Spring Bulbs

Don’t get me wrong, but it’s a little depressing when spring bulbs arrive in their strange netted bundles to the garden centres, bearing the images of things to come. Why? Because it means, without a shadow of a doubt that summer has ended. Autumn is here and the first of many planting jobs (winter boxes/baskets, trees and shrubs) has begun.
Furthermore, I detest planting bulbs. It boils down to a poor experience in my landscaping days with 400 daffodils in torrential rain in terrible soil. Like a bad dream, we were given a garden trowel and told to get on with it. Hours later, blistered, bleeding hands from working the handle furiously we turned to inspect our handywork. Nothing but small piles of brown soil tinged with blood. Very depressing. I never discovered how it turned out.
A couple of tips. If you’re in the market for bulbs we’ve got some fab varieties like the double white Sir Winston Churchill or the Delibes; tall, stately with a gorgeous ruddy centre. There’s a very tempting 25%off rrp for the large 25kg bags.

Summer Holidays

Here in East Anglia, summer has been long and warm. I’m not so sure it’s been the same in the West where friends holidaying in the West country were under a constant deluge. A local farmer told to me how he couldn’t get his plough in the ground, ‘Too dry!’ he moaned. How strange that in one small isle, we can have such differing weather patterns.
At The Garden Factory we have been busy putting together offers for the Autumn, which will be on us shortly. Details to be announced shortly, but time to start thinking of planting bulb and elongating the last of the summer evenings. A range of bulb planters to suit all budgets are now in our Autumn garden section. Other popular products for this time of the year are the mini chimineas, of which the Dorado is the cutest, smartest little chiminea you could wish for. For a little fella, it certainly punches a big heat. For a more refined piece of outdoor fire heat kit try the fire bowls, available in black as well as stainless steel.

Majestic Urns

Shabby garden chic is an expression I’ve been hearing a lot recently. And it seems to be the trend of the moment. Nothing would suit this expression better than some of our beautiful cast iron garden urns.
In the garden these urns have a quality so far beyond some of the ornaments available on the market at the moment. They have a timeless stateliness, a majesty recognised throughout the ages denoting a simple, yet powerful statement of grandeur and style. And this is still the case today.

JULY UPDATE

Wot a scorcha!
A headline that screams out from the front page, and is proceeded by a deluge of rain.
We can’t complain. It’s been busy on all fronts here. New stock arriving, old flying out. Phone ringing with queries. Gardeners in our great Isle returning to their lawns and gardens with zeal, once again enjoying the great British summer.

Bumbles Summer

The grass is parched
The rains don’t fall
The weeds are growing nice and tall
Whilst my new plants are sick and small.
It must be summer

The Queen has come the Royals appear
The Seasons’ started – Chelsea’s here
Flowers sumptuous, design sublime
Plants from every country find.
It must be summer

The merry month of May – it’s a poetic thing.

One of my friends suggested that the homepage title of the ‘Merry, merry month of May’ sounded a little … Christmassy!? (‘It’s a bit too Merry, like Christmas …’)

Somewhat bewildered I mentioned ‘the Merry Month of May’ nursery rhyme to him. NO response.
So here it is; a sparkling spring gem:

‘In the merry month of May
When green leaves begin to spring,
Little lambs do skip like fairies
Birds do couple, build and sing.’

Ahhh! But there’s also this fab poem courtesy of Thomas Dekker, a poet of Elizabethan fame:

May update

With the newsletter just released, the ringing of my ditty from my Grandmother, ‘Ash before the Oak and we’ll have a soak, Oak before Ash and well have just a dash,’ has grown louder in my ears: the heavens have opened, rainwater pours from the guttering.
Nevertheless, loads to shout about here. Plenty of lovely offers on the site and some top new products. The Easy Hammock has to be the bargain of the summer. At £40 I had to confirm the price twice.

Magnificent Cow parsley

Cow parsley, also known as Anthriscus sylvestris boasts fresh, dainty, green fern-like leaves and frothy flat heads that line the lanes and roadsides in May. And I can’t remember seeing a better show than this year; it has been a joy to behold.  Also known as Queen Anne’s Lace it is one of the winners among wild flowers at this time of year, benefiting from the heavy use of fertiliser in the fields, and possibly an over-dose of nitrogen from traffic fumes.

I remember, as a child, using the hollow stems as a pea-shooter but now I use it in  flower arrangements, setting off the illustrious colours of flowers such as the bold, elegant tulip. And like most umbellifers, it is attractive to a huge number of insect species.

Good old cow parsley.

Bumble XX