Well, it has finally happened; winter has started in earnest!  This morning's frosty start came as a surprise to us, with car windscreen scraping the first order of the day.  Where last week, many of us on the nursery were in shirtsleeves, today jumpers and jackets have been donned as the cold weather has started. 

Traditional November weather this year has largely been replaced, by mild and sunny days and while this is smashing for gardeners, it hasn't been great for the lifting of Bare Rooted plants in our nursery.  Now that the temperature has dropped and we've had a bit of rain, the lifting of field grown hedging, trees and fruit trees has begun.

Over the past few days we have been stocking our plant centres and sending out hundreds of orders of mixed native hedging to customers around the country. 

While hedging and deciduous trees are forming a substantial part of our orders at the moment, the real stars of the show are the heavily budded winter shrubs like Camellia, Skimmia, Daphne and Corylopsis as well as a great selection of grasses and herbaceous perennials showing off their winter seed heads on our nursery beds.  The drying flowers of the fifteen or so varieties of Miscanthus that we grow are adding subtle colour and fluffy texture to our planted displays and our nursery stock beds.  Spent flowers on Achillea and Rudbeckia remind us of how colourful they were a month ago, while injecting the very in vogue prairie feel to planting schemes.  Finally, one of my personal favourites at the moment, Deschampsia cespitosa ‘Goldtau’ (pictured), a very light and airy flower atop a bushy mound of evergreen foliage.  Looking great with carpeting plants like Ajuga and a perfect partner for Allium and Gladioli bulbs.

Apologies that it has been a while since we last posted a blog, but we have had a very busy year with substantial developments to our nursery facilities, lots of show exhibiting and terrific sales.

I say ‘we’, but can’t take much of the credit, as I only joined the company in September as the new Retail Sales Manager and have been thrown deep into work developing our new website. 

My name is Lewis Normand and I join Coblands having taught Garden Design and Horticulture at Hadlow College for the last 10 years, as well as designing gardens in the UK, Europe and in the Middle East.  My background in design stems from a real passion for plants and I have worked in various nurseries and garden centres in my native Scotland and now in the South East for over 15 years building plant knowledge and feeding my plant addiction.

My new job here sees me in charge of all retail sales through the website and as the principle port of call for all queries and the occasional problem that customers have. 

I am currently working with our growing team to bring lots of new plants to the website over the coming months, the first of which, Acanthus mollis ‘Tasmanian Angel’ is now available.  As well as an increase in plants, a broadened range of garden tools, garden leisure and gifts will soon be available.

Don’t do all your Christmas shopping too early, as I’m sure we’ll have some offers to whet your appetite over the next month.