Apple Festival - Thursday 27th October at St Bridget Nurseries' Old Rydon Lane Garden Centre

Free Family Fun Activities at scheduled times from 10.30 to 4.30 including
Apple Throwing —see how many apples you can throw in a basket in one minute
Apple & spoon race—who can complete our course in the fastest time?
Apple Eating—see how much apple you can eat in a minute—the catch...the apple will be dangling from a line above you and you can’t touch it with your hands!
Treasure Trail—birds love apple trees and to celebrate the RSPB'S 'Feed the Bird Day' we're hiding pictures of garden birds around our garden centre. Find all the pictures to enter our treasure trail prize draw.

There will be prizes for children on all the above activities and no charge to enter. Adults can take part but just for fun!

Other activities and special offers

Our nursery manager, will be offering tours of our tree field at 11am and 3pm. If you missed our tree event last month then this is the perfect chance to learn how we produce apple (and other fruit) trees, find out about apple and other fruit pollination as well as learning the difference between a cordon and espalier! Plus you will be wander the entire tree field giving you maximum choice of tree sizes, shapes and varieties.

Buy/order any apple tree on the day and we will give you a free apple recipe book.

Fill a bag of apples. We've picked all the apples from our trees and certain varieties will be available to buy - simply fill a bag - they're far tastier than supermarket varieties.

and if that wasn't enough we will also have special offers on other apple related products, they're cooking up some delicious apple goodies in The Plantsmans' Cafe (including toffee apples) AND there will be colouring sheets and activity sheets to amuse you while you have a drink.

We will be open from 9am to 5pm as normal on the Thursday, children's activities will be between 10.30am and 4.30pm.
We hope you will be able to join us at St Bridget Nurseries, Old Rydon Lane (access off A379 Rydon Lane), Exeter, Devon, EX2 7JY.

PLANT COMMON NAMES

(Malus commonly known as Crab Apple)

Common plant names and Latin plant names can for some people cause great confusion,
St Bridget’s will over the next few weeks be putting the names of some of the most common plants and giving the Latin names too.
We will start alphabetically

Latin name / Common name
ACER / MAPLE

BIRCH / BETULA

BROOM / CYTISUS

BUDDLEJA / BUTTERFLY BUSH

CALLLISTEMON / BOTTLE BRUSH PLANT

CEANOTHUS /CALIFORNIA LILAC

CERCIS / JUDAS TREE

COTINUS / SMOKE BUSH

FATSIA /FALSE CASTOR OIL PLANT

HAMAMELIS /WITCH HAZEL

FAGUS / BEECH

Tree Field Tours

A big thank you to the many people who have attended our tree field tours over the last couple of days. Your enthusiasm and comments were brilliant.
We had a wonderful time showing everyone around the fields. Visitors saw everything from a recently budded rootstock to maiden trees and then trained 3-4 yr old trees. Many took advantage of our great 'in-field' savings and ordered their trees for the autumn. If you missed out on the event but are looking to buy trees then please call the office on 01392 873672 or e-mail sales@stbridgetnurseries.co.uk to arrange a private tour and information to help you select the best trees for your garden.

Trees


If you have that special place in your garden for a tree, St Bridget’s have something for every position, whether it’s a centre of a lawn, back of a border or a screen there is a tree that can give you colour in the spring with flowers, autumn colour and some trees will give berries and fruit too.

Birch have smaller leaves so do not give to much shade and you get the various coloured barks.
Prunus (Flowering Cherries) give a lovely display of flowers in spring from white through pink to nearly red.

Two more lovely trees are Acers Drummondii and Crimson King they have lovely foliage for most of the spring and summer, Drummondii has big cream and green variegated leaves and Crimson King deep purple.
If you want to plant, a tree this autumn / winter why not come and pick the one you want, from St Bridget’s tree field.
Ring to make an appointment or for a full list of trees contact us for our price list, and plant something in your garden this year that will give pleasure for years to come.

Devon Grown roses.

St Bridget Nurseries Ltd grow all their own roses here in Exeter.

Order your Bare root roses now for delivery / collection From early mid November.

For a full list either call in to one of our 2 garden centres , email sales@stbridgetnurseries.co.uk or call 01392873672.

Shady garden

If you have part of your garden that doesn't get any sun and is in shade for much of the day it can look very dull and uninspiring.

