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Rose Discoveries - Beauty in a Shattered City.

December 27, 2011, 8:44 pm
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If you know Christchurch as we do, it is very sad just now to see the cleared sites and demolition work that followed the Earthquakes earlier this year. However, walk down to Hagley Park, their botanic gardens and it is thriving.
In Mid December we walked into their rose garden and I was blown away. I am still seeing images of the garden in my mind's eye.
Usually, I walk into a rose garden and what do I  see? Well it can be lovely , but all too often the garden can be dry soil, defoliation, spotty yellow leaves far too much bare earth
Not an enthusiast then?? Well all changed now. Christchurch showed me how it can be done,
Look at these arches, look at these red reds.  Let me share some photographs with you.
What you don't get in a photograph, is the shimmering sunshine and the scented air around some of the rose beds...just lovely
Many Happy Returns
Large bed of  "Many Happy Returns"   white, pink bud.
It was the white roses that made the most impact. Fantastic.
Molly Kirby
Molly Kirby...a sizzling orange, clean shiny foliage.

A bright yellow bed of " Casino"
Casino.
The red voluptuous "Ingrid Bergman"
Ingrid Bergman
The roses were all looking wonderful. Why?
1.  Well New Zealand has a kinder climate. Christchurch has milder winters and hotter summers that we have in UK, and certainly more than we have in Scotland.
And Roses love warmth. We sometimes forget that and wonder why we lose rose bushes, particularly Hybrid teas in a bad winter. At Abriachan we only grown shrub roses and climbers as others just can't take the cold.
2. The roses looked well pruned and well fed. Like all plants that you want to see bloom on the new growth you have to ensure they are well fed. Blood fish and bone or dehydrated Chicken manure are my favourites, followed by tomato feed to get lots of blooms.
Nancy Hayward
3. New Zealand breeds many of its own roses and they were well chosen, but there were also very good looking David Austin varieties and old well known varieties such as "Compassion" and "Iceberg"  They looked great so I believe they are using good clean material for propagation.

Just wonderful. No wonder they call Christchurch the Garden City
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Winter woodland walk

January 29, 2012, 6:12 pm
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Since we have returned from New Zealand I have walked through our garden and woodlands most days. 
It is usually late afternoon before I start up the hill, well wrapped up against the cold with fleece and my wonderful possum hat from New Zealand.
Daylight is drawing out markedly now. I am still finding the mornings very dark, but the evenings are stretching nicely and it is now well after five before it is dark. Hoorah!

This late afternoon light is special.
We are having a quiet cold spell just now and the light on Loch Ness is great.
I always think of Loch Ness as steely grey and it looks wonderful, arctic cold glinting in moonlight and mirror glass calm by day. 
December was very wet and the footpaths are still greasy in places
The last of the leaves are brown and damp and the air is heavy with the humus smell of woodlands.
Bark and branch dominate the foreground, with pockets of dark holly and Blechnum spicant; the elegant hard fern; on dry banks.
Of course snow drops are through and the garden looks well, temperatures have not been below -4.  Fingers crossed.

M
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Badger Shenanigans

January 31, 2012, 4:00 pm
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After much mud, sweat and tea (rs), the 2012 plant catalogue is off to the printers.
This years front cover shows the local badgers cavorting on the beehive during one of their midnight raids. 
Does anyone else have badgers making themselves at home in your garden?
Cat
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The magic of Witch Hazel

February 6, 2012, 1:49 am
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Witch Hazel, I remember it from my childhood…..a transparent liquid in a half pint bottle, administered when I can home bruised after a day at the local park, a not infrequent event.
I think it is still around and I remember keeping a bottle in my fridge for years when my children were small.

Witch Hazel, Hamamelis mollis is a wonderful shrub, a thing of legend.

These beautiful shrubs flower on bare branches before the leaves.

Hamamelis mollis Pallida is a lovely sulphur yellow variant that flowers in the icy grip of January. The spidery petals are long and with a delicate perfume that rises when in the warmth of a room.
There are darker coloured variants, two of which we grow. Jalena with coppery yellow flowers and Diane, a coppery red.
They are very nice shrubs , but as they flower later in late February/March they somehow don’t seem to make the impact of the early flowering Pallida.
All make an impact in autumn with wonderful rich yellow and red colourings.

