Gardening Advice

Planting bulbs 'in the green'

Some bulbs, tubers and rhizomes are better planted ‘in the green’ – in spring, when they are still in active growth – rather than as dry bulbs in autumn. These include winter aconites (which are particularly hard to establish from tubers), snowdrops, bluebells and lily-of-the valley. Future Forests stock these ready to send out in February and March. Plant them as soon as you receive them, preparing the soil beforehand if necessary so they can sprint away happily.

Planting and growing Mixed Hedges

Mixed hedging has long been a speciality at Future Forests. Before choosing a type of hedge, you must first look at why you want the hedge and what you need it to do, after that you need to look at practical considerations like site and soil. Once you can figure those factors out, the bewildering choice of hedges should be very much narrowed down.

Choosing and planting bare-root roses

Everyone loves a rose, and November to March is a good time to plant bare-root roses, so that they romp away when the warm weather comes. The trick for choosing them and growing them at their best is to pick the right position for the right rose for your garden.

There are so many roses that it’s no wonder people get confused. What’s the
difference between a rambler and a climber, or a modern shrub rose and an old
rose? What is an ‘English rose’? Is there a rose that be grown by the sea, or on a
steep bank, or as ground-cover? Are any roses suitable for hedging? What
conditions do roses like? What about pruning? And how do you plant bare root
roses? I’ll try to answer these questions in the rest of this blog...

Christmas decorations from the garden - By Deborah Ballard

Bringing in greenery from the garden makes Christmas, and is far better for the planet than buying artificial decorations. Holly and ivy are traditional, but evergreen branches of eucalyptus, pine, pittosporum, elaeagnus and olearia also look lovely.

Variegated leaves will bring brightness into your arrangements – try Pittosporum tenuifolia ‘Silver Queen’, or one of the variegated hollies – choose silver- or gold-variegated types to match your other decorations, like Ilex aquifolium Argentea Marginata or Ilex x altaclarensis ‘Golden King’ (female, despite the name). The silvery leaves of Eleagnus x ebbingei are also good.

Planting bareroot trees, shrubs, and hedges

The bareroot season usually starts at the end of October and finishes around early April, of course like everything in the horticultural world, this is all a little bit weather dependent. My love of Autumn is usually added to by a restlessness for the bareroot season to start, it is by far our busiest time and soon the slow days of September and October are a distant memory as we are up to our eyes in all things bareroot.

Currants, raspberries, strawberries and hybrid berries  are usually the first to arrive and there is something about the scent of the soil on the roots that lets you know it's time to start moving plants. Trees, top fruit, shrubs and hedging all follow very quickly and we usually have a lot of customers eager to plant as soon as they can.

Blooming in Winter

Witch Hazels are often overlooked when people consider a large shrub or small tree for a garden, but they have a lot to offer and even more so at a time of year when there might be little else to cheer about.

As Autumn starts to settle in and thoughts of Winter flowering shrubs begin to enter our minds, it is hard not to consider the Witch Hazel. For anyone who has seen a Witch hazel in full bloom, knows that it can be breathtaking and intriguing!