Up until the last two days if you’d dropped by at the nursery you would have found me either planting or digging up plants or cutting back the dead stems of ornamental grasses and asters or maybe even just standing and looking and thinking. Sometimes it takes a while for me to decide that actually a certain clump of plants is really not worth keeping. It may be that they are rather weak and weedy in appearance or that they have sprawled too far but whatever it is this winter has been a time for removing any second rate specimens. This has given me an oppportunity to add in many new plants.

I’ve always quite liked Aster divaricatus and had three decent sized clumps growing in one of the rose beds. Its also usually for sale in the nursery. But no-one else seems to notice it let alone buy it, the clumps were getting rather weed infested so they’ve gone, the ground dug over, compost added and new plants planted. These include Aruncus kneiffii, Salvia (I forget which one) and Kniphofia ‘Percy’s Pride’.

There is a small border just by the entrance to the nursery which was very neglected and somehow lacking anything noteworthy. The other day I removed the sickly buddleia, the mildew-prone aster and the self seeded aquilegias. Among the new plants are a twisted willow, Physocarpus ‘Dart’s Gold’, Carex elata ‘Aurea’, Lysimachia ephemerum and some dwarf daffs. I’m hoping it will look considerably more interesting than before.