Witch hazel is one of those glorious shrubs that you dream of having in your garden.
At Abriachan we had the chance and we planted Hamamelis mollis Pallida about 15 years ago. It is not exactly slow growing, but seems to take to time and it is only this year that I have felt confident to take a branch or two for the house.
I love it, a beautiful, classical beauty.
M
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Little drops of green & white

February 17, 2012, 7:39 pm
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Does any flower give more hope than snowdrops!

Pure white modest flowers with a chaste beauty, that belies there tough nature.
There they are each January, bravely emerging between the fallen leaves and ivy tendrils.

They are of course hardy, but they are not the fastest of bulbs to colonise a woodland or river bank.
Where you see drifts of snowdrops you are looking at decades or even centuries of growth.
Such plantings are some of the loveliest sights you will see.

Snowdrops are often found in burial grounds, and such plantings must be for hope and memory.
I have seen snowdrops in well kept town cemeteries and on wind blasted burial grounds full of old graves, and they always stir the heart.
In Drumnadrochit, a village close to Abriachan there is a very special area of woodland at the confluence of two rivers, called the Cover.
The Rivers that flow through the Cover to Loch Ness have regularly flooded in the past and have brought down plant material from gardens.
Hence we have had Japanese Knotweed (thankfully, hopefully eradicated now) and raspberry canes, but the one intruder I think is wonderful is the Snowdrop
Undisturbed under the trees they have multiplied and now give a lovely show each year.
I was there on Sunday, a lovely mild day with the feel of the approach of spring.
For anyone with a new house and garden, wait for the first January, February and see if you have snowdrops if not, then buy some, and as with tree planting it is for the next generation.
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The Boiling Pond

March 1, 2012, 1:32 am
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Like the GilbertWhite of Abriachan, I crept stealthily up the path towards the pond, camera switched on, lens extended, fingers hovering expectantly over the focus.
I was down-wind, I had deliberately neglected to put on potent midge repellent lest it disturb the still morning air, I was wearing my most woodland-blending combination of greens, greys and browns, surely this time they would not see me coming!
 
SPLAsh SpISH SPlarg Gloop ShLUuop splOSH

bugger!

Once more outwitted by frogs, 16 frogs to be more accurate (at last count), the newest and most endearing residents of the pond.
(I promise they are in the photo somewhere)
They moved in last week and since then the water has been boiling with their activity, there are now several big patches of frog spawn floating like translucent sago pudding, yet despite my best efforts, my attempts to sneak up and photograph them as they lounge on the banks and leaves have failed, and all I am confronted with are 32 big eyes on teeny frog faces peeking up at me.
One of my winter jobs was the transformation of what Margaret termed "The Quaking Bog" into something that once more resembled a wildlife pond.
So with a set of waders, a spade and a look of steely determination in my eye, I went forth and did battle.

January/February is the best time for you to tackle your ponds, as it is when you are going to cause least disturbance to wildlife which is at its lowest ebb in the winter months, and also when you are best able to divide your pond plants before they start to grow away in the spring.

The rapid flow of water through our pond, (connected to a fast flowing burn) brought with it a great deal of silt and other detritus, so I had to dig a great deal of content out, to return the pond to a depth of 3ft, restoring it to a suitable environment for wildlife and readying it for fresh planting in the coming months.
If you own a stand-alone pond which you refill/refresh/pump or otherwise oxygenate, you will probably have far less content to clear out as there will only be the fallen leaves and rotting plant material to deal with, however it is still a job that should be done tri-annually to benefit the health of the pond.

