Magnolia Stellata ( Star Magnolia ). This popular magnolia makes a slow growing bushy ornamental garden shrub or small tree, and blooms as a young plant, it’s grey silky buds forming into a mass of star shaped, slightly fragrant, whitish flowers in early Spring on bare branches before the leaves emerge, and cover the shrub for several weeks.

The leaves open a bronze-green colour turning to deep green during the Summer, before turning yellow and dropping during the Autumn. It also has interesting, reddish-green knobbly fruit which split open to reveal the orange seeds inside.

Magnolia Stellata’s compact size makes this an ideal shrub for smaller gardens, preferring a sheltered spot out of any strong, cold Winter winds.

The Star Magnolia was introduced from Japan to the US in 1862 by Dr George Robert Hall and later to the UK in 1877/1878, propably by Charles Maries, while he was collecting for Veitch Nurseries based at Chelsea and Exeter, Devon.

Hamamelis Diane ( Witch Hazel ) is one of the best of our flowering shrubs yet raised and has achieved the prestigious RHS Award of Garden Merit to prove its self! The beautiful deep red/orange sweetly scented flowers appear in January – February on bear branches before the emerging large bright green leaves which with the approaching Autumn begin to turn through rich shades of yellow, orange and red.

Jasminum Nudiflorum  The Winter Jasmine is one of the most tolerant and beautiful of all the Winter flowering shrubs. Bright yellow, star shaped flowers appear on the naked green branches in February. A very good shrubby climber for covering unsightly walls and banks. Another recipient of the much coveted RHS Award of Garden Merit.

Garrya Elliptica ‘James Roof’ This Silk Tassel bush is a magnificent evergreen shrub, draped, during the Winter-early Spring months with long greyish-green catkins. Dense and upright in habit, it is an ideal shrub for the Winter garden, or training against a wall. RHS Award of Garden Merit.

Mahonia Japonica The Oregon Grape is a beautiful species and deservedly one of the most popular and ornamental of all the evergreen shrubs. Magnificent deep green leaves an large racemes of fragrant lemon-yellow flowers from late Autumn to early Spring, followed by shiny dark purple berries. Its architectural foliage and form would add drama to any border. This RHS Award of Garden Merit shrub is also very good for the shady area of the garden.

Acacia Dealbata

Commonly known as Mimosa or Silver Wattle is a surprisingly hardy plant that originates from Australia. It is an evergreen shrub or small tree with finely cut green leaves and sweetly scented, ball shaped, lemon flowers which are formed in the Autumn then open during late Winter / early Spring, and which are highly attractive to butterflies, bees and other beneficial insects to be found in our gardens. Suitable also for coastal areas.

Viburnum Bodnantense Dawn

One of the very best early flowering shrubs, a recipient of the prestigious RHS Award of Garden Merit. A very hardy, medium sized, upright shrub that has densely packed clusters of sweetly scented, rose-tinted flowers on bare branches that are remarkably frost resistant, making a welcoming sight on a Winters day.The bronze tinted fresh young foliage in Spring, turning a dark green through the summer months before changing to shades of orange/yellow towards the Autumn when the blue/black berries are formed.

With Spring now just around the corner we can look forward to many of our early flowering plants. The Camellia plant is always a great favourite, having given us the benefit of its wonderfully large, dark green, glossy leaves throughout the Winter, we can now look forward to seeing it blossom. Camellia x williamsii ‘Anticipation’ is a prime example, a large upright shrub ideally suited for the rear of the border making a superb backdrop for the smaller shrubs to the front. During early Spring we see the large ruffled, double deep rose-pink flowers coming to life, sitting proudly against the shiny dark green leaves.

We begin December with thoughts of Christmas, but also there is still plenty to be seen in the garden.

Here in the Let’s Go Planting garden we see the flower buds already formed on the Sarcococca Confusa or Christmas Box as it is more commonly known. This fragrant border plant, promises a wonderful display of delicate clusters of white, highly scented flowers, to be followed by glossy black fruits; an ideal snack for the wildlife.

Winter Fragrance

Confusa, sometimes called Sweet Box is a dense rounded shrub with very small tapered, glossy dark green leaves, which can be used to form a small informal hedge. It provides an ideal splash of contrast at a time when the garden can seem to be quietening down. We recommend planting in borders or tubs perhaps by your front door to give your carol singers a waft of fragrance when they call.

Berries for the birds

As well as the glossy black berries of the Christmas Box we also have an abundance of berries on the Pyracantha or Firethorn as it is often referred to. This year we have orange, yellow and red varieties of Pyracantha creating a lovely display and the birds in particular find them attractive.

Planting Pyracantha against a wall or fence is a good idea to maintain it’s structure, although this spiny evergreen can also be planted as part of a hedge to deter unwelcome visitors. Beware when handling!

We are proud to announce our newly redesigned Letsgoplanting website and hope that you will enjoy browsing through the pages and find pleasure in finding some new plants for your garden.

We wanted a design that is more modern, and that would also make it easier for you to find the plants that you are looking for.

It is now much easier to use across desktops, tablets and mobile devices.

You can easily search stock by using the botanical name or common name.

The site is now more secure so you can rest assured that your data and personal details will be kept safe. We now hold a SSL certificate.

Letsgoplanting has gone through several months of brainstorming to find the best way to design a good, customer friendly website and believe that now we have something to build upon.

You will find a range of shrubs, conifers, grasses and bamboo, not forgetting our herbaceous perennials and ferns that we offer. We aim to substantially increase the number of varieties available over the next twelve months and we are always happy to source difficult to find plants totally free of charge…all you have to do is ask!

We hope you enjoy the look and feel of the new Letsgoplanting website, please let us know what you think by emailing us at mail@letsgoplanting.co.uk

On our nursery at West Buckland a few years ago, we noticed a yellow leaved sport on a Rubus Spectabilis Olympic Double specimen.
It looked so interesting because the leaf colour was very distinct from the parent plant and so we decided to propagate a few cuttings to see how it developed over a period of time.

We can now say that this was a terrific discovery….not only does this plant have the salmon pink/magenta double flowers of the parent but they are now appear with the soft golden-yellow backdrop of the leaves.

The shrub grows to about 1.2 metres in height with a spread of approx. 1.5 metres.

It prefers moist soil and dappled shade (not too deep)

We will be giving this plant a new name and will be running a competition for our customers in the near future with a large prize for the lucky person thinking of the best name….Watch this space!

We have included a few pictures of the plant below, so start thinking!

We all like to grow something out of the ordinary in our gardens, it gives a good talking point when chatting to friends, or sometimes it is just a case of pure brinkmanship!

Read more…