The award-winning manager of a leading Shropshire garden centre is advising gardeners to plant trees and shrubs this autumn rather than wait until the spring.
Tom Pountney, who manages Love Plants at Salop Leisure’s headquarters at Emstrey, Shrewsbury, says November is the perfect time to plant trees, shrubs and bare root hedging.
With many gardens losing trees and shrubs to this summer’s drought, he is advising gardeners to plant now, so that the new additions have time to bed in for the next growing season.
“A lot of gardeners tend to wait until the spring to assess what they have lost from the previous year, but now is the right time to plant,” said Tom, who won the award for the best show garden at Shrewsbury Flower Show last year.
He reported that sales of herbaceous plants at Love Plants had increased by 20% this year, boosted by the lovely spring weather.
Gardeners who lost summer bedding plants in the July drought are now investing in the company’s winter bedding and spring bulbs to add colour to their gardeners, he revealed.
Bulb sales are double the same time last year and hellebores, cyclamens, primroses, polyanthus and camelias are also selling well.
A new section at Love Plants that has attracted keen interest is sundials and birdbaths which, he says, make great Christmas gifts. “They are decorative for the garden, solid, hard-wearing and are proving very popular with our customers,” added Tom.
“With Christmas approaching, it’s well worth a visit to Love Plants to see all the trees, shrubs, plants and decorative garden items that we now have in stock.”