Here are a few tips to help you in your endeavours: 
  • Waders are a great investment - Digging out a pond from the bank is near impossible and you are like as not to strain your back, and receive no sympathy from friends and family as "You should have known better."
    Also, a welly boot, once full of sludgly mud, tends to be more of a hindrance than a help and may lead to you becoming wedged in the gunge in the very centre of the pond, having to perform a complex manoeuvre where you use the spade to lever out one foot so you can make a lunge for the bank, leaving the other welly behind in its new watery home, where it looks at you smugly while you sit and wring out your socks.
  • Stop the flow of water into your pond while you are cleaning it, and if possible drain out most of the water to make your job easier.
    I would imagine that if you have fish, transferring them elsewhere at this stage would be a pretty good idea.
  • As you dig out the contents of the pond, shovel it all onto the bank and leave it there for at least a few days, so anything that has been living in the murky depths can wriggle its way back down into the water.
  • Once the silt is wriggler-free, you can move it elsewhere.
    I have used ours to fill a new bed which I will plant with Primulas later this year.
    You may have to mix the pond contents with compost and additional feeding depending on the level of nutrients - I will be adding manure and leaf compost to ours.
  • Dig deep to get out the roots of all the plants you do not want in your pond. In our case, reeds, rushes and grasses which would, if left, invade the whole pond area.
    You can keep a small patch of reeds for your wildlife if you like, but there are plenty of alternative plants which wildlife love and which are easier to keep under control.
  • Divide your lilies, irises and other abundant pond plants, plant them elsewhere, give them to your neighbours, sell them, donate them, barter them..... just ensure you leave enough for oxygenation and habitat.
  • Hold off on re-planting with new plants until after the last of the hard frosts.
  • Ensure your pond has at least one gradually graduated side, so frogs, toads, newts and other wildlife can get in and out easily.
Best of luck with your own ponds, they are such a great addition to your garden and as well as providing an environment for animals and insects to live, breed and feed, they give many more birds and animals with a place to drink and bathe.
Our own wee Scottish food chain contains damselflies, dragonflies, water boat men, pond skaters, whirligig beetles, caddis flies, water snails, frogs, toads, ducks, a visiting heron......  and recently observed, the lesser-spotted mud-encrusted Scotsman.


Written by Donald
Frog graphic from the fabulous Graphics Fairy
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Drumsticks of Delight

March 13, 2012, 6:31 pm
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PLANT OF THE MONTH
Primula Denticulata
(The Drumstick Primula)
 Beautiful spherical flower heads.
Cheerful, early, and indestructible.
They grow almost anywhere and look lovely planted as a group.
We sell as seperate colours (Red/Pink, White and Violet/Blue)
£3 each - £10 for four


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Secrets of the selling beds

March 17, 2012, 9:59 pm
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BEHIND THE SCENES AT A FAMILY PLANT NURSERY

No. 1 - SECRETS OF THE SELLING BEDS
We run the bathroom tap all winter to ensure the pipes do not freeze, (don't panic, it is our own water source, we are not wasting a drop, but it does still stress out Australian friends when they visit and watch all that precious water gushing endlessly down the drain) so when the day comes when we can turn off the tap and feel with 95% confidence that it will not freeze again that night, why then, it must be about time to begin the season and start to fill up the nursery with the plants that have spent the winter cosy in their poly tunnel homes.
The frosty winter of 2010 hit us hard, very hard, and we lost a lot of great stock plants that had come through many winters before. We have learned from our mistakes, and this last winter we invested in more bubble wrap, fleece and polystyrene insulation to ensure we were doing all we could to protect the plants if the thermometer hit -15 once again.
Thankfully it did not and with a relatively mild winter, the losses were far less.
Another change we made, which turned out to make a marked difference, was simply moving certain plants between poly tunnels to conditions that seemed to suit them more. For example, I took all the Bellis plants from the smaller tunnel, to the larger airier tunnel and they have thrived on it, preferring to have more air flow around them and less of a tight environment.
We have also been lucky to survive without a great deal of mouse damage, and more sadly; with the loss of West in November; there was no vizsla damage either. His horticultural impact was never intentional; it is just inherently tricky to bury a venison bone underneath a tray of crocosmia without there being a few casualties.
So, we walk the stock beds and select what is to be first out into the nursery, then hoist up some trays of plants and take them to the shed; which is marginally warmer and has marginally more chocolate hobnobs than the poly tunnel; and there we do any required weeding, cutting back, removal of old foliage and generally ensuring it is looking its best before sale. Some plants will at this stage get potted up to a larger size to go back to the tunnels for sale later in the season.
A new label is written out by hand for each plant, (yes, by hand, we are still old school, and unless the original seedlings came with some snazzy coloured labels, we still get hand cramp from writing out ‘Persicaria affinis campanulata £3.50’ fifty times) and then I channel my inner Theroux to write up an evocative label to describe the appearance of the plant, explain its growing habits, soil preferences, size etc.
Being eco-conscious, we recycle and reuse many of our pots, labels, trays and other materials necessary for running a nursery, and in this we are ably assisted by Shelia our fabulous employee, who dedicates her own time to collecting and cleaning off plant labels for re-use. (We also have a collection point where customers are encouraged to bring in all the plant pots they have accumulated over the years, we will use what we can and pass on the rest for further recycling.)