Brighten it up using some foliage plants and there are flowering plants as well that will give that dull corner some life.

Aucuba varieties come in various variegated forms, Fatsia will give some structure and shape.

Viburnham Davidii and Skimmia will give you both flowers and berries.

A few perennials that like shade are Acanthus and Bergenia both with totally different types of flowers, Acanthus being upright and tall with large lobed shaped leaves in summer and Bergenia growing quite low with pink, or white flowers in spring.

HOORAY - The Road is finally open!

Regular visitors to our Old Rydon Lane Garden Centre will know that we've been plagued with a road closure for months and months. The good news is, the road is now open the bad news is access to St Bridget Nurseries will remain from the A379 end of Old Rydon Lane (in other words you can get onto the new road when leaving us but you can't get off the new road to get to us)!

If you are local and want to know how to get to St Bridget Nurseries from the Blue Ball / Clyst Road end of Old Rydon Lane please follow these instructions:

Follow Old Rydon Lane until you come to the new road. Turn right. Follow the new road straight ahead until you come to a junction with traffic lights. At this junction get in the left lane (A379).

Stay in the left hand lane as you join the A379 and go around a left bend which merges with Rydon Lane now heading towards Countess Wear roundabout. Start indicating left because as soon as you have merged you will be taking the first left - this is Old Rydon Lane. We do have brown tourist signs up but they are a bit hard to see amongst the many other red road signs. If you get to Countess Wear roundabout you've gone too far. Go around the roundabout and back up Rydon Lane. There is a central reservation area for you to turn right into Old Rydon Lane safely, near the brow of the hill.

HERBACEOUS BORDERS

Turn your borders in to a mass of colour by planting an herbaceous border.

There is something to fill virtually every season and a the full range of colours.

Plan the border before planting to get the height range with the taller growing plants at the back and short varieites in the front.

You can also inter plant your shrub borders with perennials to give interest in the winter when perennials have finished flowering.

St Bridgets grow a large range of perennials from Acanthus - Verbena.



There are varieties which are moisture loving some that like sunnny and dry conditions, Sedums encourage bees and butterflies, so there is something for everyone.

See our website for the full plant list.

http://www.stbridgetnurseries.co.uk/index.cfm/plants

Ladysmith Junior School in Exeter has won first prize in The Salvage Garden’ competition. Organised by Devon Wildlife Trust and sponsored by St. Bridget Nurseries, the competition was open to all schools in Exeter as part of the Exeter Wild City project. The aim was to design and construct a small garden using items the school children had ‘salvaged’ and then create habitats using a variety of plants that would encourage wildlife into the garden.

Katie Richardson, Olivia Didon and Euan Gethin, all aged 10, scoured the school for things that were old, broken or no longer used. These included a teacher’s desk, chair, toilet, broken sports equipment and ancient items found gathering dust at the back of the science cupboard. The children used them to make a water feature, a mouse house, bird feeders and many different kinds of planters that were then filled with nectar-rich flowers and other plants that would attract a variety of wildlife.

Mrs Lynda Ewin, teaching assistant who supervised the project said: ‘The children had great fun sourcing all the items to form the basis of the garden. They were so enthusiastic and creative and the garden has generated so much interest from pupils, staff and parents who have watched a pile of junk being transformed into a vibrant, living structure.’

The school has won a behind-the-scenes tour of St. Bridget Nurseries for one class and each child will bring back a plant to further enhance the school grounds.
Paul Martin, DWT's Education Officer said: 'The imagination and creativity shown by all the children involved in the competition was fantastic. The winners displayed that extra spark and really made great use out of what they had to hand. This mix of recycling and wildlife gardening has clearly inspired the children to think about new ways of creating innovative spaces in their school grounds.'

Rose Tour Rose of the Year

We asked everyone who attended our rose tours last Friday and Saturday to vote for their favourite rose. Nearly everyone said 'It's so hard to choose'. Indeed it was a hard task to pick just one rose from our flourishing field of over a hundred varieties but there was a winner - the HT rose Lovely Lady (as pictured).

In close second place were Ballerina, Lilli Marlene and Eglantyne. There was a further 20 roses that also received votes!

Congratulations to R. Kelland who won the prize draw and their favourite rose Whisky Mac.

Bring bees and butterflies to your garden by planting some Buddleja's in your garden.

