One of the reasons I love Spring is the flowers, and I usually go out around now and buy a selection of pot plants to add to those already on the balcony. Except that over the last year or two I've noticed that many stores have stopped bothering to look after the plants they sell. Here's a random selection that have been offered at full price in our local Homebase and Waitrose.... aargh!!!!
Perhaps the staff haven't been told that certain fresh produce needs to be cared for... but I need hardly tell you that I haven't bought anything here. Since they're the only local places selling pot plants, I was wondering what to do but then, cycling through Little Venice, where the Regents' Canal runs through big, tall, grand houses, I spotted this....
Inspiring gardeners since 1851! Surely there would be something here for me?
I daresay that the market garden shown on the site of Clifton Nurseries in early Victorian development plans supplied fruit and veg to the cooks of surrounding homes. But as supermarkets came along, Clifton Nurseries obviously moved with the times. I was delighted when I went down the passageway into the garden and saw lots of beautifully kept plants....
The nursery now serves high end landscape gardeners, wedding organisers and hotels. Until recently owned by the Rothschilds it's just been bought by super-garden specialists Gavin Jones who do stately homes and public parks... BUT!!!!!! despite these grand credentials it also seems to welcome locals with balconies. To my delight I found that their humbler plants cost the same - or less than - the sorry specimens at Homebase or Waitrose.
And the surroundings are certainly more interesting than racks of plumbing equipment or freezers full of sausages. Do you notice that the lad is watering around the base of a Roman column?
And the surroundings are certainly more interesting than racks of plumbing equipment or freezers full of sausages. Do you notice that the lad is watering around the base of a Roman column?
The column's on the right in this picture below, a splendid ornament for the garden, though perhaps a little over the top for a balcony. I also admired the stone sphinxes and urns beyond, completely overgrown with creeper.
I was a bit tempted by the enormous canna lilies too...
But I saw sense and these are the plants I ended up with, which fitted into my bike panniers just fine
And they are now quite happy on the balcony.
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