After the prettification step, the plants go out onto the nursery selling beds. As the nursery has grown, so to have the number of tables, and we now have a substantial amount which require yearly winter maintenance by means of a scrub down with a wire brush to remove the grime and moss, followed by a fresh layer of special varnish which protects the wood from rotting and prevents moss growth. A very tedious task I'm sure you can appreciate, so one I do my best to delegate.

Now comes an attempt to delve into the psychology of the plant buyer - look into my eyes, you are feeling an irresistible urge to buy 17 meconopsis.
We do not have a bag of tricks like the evil genius's at the supermarkets, and i'm not going to give everything away, but we have been known to watch customers out the corners of our eye to see which routes they take between the tables and which areas are the focal points, or 'hot spots'. Into these spots I position those plants that are looking particularly great, are in full flower, or which are enjoying a season of fashionable popularity.

Next out, some complementary plants - texture, colour, size, planting conditions - all come into play when laying out the table.
Delicate marking displayed at eye level for maximum appreciation, big pots on the ground so they don’t have far to fall on the windy days. Climbers not too close to the trellis or you will never be able to untangle them........

Then a few more mind games - the removal of a couple of pots from each tray, (A full tray is too intimidating), position the descriptive label at a readable angle and job done.

Smoko time?

GUEST POST BY HAMISH DAVIDSON
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Adventuring into the tangled web

April 1, 2012, 4:53 am
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Being a small plant nursery owner is rather unlikely to make you rich, even when you have Nessy on your side and many points running in your favour:
  1. Our nursery is a small operation - family owned and run (With the assistance of several knowledgeable, loyal and wonderful women) and we are located on a beautiful hillside in one of the most gorgeous areas of Scotland.  
  2. We choose our plants carefully, grow them in our own woodland garden to assess their hardiness, vigour, beauty, scent and suitability for Scottish gardeners, and only then sell them in our nursery.
    Buying from us, you know that the plants have been well grown from strong stock, well educated on Radio 4, and hardened off to cope with challenging Scottish temperatures.
  3. We grow and sell many rare and unusual varieties that can trickier to propagate and maintain, so are infrequently stocked by the big nurseries as they are not perceived to be worth the time and energy required.
  4. We also sell more exotic varieties influenced by our time in New Zealand and the Falkland Islands, varieties which may not have been considered by many gardeners until they see them growing this far North.

All these positive factors are in themselves, not always enough to rake in the millions, and whilst we have a strong and loyal base of customers - the convenience and illusory value of plants available in a wealth of supermarkets and hardware stores has impacted on many small nurseries. 

And so, several years ago we reached out to the Internet to expand our horticultural presence - our website has grown and improved and we have made tentative social media explorations throughFlickr galleries, a Facebook page, a new Pinterest page (Still finding our feet) and of course this blog to expand our customer base and hopefully allow technological word-of-mouth to tempt more gardeners to Abriachan. 

Will the 'likes' and 'stars', 'shares' and 'comments' translate into more people in the nursery and more plants in the post? Maybe, maybe not, time will tell, yet no matter what, we have gained many new friends and been made to feel welcome as part of the online community.


As we have grown our own blog, I have discovered the wonderful world of gardening bloggers, who share their stories, their humour, their knowledge and their passion for gardening with the wider world.
Great sites like Blotanical (which hopefully will survive its current difficulties),  Garden Grab @ Fennel & Fern, Gardeners Voice and many others allow for easy exploration of a worldwide community of gardening blogs and it is rather too easy to fall down the rabbit hole of reading and following links from one blog to another.