They come in a variety of colours pinks, purples blues and whites.

They are easy to grow and will thrive in poor soil so they will grow in virtually any garden soil.

Just prune back hard in early spring and you will get masses of flowers in July/ August.

Bees and butterflies love them so come along to one of St Bridget Nurseries garden centres and pick from the large range of varieties on sale priced at £7.15 each.

Judging is now complete...

I've just got back to the office from a morning visiting all the four finalists of this year's Salvage Garden Competition.

The brainchild of Paul Martin from Devon's Wildlife Trust, the project invited local schools to design and create a wildlife friendly garden using salvaged materials.

The children have been so creative and the ones we spoke to today were delightfully passionate and have clearly learnt an incredible amount from the work they have done.

For me the winner took the challenge to a whole new level but every finalist had something unique and exciting to offer.

I can't say who the finalists were or the winner until the official press release but I can say that I'm very excited to meet the winners again when they come to visit the nursery as their prize.

Further information on the project can be found here

Roses

June and July roses are generally looking at their best, St Bridget Nurseries grow a large selection including Floribunda's, HT's, Climbers, and Shrub roses .

On July 15th and 16th the rose fields will be open so customers will be able to view the roses in the field and pick the roses they would like when we start lifting from the field in November.

The roses are at our nursery at our Old Rydon Lane garden centre and the tours will be at 10.30am, 1.30pm and 3.00pm on both days.

Come and have a look Roses grown in Exeter.

For more details call 01392 873672.

Lavenders,

Bring some bees, scent and colour to your garden this June, Lavenders make ideal plants for front of borders or as edging for paths etc.

They attract bees to the garden and can be cut and dried for uses in the house.

They are easy to look after and only care they really need is pruning after they have finished flowering to prevent them getting old and woody at the base.

St bridget's grow a good selection of varieties including Hidcote,Grappenhall,Munstead and Stoechas to name a few.

ROSES

St Bridget's containerised roses are now beginning to look their best with a good selection in bud and flower, there is something to suit every ones taste, pastel shades , vivid colours scented English roses and climbers and ramblers.



Come along and pick one of Britain's favourite flowers, there is varieties that are suitable for all sizes of garden from patio roses for pots and small areas up to climbers etc for that bare wall or fence.

If you weren't able to see St Bridget's award winning display in the Garden & Flower Show at this year's Devon County Show then take a look at it featuring on ITV Westcountry's evening news and weather. This interview shows St Bridget's marketing manager, Tammy Falloon, whose great grandparents founded the company back in 1925. Click here to watch

Congratulations to St Bridget's Philip Smith on receiving his Long Service Award from the Devon County Agricultural Association. Phil, seen left holding the framed certificate, has worked at St. Bridget's since 1980 and is now the Nursery Manager. He has been masterminding the company's show exhibits for the last twenty years and congratulations also go to him and Robert Sutton for the lovely display they staged at the Devon County Show this year. They are pictured on the display stand holding the “Mildmay-White” Perpetual Challenge Trophy awarded for the best exhibit overall in the Flower and Garden Show Trade Section. Another St Bridget success!

St Bridget Nurseries at the Devon County Show 2011

Something for everyone.

Azaleas, Rhododendrons, Shrubs, Perennials Trees and Roses,

St Bridgets are exhibiting at the 2011 Devon County Show,come and visit us in the Flower and garden Marquee.


We have won a Large Gold Medal and Platinum medal for the stand which includes Rhododendrons, Azaleas and a range of other trees, shrubs, perennials and roses.




The exhibit includes a small waterfall and stream and this year again has been made accessible to the public with a walk through path, so the public can view from all angles.

Grow Your Own iPhone app

If you have an iPhone you may want to check out this free RHS Grow Your Own app! Designed to help you choose and grow fruit & vegetable plants however much space or time you have. The app includes calendar, frost warnings, watering reminders plus other functions. The standard application is free and covers 20 popular varieties. For more information click here

Rosa Banksiae Lutea

If you have a large south/west facing wall or fence or an old tree in your garden , one of the best early flowering roses to grow is Rosa Banksiae Lutea.

It give masses of small canary yellow flowers from mid April through to mid/late May and gives a spectacular show before any other roses come into flower.

It also has the added bonus that it thornless so no worries about children scratching themselves if grown on a wall near the house.