Devon Wildlife Trust - visiting If you are interested in wildlife or want to know how you can attract wildlife into your garden then come along and ask the experts. St Bridget Nurseries' Garden Centre in Old Rydon Lane, Exeter (EX2 7JY) will be welcoming The Devon Wildlife Trust on Saturday 18th September (10am-4pm) and Sunday 19th September (11am-4pm). In addition you can find out more about the Trust, the essential work they do and how you can become a member.

August Bank Holiday

With a wet ending to August, why not start thinking about autumn,

St Bridget's now have their own grown Brassica and lettuce plants in 12 packs,and pansies in individual 9cm pots and 6 packs now ready for sale fresh from our own nursery.

We also have Ornamental brassicas and Hollyhocks all ready for sale now.

Field grown Wallflowers will be available from mid Sept with trays of mixed Wallflowers in packs of 12 available now.

Sedums

Sedum give a long display of colour during late August / September and are very easy to grow.

They can be planted at any time of year, if planted in winter you will need to cut off all the previous summers growth that has died back if it has not done already.

In March it will start to shoot and will get up to 0.75m tall in good soil conditions with plenty of moisture and can become top heavy when in full flower, the best solution for this is to cut back some of the shoots in May known by some as the Chelsea chop and this will encourage the plant to produce a more compact plant and will extend the flowering season as the pruned shoots will flower slightly later.

Sedums also encourage masses of bees and butterflies into the garden.

St Bridgets grow the following varieties.

Autumn Joy AGM (Herbstfreude)
erythrostichum Frosty Morn
spectabile Brilliant AGM
telephium Matrona

Ruby Glow

AGM is a plant that has been awarded the RHS AWARD OF MERIT.

Butterflies

Most people love to see butterflies in their garden, encourage them with plants which will make them them stay for you to enjoy watching them.

A lot of butterflies like to feed on weeds as well as garden plants so maybe leave a small area to nature for them to enjoy.

Buddlejas, Sedums, Verbena Bonariensis are just a few plants that encourage butteflies later in the summer.

Plant your butterfly garden in a sunny location, but sheltered from the winds. Butterflies need the sun to warm themselves, but they won't want to feed in an area where they are constantly in the wind. It is also a good idea to place a few flat stones in your sunny location so the butterflies can take a break.

CROCOSMIA


A good plant that gives masses of flower throughout August is Crocosmia, they come in various colours of yellow, red and orange, They grow from corms and can be late coming into growth in the spring so remember them when tidying your borders in the spring.


The new varieties are not so invasive as the old orange types which people might know better by the old name Monbretia.


Within a few years of planting you should have a nice clump that will have masses of flowers over quite a long period of late summer.





St Bridget Nurseries grow the following varieties.


Crocosmia Emberglow -Red

Crocosmia George Davidson - Yellow

Crocomia Emily Mckenzie -Orange with a dark centre blotch

Late autumn is probably one of the best times of year to plant fruit trees, so August is a good month to sit in the garden thinking about which type of apple you would like to be eating straight from your garden in years to come and what space you have.

St Bridgets sell their apples on a dwarf rootstock M27 and a semi dwarfing rootstock MM106.

St Bridget Nurseries have large selection of Apple varieties growing in our fields and this year looks like it could be a good year for bumper apple crop as there seems to be a lot of apples around on the trees.

Fruit trees are normally sold in different forms starting with bush, half standard and standards there are also the trained forms- cordons, fans and espalier.

APPLE ALLINGTON PIPPIN
APPLE ASHMEAD KERNAL
APPLE BLENHIEM ORANGE
APPLE BRAMLEY ORIGINAL
APPLE BRAMLEY SEEDLING
APPLE BOUNTIFUL
APPLE CHARLES ROSS
APPLE CHIVERS DELIGHT
APPLE COX'S ORANGE PIPPIN
APPLE DISCOVERY
APPLE DUKE OF DEVONSHIRE
APPLE EGREMONT RUSSET
APPLE ELLISON'S ORANGE
APPLE EXETER CROSS
APPLE FIESTA
APPLE GALA
APPLE GOLDEN DELICIOUS
APPLE GREENSLEEVES
APPLE GRENADIER
APPLE HOWGATE WONDER
APPLE JAMES GRIEVE
APPLE JUPITER
APPLE LANES PRINCE ALBERT
APPLE LAXTONS FORTUNE
APPLE LAXTONS SUPERB
APPLE LORD LAMBOURNE
APPLE NEWTON WONDER
APPLE REV.WILKS
APPLE SPARTAN
APPLE STURMER PIPPIN
APPLE SUNSET
APPLE WINSTON
APPLE WORCESTER PEARMAIN

Picture showing St Bridget's tree propagator budding an ORNAMENTAL CHERRY TREE

Ornamental and Fruit trees.