We still send out our plant catalogue in the mail each year, as I believe you can never replace the tactile experience of reading through plant descriptions and choosing your selection by hand with a cat on your knee. 
Many of our customers have only ever ordered by mail, we have never met face to face, yet we often feel a friendship develop, with lovely handwritten notes included with their orders, and comments on how the plants are growing in their gardens.  They trust us to provide them with quality plants and when necessary to substitute a plant that we think they might enjoy if we are sold out of one that has been requested. 
We were wary that the Internet might not nurture the same personal relationships with our customers, and while it is true that orders from the website are less likely to include personal notes, we have been delighted at the warmth and encouragement we have received through comments on the blog and even more delightful, the personal visits from some other bloggers from around the country, who may never have discovered us had we not stepped deeper into the web-world.

So we shall venture onward, thank you for walking with us on this path.
The Davidsons
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Plant of the month - Primula Auricula

April 4, 2012, 9:49 pm
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Plant of the month - April
Primula Auricula

We have a wide collection of these extraordinary little plants.
Intense colours and subtle dustings of farina make them unique and exquisite.
Hardy, easy to grow and guaranteed to delight.
£4 - £6 each

If you too love Auricula and have some photographs squirreled away on your computer, consider adding them to our 'Auricula Addiction' group on Flickr.

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Old Fashioned Primroses

April 18, 2012, 6:31 pm
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It is cold. After a wonderful sunny March as is often said “We have paid for it!!”
Cold nights, freezing dawns, cold days, five degrees….rain….lots of it…and snow on the tops, and sometimes even at our lower level.
You wake to a skim of snow that thaws over the morning.

It is the young birds that worry me. Birds nested early and enthusiastically in March. I hope they can keep those babies warm.

Plants just slow down. After a fast start, many spring plants seem almost to be suspended slowly opening their flowers and holding them close to retain a little warmth.

This year there has been markedly increased interest in the old fashioned primroses, one of our specialist groups of plants.
Primula Wanda


Primula Amy Smith

What are old fashioned primroses? Well they are cultivated primroses, often of some antiquity, all good garden plants and hardy.
Most are singles, some are wonderful old doubles and some are polyanthus form. 

This month, April, I am canvassing the villages around Loch Ness in my bid to be re-elected as the Local Highland Councillor, I am often looking over walls into gardens as I am going around.  I see lots of old primroses; they are the ones that have survived for generations, passed from mother to daughter, neighbour to neighbour.
I see Wanda, that great old magenta primroses, an old yellow polyanthus and recently a lovely pale mauve pink primrose, whose name no one seems to know.
Primula Lilacina Plena
Look across the range of primroses we sell, and you see some wonderful old varieties.
These plants do not have the zazzle colours, red, orange, yellow & pink that you can buy in supermarkets and garden centres, but they do have quiet subtle charm.

I have more than one favourite and the plants do look different from year to year.
This year, the pretty Amy Smith with soft pink flowers on dark bronze foliage and Lady Greer, which has dainty Polyanthus heads of biscuit yellow.
And of course then there are the doubles, how could I garden without the old alba plena and the glorious Quakers Bonnet, lilacina plena, but they really are another story and a wonderful one at that.
 Margaret

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HUGE PRIMULA AURICULA SALE - ONE WEEK ONLY

April 26, 2012, 4:19 pm
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Auricula Favourites

May 1, 2012, 12:00 am
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Has anyone written poetry about Auriculas….I have not seen it, hence I felt inspired to write a verse.
Catch your breath colour
Can it be real?
Tiny perfect picture
Can it be real?
Audacious, subtle, side by side.
Elusive scent, forms the memory first.

I’ll keep on with the day job.

It is like a birthday tea in the poly tunnel just now and you don’t know here to look first, a dizzying array, the dazzle of the alpine varieties and the solid globs of the doubles .
And then beyond the colour you begin to see the symmetry and the subtle beauty of the farina and the paler washed colours.

Do I have a favourites, of course I do, and they change from year to year.
That is partly because different varieties perform well each year…and surprisingly unpredictable.
So this year’s favourites:

Soft Blues: Wedgewood, Walton and Bradmore Bluebells
Bradmore Bluebell
Bold and Red: Favourite and Trudy and Rene…….All border auriculas, strong and beautiful.
Trudy
Fragrant beauties: The nicest are Queen Alexander and Old Clove Red.
Old Clove Red
Breath-taking Greens: Great Parrot. and the fancy Salad
Salad

Beautiful doubles: Golden Chatreuse, Nymph and the new Shaun
Golden Chatreuse
The show stealers: Sirius, Rodeo and Gee Cross
Gee Cross
And best of all …when you have left several auriculas in the room overnight, the scent…cloves, rose, capture it and remember.

