Saturday…

I’m here…well what I really mean is that I’m sitting at a place that has these views. I consider myself to be one lucky lady! This is a view of the River Teign and in the photo below, on the right hand side, you can see Bishopsteignton.(‘Bishops’ refers to the Bishop of Exeter, who held the manor in 1086. ‘Teign’ or ‘Tain’ is a Celtic word for river and ‘Ton’ is Anglo Saxon for enclosure or settlement.)

This is South Devon… showing off! And you can quite understand why way back in pre-historic times, the Iron Age people built a hillfort quite close to where I’m sitting! With fine views like this, they could soon spot if the enemy was approaching.

And so where am I? I’m at Plant World. It’s two minutes from where I live! And it’s up there with one of my very favourite nurseries! We don’t usually venture far on a bank holiday weekend but I don’t  really call this a trip out! 

I really wanted to see if I could catch someone who works at the nursery to ask their advice on these…as they grow them very successfully at this place.

And lo and behold, who should come along but the head gardener, Doug, who happily chatted to us! He also took us into the private poly tunnel to show us the progression of his Blue Poppies! It made my day as I now know a bit more about what to do. And better still, he said that if my seedlings fail when I’ve pricked them out, he will give me a couple of plants for free! How about that then?! 

Maybe, if his fail, I can offer the same! 😂🤣😂

And that’s not all! I was on the look out for another Geranium Rozanne, my favourite ever Geranium. They didn’t have any for sale but you don’t get anything unless you ask and he fetched me one from the stock that he’s ‘bringing on’! He’s a useful man to know!

Plant World is absolutely lovely. There are gorgeous banks of wild flowers mixed with garden plants, which run alongside the areas where plants are for sale.

As I walked into the polytunnel to look for their famous Nemesia, this caught my eye…

It’s a type of Coleus, called ‘ Skeletal’. Strikingly beautiful, with leaves like fish bones, I believe that it’s quite a tender plant, which is fine to grow as an outside plant in the summer but it needs to be brought inside when the weather turns colder. I didn’t buy one but have ‘earmarked’ this…! 😁

I didn’t come home empty handed! It would’ve been rude to do that considering that I was given some good advice from someone who was as enthusiastic as I am about gardening. At this time of year, Plant World always have really lovely Nemesia ‘Trio Mio’ which last for ages! And I have the ideal planter for them. I also found two Salvia that I’ve been looking for…for the bees!

So it’s a morning of gardening for me and then a certain someone has a birthday gathering this afternoon…and so we are off to celebrate…oh to be four years old again!