At St Bridget Nurseries we propagate the vast majority of our trees on our nursery by budding or grafting, most of the budding is done during the summer and grafting normally during the late winter.

Budding is a method of propagation which involves putting a small bud of the variety of tree you want to propagate onto a rootstock,it is normally done with varieties of fruit trees and ornamental trees,the rootstocks are normally a common variety of the same type of tree which is a lot easier to propagate.

It will normally takes between 2-3 years to get a saleable size tree from budding and they are grown on to make half standard, standard ,cordons, fans, espalier fruit or feathered, half standard and standard Ornamental trees .

Contact St Bridget Nurseries for a copy of our price list and a full list of trees we sell or to visit the tree fields contact us to make an appontment.

Today's fact...

Plants can relieve everyday symptoms.

Plants can reduce stress levels.

So plants are vital to healthy lives.

So for first aid, try plant aid!

Make sure you have plants in the house/workplace as they are proven to aid concentration, clean the air, reduce headaches and reduce dust particles. If nothing else they look very pretty!

St Bridget Nurseries' Garden Centres have a lovely selection of indoor plants and colourful containers to brighten any indoor space.

Hydrangea's for August/ Sept

Hydrangea Paniculata Grandiflora,

Kyushu AGM,

Limelight,

Pink Diamond,

Are all varieties of Hydrangea that flower in August /early Sept they have big flowers in various shades of white/Pink colours.

To get the best flowers they have to pruned in a different way to the other Hydrangea varieties.

Prune them hard to approx 20-30cm in March just before they start to come into growth and they will produce lovely big flowers on the growth they make that same spring/summer. This will also keep them to a compact size of approx 1 metre.

St Bridget Nurseries sell the above varieties for £8.25 each

Hibiscus Red Heart

August can be a month in the garden when flowering shrubs are not so abundant, one that flowers throughout August and into September are Hibiscus.

They flower over a long period in a wide range of colours blues ,whites , pinks , reds and bicolours.

Hibiscus are deciduous so will loose their leaves in the autumn and are late coming into leaf in the spring.

St Bridget Nurseries graft their own plants in the winter and below are a list of varieties we grow.

Priced from £10.00

HIBISCUS
syriacus Ardens

Blue Bird AGM

Duc de Brabant
Elegantissimus
Hamabo AGM
Meehanii AGM
Purpureus Variegatus

Red Heart AGM
Totus Albus
Woodbridge AGM

Planting for bees...
You've probably read in the news that honey bee and bumble bee numbers are in decline. Much of this is due to new plant cultivars in gardens (more double blooms and cultivars with little or no pollen or nectar) and changes in agriculture (decline in flower rich hay meadows for example).
bees urgently need your help and considering bees help you (Einstein was reported to have said: "if something eliminated bees from our planet, mankind would perish within 4 years") then there's no excuse!
Plant early flowering plants to help the Queen Bee lay more eggs. Salix spp (Willow), Chaenomeles speciosa (quince) and Corylus (Hazels) are all good options. Then plant something for June when the colony has peak numbers, something like rosemary, Sambucus Nigra and Raspberries. Finally for Autumn when bees build up fat and protein to survive winter, try Agastache foeniculum, Lavandula Angustifolia (English lavender) and solidago (Golden Rod).
Further suitable plants can be found at St Bridget Nurseries' Garden Centres in Exeter and you can pick up a free advice leaflet.

Now's the time to prune your rambler roses, cutting out a third of flowered stems at their base.
Also prune established wisteria plants cutting new shoots back to 5 buds. Tie in where necessary.

Tomatoes continue to grow and ripen thanks to plenty of sun and strong green leaves - these convert nutrients in the soil to vital energy. To encourage the fullest flavour, feed every 10 days with Tomorite. It's full of energy, magnesium and seaweed extract to give you top quality tomatoes - that's why it's the country's No.1 best seller. Tomorite can be purchased from both St Bridget Nurseries' Garden Centres in Exeter.

HOT off the press...

This Friday buy a copy of the Sidmouth Herald and on the front page there will be a token for a free rose bush from St Bridget's! The only catch is that you have to be one of the first 85 people to claim a rose at each centre. Once the 85 have gone, they're gone!

This offer is part of the 85th anniversary celebrations at St Bridget Nurseries.