Margaret
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Donald on Beechgrove

May 15, 2012, 6:37 pm
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Donald was lured away from the nursery (Where he has been flat out like a lizard drinking, in the usual May madness) last night to be a panel member on Beechgrove Garden's - Potting Shed radio show at Aigas Field Centre.
Mark Stephen was the presenter and the panel consisted of: Carol Baxter, Donald Macbean and our very own Donald Davidson
The programme was broadcast on BBC Radio Scotland on Sunday 20th May at 12.05pm
Hereis the i-player link- usually available for 7 days:

Remember, you can come in to the nursery any day to quiz Donald in your own personal question time :)
Photograph copyright BBC
Donald is also available to come and do talks or lectures for your garden groups/societies, do give him a call on 01463 861 232 to see when he has space in his diary (All he asks is that transport and accommodation (If required due to distance from Loch Ness) is provided) 
As well as covering all manner of horicultural topics, Donald often lectures on his time living in the Falkland Islands, with many fabulous slides of the wildlife, the flora and the people.
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Azaleas - A memory of colour

June 19, 2012, 7:34 pm
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My midyear resolution is to look through some of the old photographic slides we took during our first sojourn in New Zealand. Well, that is if I can be bothered schlepping through the attic manage to find the time, It may have to wait until Cat returns here for the next rugby world cup!

What I would be looking for, is a fabulous garden, I don’t even remember exactly where it was/is, but somewhere in the South Island of New Zealand there was a wall of deciduous azaleas in full colour, backing onto a still pond. It took my breath away.
Azalea Luteum (Yellow) and Azalea Persil (White)
I think many gardeners have moments like that and these sights burn themselves onto our retinas and we find ourselves trying to replicate them over and over. Of course there are many gardens in Scotland that have Azaleas, and there are places on the far west, Arisaig and elsewhere that have Azalea lutea naturalising and thriving, but that wall of colour was the moment for me.
Azalea Golden Eagle
It was orange, red and yellow and that is what I have tried to replicate at Abriachan.
We have Azalea Gibraltar and Golden Eagle doing very well , and they are large enough now to make real impact.
Azalea Gibraltar
When I don’t know what varieties to choose to plant, I go to the Hillier Manual of Trees and Shrubs and look for ones with First Class Certificates or the newer Award of Garden Merit. And they have never let me down.
From there I planted Persil, a lovely white with yellow markings and my very favourite - Irene Koster. She is a soft pink with yellow makings, but best of all, her fragrance is wonderful. I have planted several amongst the upper woodland section of garden and she is sublime this year.
Azalea Persil
Azalea Irene Koster
Azaleas are one of those wonderful plants that lift their fragrance into the air, so if you have one or more, visit them in the evening or even in the middle of the day when any warmth will intensify the scented air. 
Just lovely, I must plant many more, and that's a resolution I will definitely keep.

Created with Admarket'sflickrSLiDR.
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A freshly planted border of annuals

June 26, 2012, 5:37 am
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'Planting for Colour - Annuals' - That was the title of my talk and demonstration last week in the latest RHS (Royal Horticultural Society) event at Abriachan.
Driveway annual border - Summer 2010
We looked at an annual border first.
This is the headland area near to the road and our aim is always to have a blaze of colour from July onwards. I reckon we have succeeded every one of the past 25 years to do that; sometimes the rain has damped the show and sometimes the sun has accelerated it.  All good fun and I wish I wish I wish I had taken a chronological record of things, but it is patchy.
In truth the border is becoming a bit of an annual and perennial mix, as over the years we have gradually planted some plants that have surprised us and become perennial and other edging plants are cheekily encroaching on to the plot.
Here are the principles I use:
* First and always, I plant three Scot’s Thistle, Onopordum acanthemum. This is for drama and the photo opportunities. Onopordum is a biennial, hence they will make a large silver rosette in this first year and then will shoot up to flower with their fabulous purple thistle heads next spring.
  * Then I think about colour and drama and reach for Dahlias. Each year I try a new variety and this year it is a red double called Murdoch. The others I use a lot are
o Arabian Nights - A tall rich red double.
o Moonfire - Apricot yellow single , ted centre; dark foliage
o Bishop of Llandaff - Vivid red double on dark foliage.
* Then height and strength. No staking here. I usually go for Nicotiana, the tobacco plants. My favourite is Nicotiana affinis, but just as good is Nicotiana sylvestris, which has whorls of white flowers. Avoid the dwarfed hybrids like Domino…no bottle.

