We are now into the final preparations for one of the biggest events of our year – The Suffolk Show.  This is our local equivalent of the Chelsea Flower Show and we aim to produce a fantastic display on our stand in the Flower Show marquee.

It is a huge logistical challenge to transport hundreds of plants from the nursery in pristine condition up the A12 to the showground on the outskirts of Ipswich.  Many trips using our entire fleet of vehicles will be required – and many hours of thought go into the best way to achieve this every year!

The terrible weather has also meant that plants are proving a real headache when it comes to selecting stuff that will look good for the show.  Many items are as much as three weeks behind in their normal flowering pattern – so a number of plants that have featured in previous years will be nowhere near ready for display.  Conversely some which would normally have finished flowering will be available for use – so it is certainly proving interesting putting the stand together this year!

Plans for our display will incorporate a very important theme – as we will be celebrating our 20th birthday!  It is indeed 20 years since Crown Nursery came into existence in it’s current form – and we hope our stand will reflect not only our celebration but will also showcase the huge range of plants we grow – and perhaps also inspire others to create their own ‘dream garden’.

Do come and see us – the Suffolk Show is on Wednesday and Thursday May 29th and 30th at the Trinity Park Showground, Ipswich.  We would love to see you!!

UNTIL THEN,

RICHARD

Wow – another week of extreme weather here at Crown Nursery!  From the balmy 24C on the Bank Holiday Monday to 14C today.   But our worst day was definitely Thursday when a 50mph gale blew causing all sorts of problems – which we are still trying to sort out now!

The nurseryman’s nightmare they call it – hot and windy!!  From damage to tunnels and the nursery infrastructure to broken tree lines and stakes to broken and snapped limbs of trees – climate change it may be – but it is extremely unwelcome at this time of the year.

Incredibly most of the blossom did manage to hang on – and the nursery really does look pretty with the trees full of blossom – particularly the Malus – the crab apples. They are stunning – a wonderful tree for a small garden.

It also looks like a bumper year for many plants – the Lilacs and Wisteria are dripping with buds – and frost permitting – it should be an exceptional year.

We are now in the countdown to one of the biggest events of our year – the Suffolk Show. Many of you will be familiar with our massive displays – and this year will be no different – more of this in the weeks to come.

UNTIL THEN,

RICHARD

What an incredible week on the weather front yet again!  From 23C early in the week – we all cracked the shorts out – now we are down to 12C and all wrapped up in the wax coats again!

The plants just do not know what to make of it – let alone the staff!  It has been a crazy week – we are now on the very last of the bare-root hedging and fruit trees – they are unlikely to be available much longer – so you need to plant NOW if you are going to do any this spring.

We have also had a huge lorry full of plants to restock our sales areas – and we now have some lovely stuff – from bamboos to conifers to shrubs for screening – our specimen sales area is stuffed to bursting point – so do come down to the nursery and see what we have to offer.

And finally – we would like to extend a warm welcome to Michael – who has recently joined us on an apprenticeship scheme – we hope we don’t frighten him off!!

UNTIL NEXT TIME,

RICHARD

One of the few advantages of the arctic spring we are experiencing  - probably the only advantage – is that we are still able to offer our bare-root hedging and trees for planting much longer than normal.

This time last year – all of our bare-root plants had long gone since they were all in leaf – but due to the extreme cold – they are all still very dormant – allowing us gardeners to get on and get planting!!

The soil has dried out quite a bit this week in that wretched North-East wind – so planting conditions are as good as they have been all winter!!   We still have a limited stock of bare-root hedging – and there are still some of our fantastic quality bare-root fruit and ornamental trees available – so why not make the most of this extra opportunity and get some of these in the ground!!

UNTIL THEN,

RICHARD

Often described as the ‘Queen of Vegetables’ – Asparagus is one of those desirable things that are jolly expensive to buy!  So why not have a go at growing your own!!

We now have available bare-root quality crowns of Backlim – one of the most reliable new F1 varieties – these are always very popular so we will not have them available for very long. We will also soon have the early variety Gijnlim – so with the two grown together – you can extend your asparagus season for as long as possible!!

Now there’s something to look forward too!!

RICHARD

Due to local planning restrictions, the nursery will be closed over the Bank Holiday Weekend from Friday March 30th to Monday April 1st inclusive.

A few days of spring-like weather this week reminded us what we are so badly missing!! But now we are back under water – after heavy overnight rain – and even the talk of the white stuff returning!!  What a strange winter/spring period this is turning out to be!!

But nature does not wait – and there are only a few more weeks remaining that we will be able to offer our bare-root hedging and fruit and ornamental trees.  This is the cheapest way to buy hedging in bulk – and gives you superb quality – our fruit trees have drawn comments from customers all winter about the quality – but again they will only be available until about the end of March.

So – if you are planning to plant a hedge or some fruit trees this spring – get cracking – get out there and get them in – before it’s too late.  You have been warned!!

UNTIL THEN,

RICHARD

The weather may well still be firmly stuck in winter – but here at the nursery we are looking ahead to spring!   We have literally just had a large lorry full of new specimen plants arrive – and these are now onto our sales areas.

If you are looking for screening plants – we have a range of large evergreens in stock.  We have Laurels in just about every size! – even some monster ones!

Photinias – Arbutus – Hollies – Figs – Lilacs – Pittosporums – Viburnums – Wisterias – Ribes – Clematis armandii on trellis frames – Ceanothus as trees and on trellis frames – Pyracanthas on frames – and as cones – Bay Laurels – and lots more besides.

Get ahead with your spring planting – come down and take a look!!

UNTIL THEN,

RICHARD

Due to popular demand we have placed a larger selection of our bare-root hedging and our bare-root fruit trees onto our Online Shop site.As well as Mixed Packs – you can now also buy our popular British Native Hedging in Packs of 25.

We have a really good selection available – from Hawthorn,Field Maple,Hazel Nut,Beech and Blackthorn to Alder Buckthorn to attract the butterflies.  Most of these are available in two different sizes too – so as the bare-root season is drawing to a close – click on the link below and take a look!!

ONLINE SHOP

UNTIL NEXT TIME,

RICHARD

Yet another weekend with snow on the ground!!   I think most of us really have had enough of it now – the novelty has long since worn off!!

It makes our life so much more difficult on the nursery – everything is wet or frozen  - and horrid to touch!   But we push on – you have too – we are still busy lifting hedging and fruit tree orders.

The weather may still be wintry – but nature does not wait – and  already the signs of spring are all around – the hazel catkins in the hedges and woods – and many of the trees are starting to bud up.

February is a short month – thankfully – and we will soon be into March and spring – do not delay – push on with those jobs – you get nothing in gardening for being behind – there is no second prize!!

We are over half-way through our Grafting programme at the nursery – the ornamental trees are done – and now it is the largest of our propagation programmes – the apples that we are currently working on.   We have stock of 206 different varieties – but we only graft about 90 for sale – however we do like to offer them on a range of rootstocks – giving our customers the opportunity to grow fruit in even the smallest of space.

Talking of grafting – if you have ever wondered exactly how we do propagate all these thousands of trees – we are running a COURSE on GRAFTING on WEDNESDAY FEBRUARY 27TH – 10.30 – 12.30.   Check out our Course Page for full details.

Until then – we keep our fingers crossed for some milder weather!!

UNTIL NEXT TIME,

RICHARD