The benches and the yard
Plants and shrubs
Bedding, perennials, shrubs, fruit trees and hedging, most of it grown or hardened off here, with what it wants written on the label.
The yard is laid out the way a garden is: shade plants under the shade netting, sun lovers on the open gravel, and acid lovers together at the bottom by the peat-free ericaceous.
About half of what we sell was grown here from plugs and cuttings. The rest comes from nurseries in Wales, Herefordshire and Worcestershire, and stands outside on our hill for a few weeks before it goes on sale. That is why you might find a hebe looking a little tougher than the ones in a supermarket foyer.
Every shrub carries a label with the eventual height and spread, the aspect, the soil, and the month it does its best. If you have a heavy clay bed in Trethomas, which plenty of people do, tell us and we will take you round the plants that will put up with it.
Hardy shrubs and trees carry a one-year promise: if one dies in its first year and you still have the label, bring it back and we will replace it or give you the money, whichever you would like. We ask only that you watered it in its first summer.
What you get
- Bedding, perennials, grasses, shrubs, climbers, hedging and fruit
- Labels with height, spread, aspect, soil and month of interest
- A hand to the car, or the van for big orders
- A one-year replacement on hardy shrubs and trees with the label
What it costs
Bedding from £3.50 a tray, perennials from £5.50, shrubs from £9. Prices are on every label; the price list has the common ones, and the soil calculator works out how much to fill anything.
Questions about plants and shrubs
Can you tell me what will grow in my garden?
Yes. A photograph, the way it faces and a handful of the soil in a bag will get you a sensible answer. There is no charge and no pressure to buy on the day.
Do you sell hedging in quantity?
Beech, hawthorn and privet bare-root from November to March, from £1.60 a whip, cheaper by the hundred. We deliver it and lend you the planting spade.
Are your plants treated with neonicotinoids?
Not by us, and our suppliers are asked to confirm the same in writing each spring.
Open every day but three, on the hill above Bedwas.
Bring a photograph of the bed or a leaf in a sandwich bag. Free parking for sixty cars, soup in the lean-to and a van for anything that will not fit in yours.