* Then more tall and filling…and always I reach for Cosmos Sensation. Feathery foliage and substantial pink and purple flowers.  It also shoots away fast, I only like to weed that corner once before the foliage grows over.
* Then the middle height. To contrast and compliment the Dahlias, Rudbeckia bulks up and gives an excellent late show.
* Then at a lower height about 25cm, my favourite is annual barley grass Hordeum jubatum and Opium poppies,  imagine them dancing in the breeze.

* Calendula, ordinary Pot Marigold Orange King is excellent and weather proof. If it looks like yet another cool wet summer, I can guarantee a show with these.
* Covering the edges; White Bacopa , Bidens or Sanvitalia are excellent and I have used trailing Lobelia Sapphire. All good and pretty edge frills .
* Filling spaces …..And there always seems to be a few, Tagetes, Cornflower, Night scented stock. Lovely
I hope everyone walking up from the road will stop and stare, and enjoy that corner as much as I do.

To end, here are my best annuals to plant this summer of uncertain weather. …still time.
Sow in June plant out in July enjoy from late August to November and even Christmas.
1. Tagetes… long season and utterly reliable.
2. Cosmos Sensation…the others don’t cut the mustard
3. Rudbeckia.... I like the tall ones, give a long late seaso, try to find Irish Eyes
4. Pot Marigold... well fed this gives a great show.
5. Parsley…..yes curly leaf parsley, strictly a biennial, but it is the most vivid green you can get and a wonderful contrast to marigold orange.
MD Abriachan June 2012
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Following my nose

July 6, 2012, 3:05 am
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Rain again…in fact a ferocious storm, with sheet lightening.
Further south from here the storms were terrible and many people were flooded. Here it was short and very sharp.  
Afterwards it was warm. The air was clear and is almost fizzing, washed clean.
What did people say - you could smell the ozone? 

That combination of warmth and rain liberated some of the earth smells and the newly mounded earth on the potatoes, felt warm and smelt spicy and earthy.
Walking on up the steps I can smell apples, it is the green sharp apple smell of Rosa rubiginosa, Sweet Briar or Elgantine. This rose has single pink flowers in June/July…and is pretty enough, but you should grow it for the wonderful scent of apples that follows a summer shower.

Close by is Madame Isaac Pereire, a full blown dark, dusky pink rose with the perfect old rose scent; and she is so generous with that scent that she perfumes the air around the blooms; intoxicating.

On through the woodland paths and the deciduous azaleas are still scenting the damp warm air, and as I go further up the steps there is that honey scented area. I have never been able to pin down exactly where that scent comes from, but it perfumes the air almost all year….maybe I'll stop looking and just accept it.
Around and on to the open hill side and the birch trees have that glorious peppery tang.
And this week I have been putting pots of night scented stock into corners near to where we will walk in the evenings. In 2 weeks I hope to smell their wonderful sweet-shop scent of the tiny stock flowers when I drive in around dark. Aahhhh.

My top five favourite garden smells: (for today)
1. Balsam poplar
2. Lily of the valley
3. Honeysuckle
4. Old roses
5. Dianthus Mrs Sinkins (And a sneeky number six -  Sweet peas - of course)
M Davidson
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Opulence

July 28, 2012, 8:29 pm
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Should I be using the word opulence, should it be abundance?
The dictionary tells me it is great wealth or luxuriousness  and I do feel this piece is about a luxuriance of flower and foliage.
 It is July and it has so far been a very wet summer, storms and grey skies.
However it has become a little warmer and plants have their heads up and are showing off their worth.
July always means roses, mock orange and campanulas but it also is my month of opulence.

We have been at Abriachan now for 29 years and each summer I am surprised that a plant that I planted; more in hope than wisdom; is suddenly a star and a major player on our summer stage.
One such, is a seedling New Zealand clematis, it now crowns a group of hazel trees for many weeks and is now substantial enough to be visible from the car park.

