Behind the scenes of the nursery

I have been working in the nursery for the past two weeks, getting a closer encounter to the plants we use and grow. The nursery grows 90% of the plants that they sell and buy in the other 10% from a variety of sources, including niche other nurserymen and women.

Tues 2nd April
Weather: The nicest day that it has been for awhile, very sunny but strong winds.

I potted up some Eragrotis spectibilis grass from 4" to 1.5 litre pots, and some Gladiolus ssp. byzantinus from small blacks to 4" pots.

Weds 3rd April
Weather: It was alright to begin with but then the wind picked up quite gustily.

Repotted some Echinacea purpurea 'Rubenstein' (which has an orangey cone), Anemone hupehensis var. japonica. 

We use soil mix no. 2 to repot our plants. No. 1 is for seed sowing, no. 3 is for trees and shrubs and then there's old soil mix and cutting compost too.

Ingredients put together to be mixed, it includes grit, osmocote and bark. 

Shape of the spade from intensive mixing use. 

Thurs 4th April
Weather: 2 - 4°C. Cold, windy. Flurries of light snow at intervals, not enough to settle though.

Pricked out some Cynoglossum (Borage family) and put into small pots which we call small blacks. Also repotted some Dicentra spectabilis, Dryopteris cristata, and Polystichum setiferum 'Herrenhausen'.

For the plants that we do buy in, we noticed just how much peat is still used. We remove as much of this as we can, to sit them in our own soil mix. Which is a mix composed to help the plant root more easily when it is transplanted into the ground/ garden. If the plant is bigger we gently jiggle out the roots a bit to help invigorate the plant to root more easily in the new soil.

Fri 5th April
Weather: Cold.

We worked on pricking out a lot of our own cuttings today, which included Nandina domestica (picture above), Buddleia davidii 'Dartmoor', Deutzia carminea 'Rosea', Parahebe 'Snow Clouds' and Azara serrata. Gardener James pointed out that it is interesting how young cuttings seem take on the same vigour as their parent plants even at such an early stage. All newly repotted plants are put under the shelter of a cold frame and they are most priority of needing to be shaded when the sun comes out.