants! Julian’s beautifully natural blooms are a sellout each week thanks to the quality and low price point. This spring expect to see daffodils, tulips and hyacinths which will be followed by a mixture of country garden flowers including cornflowers, marigolds and sweet peas.
Ascott Gardens: home-grown perennial, annual and biennial plants are available from this smallholding, as well as seasonal cut flowers. Everything depends on the weather of course, but expect to see anemones and ranunculus as cut flowers this spring as well as lots of other things including tulips. You can also pick up all sorts of veg plants and bulbs such as chinodoxa, miscari, ipheion and fritillaria.
Malcolm Allison Plants: Malcolm returns to the market on 23rd March and over the next couple of months will be bringing a range of diverse and exciting plants. Look out for special narcissi, spring-flowering corydalis, pulmonarias, and the special strains of barnhaven polyanthus which come in really lovely colours. There will also be a number of shrubby euphorbias which are ideal for bringing year round style to borders.
Hotch Potch Organics: Hayley and Jim will be back in mid-April with their gorgeous-smelling sweet peas and a range of cornflowers. Along with the traditional native blue cornflower there will be more unusual cultivars in pink, mauve, purple, deep claret and white. Larkspur, love in a mist and calendula are looking good and . new vareties to add to the bouqets will include pure white Foxgloves and a new orange Ox Eye Sunflower with dark purple leaves and black stems later in the summer. Any spare seedlings will be available for customers keen to grow their own cut flowers.
Pat’s Plants: Create that typical cottage garden look with a visit to Pat Puddenphatt’s weekly stall. Here you can find a range of hardy perennials and alpines including asters, gaura, penstemon, sedums, salvia, flocks, saxifraga and a range of hardy bulbs. The plants can be bought ready to plant into the garden or planted up in unusual containers to make a lovely gift.
The Lavender Garden: this traditional nursery set within a Victorian kitchen garden specialises in lavender and buddleja and has a large selection of culinary herbs. The choice of lavenders is astounding, ranging from pale blue to deepest violet and even white. There’s the highly-scented Provence lavender, grosso, and the pretty butterfly flowers of the papillon to the midnight blue stunner, the Hidcote.