Rose pauls Himalayan musk, tumbling over a terrace and full of flower and fragrance. Is anything as nice as a the heady midsummer scent of roses?

 Rose Rambling Rector has grown steadily through a Alnus incana and is now a magnificent pillar of white. A truly breath-taking sight.

We also have a wonderfully vigorous Rosa Wickwar with attractive light grey-green leaves and just now crowned by a mass of single, creamy flowers with golden stamens, that are scenting the air.
Wickwar has some lovely floral trails , but to see it best you need to see it from above , as is often the case with plants such as roses and clematis that climb through trees.
Maybe we should think of a tree top walk!

But the star of this mid-summer has been native honeysuckle. I see it everywhere doing well, but we had a jaw dropping spectacle. One of our oaks had a curtain of honeysuckle, it must have been 40 ft high and it was broad and bright and truly magnificent.
Some sights you only see once in a gardeners life and this was one such.

I am currently reading about Monet’s gardening life, I believe he would have loved our curtains and pillars of midsummer opulence .
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Autumn Supplement

September 8, 2012, 5:13 pm
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It is Autumn at Abriachan and that means it is time for our Autumn Supplement crammed full of great offers.
Primula Scotica
At the end of summer we have rows and rows of plants that we have propagated over the summer. We like to offer them at a really good price before we pot on.
I also know that many of you have been waiting for some of the precious Auriculas and Primroses, as we sold out early in the spring.
So Voilà!
Auricula Grey Monarch

Alongside them are some plants that really appreciate being planted in autumn, Digitalis ( Foxgloves), Hellebores and Candelabra Primroses.

Digitalis purpurea alba

We are also selling good range of Schizostylis (Kaffir Lilies) These blooms are wonderful in the autumn garden, glowing and providing border colour to catch the eye in the late summer sunlight.
Once owned always  loved.
Schizostylus coccinea major
 We hope you find something to tempt you,

Click here to go direct to the website where you can order online,
Click here to download the autumn supplement pdf (order form included)

Don has done a wonderful job taking photographs of the auriculas this year and the website is looking a lot more colourful with all the thumbnail photos (Click on a thumbnail to see a larger photo of the plant), we hope this is a helpful aid to choosing some new plants, sometimes reading descriptive text only can be a bit dry, so we are doing our best to  gradually add photos of every plant we sell.
 
Best Wishes,
The Davidson Family
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Autumn Shrub Sale At Abriachan

September 12, 2012, 3:32 am
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SUPER SHRUB SALE - ONE WEEK ONLY
Tuesday 11th- Tuesday 18th September
£5 each or any 4 plants for £15 (Buy 3 get 1 free)
(Nursery Only Offer - No Mailorder Available For Offer)

I asked Don for a couple of shrub names to give a flavour of some of the shrubs available and got given this rather substantial list - so here we go, have a wee look, there is bound to be something to suit and plenty more at the Nursery
Viburnum bodnatense dawn
 
All good shrubs that do very well in Highland Gardens
Good autumn colour
Spirea firelight
Parotia persica

Two antipodeans
Prostrantera cuneata ... Australian hardy shrub
Pittosporum cuneata ... From New Zealand

Great variegated Hollies
Ilex Silver Queen
Ilex Northern Lights

Showy brooms
Cytisus Goldfinch
Cytisus hollandia

New Zealand hollies, great for coastal and windy gardens
Olearia macrodonta
Olearia haastii

Another two evergreens that are wonderful in windy and coastal gardens and flower all summer
Escallonia iveyi
Escallonia macrantha

And Beautiful summer flowering shrubs
Lavatera olbia rosea
Deutzia Pink Pom Pom
Weigelia Bristol Ruby
Weigelia florida variegata

And wonderful spring flowering shrubs
Ceonothus Concha …… A heavenly blue
Kolkwitzia amabilis

And a selection of Rhododendrons
Loved by butterflies
Buddleia Black Knight
Buddleia Loch Insh

Shrubs for winter flowering
Sarcocca confusa
Viburnum bodnatense dawn
Olearia macrodonta
Phew - Get in quick, the Great Shrub Sale only lasts for one week !
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