Wild about your garden - Week 2

Featured plants - Week 2 Wednesday 26th November



Anemone Honorine Jobert

Single pure white flowers with a golden centre.

More on the Anemone Hon Jobert




Aster x frikartii Monch `Michaelmas Daisy`

Yellow centered, clear lavender blue flowers - With an elegantly branching habit

More on the Aster x frikartii Monch `Michaelmas Daisy`

BBC's Wild About Your Garden

Wild About Your Garden is using Plants supplied by Coblands Best4plants.co.uk for it's ground breaking new series.

Each week we will be keeping you updated with the plants used in each of the featured gardens.

Week 1 - Wednesday 19th November


Helleborus orientalis

Large saucer shaped flowers varying in colour from blush-white to plum-purple.

More on the Helleborus orientalis



Salvia x Sylvestris (Mainacht) `May Night`

Rich spikes of deep violet, near black flowers. Selected Perennial Plant of the year in 1997, it makes an attractive accent all summer long.


More on the Salvia x Sylvestris Mainacht `May Night'





For more detailed information please email info@best4plants.co.uk

Top 4 Winter garden Plants

Five of the best garden plants for instant impact in a dull winters garden.

Skimmia x confusa Kew Green


Shiny green leaves with fragrant greenish-yellow flowers. Great for under trees in partial shade, drought tolerant.








Skimmia japonica Rubella


Floppy dark green leaves. Flower heads red in bud opening to white petals and red stalks, a free flowering male form sweetly scented.






Mahonia x Media Charity

Long spiny pinnate leaves with long racemes of bright yellow fragrant flowers.







Choisya ternata Sundance


A rounded dense shrub, evergreen with bright yellow-green glossy leaves. Scented white star shaped flowers in clusters in late spring.

Best4plants Website gets great review at Webuser.co.uk

The best4plants website has received a great review at the much respected Webuser.co.uk.

"The team has put as much attention to detail into its website as you would expect from a prize-winning garden. Navigation is pleasantly straightforward and there are top quality photos of all the different perennials, shrubs and other foliage."

To read the full review please visit the Webuser website.

Free Directory of Plants - Best4plants Catalogue

This fantastic directory of plants is now available to download totally free of charge! With detailed information on thousands of different plant varieties, this invaluable plant directory can help you select just the right plant for the right place!



With information on shrubs, herbaceous perennials, grasses, bamboo, ferns, climbers, roses, azaleas, rhododendrons, conifers, hedging and even trees, the Coblands plant directory is your one stop shop for all your gardening needs.

Click here to Download your copy today!

Planting Advice Step-by-step

Soil Conditions for Planting

At the time of planting the soil should be moist and friable and not frozen, excessively dry, or water-logged.



Planting Requirements

The excavated hole should be of sufficient size to accommodate the spread of roots and the stock should be planted so that after any settlement it is at the same depth as it was grown on the nursery. If the sides of the planting hole become smeared during digging, particularly on heavy clay soils, the smearing should be broken up before planting.


Stabilising Support and Protection

Most plants above 1m high will need a support to hold them secure at ground level either by stakes or by cables for very large stock. Stakes or stout canes should be inserted before planting.

Plants should be held secure against the stake by the use of a proprietary tie, or similar method, ensuring that the stem does not chafe against the stake and there is space for stem expansion.

Short stakes to hold the base of the stem are preferable but individual guards or shelters may be needed to protect against physical damage by vandals, cattle or rabbits, mowers or strimmers.


Treatment of Plants immediately Prior to Planting

Bare Root Plants should be kept in polythene bags until immediately before planting. They should be kept out of direct sunlight. Similarly all containers and wrapping, unless fully bio-degradable, should be removed at the latest point before planting.


Back-filling

The backfill (excavated soil, fertilizer and organic compost mix) should then be returned to the hole and gently firmed around the root system. Gentle but firm pressure can be applied to the backfill material around the plant by boot heals or by treading, but the soil must not be compacted.

Each plant must then be well watered at least one watering can of water per plant, apply slowly to allow the water to soak in and not just run off.

We recommend that all plants are then mulched with either bark mulch or another organic material. Remember to check the plant regularly and water as required, especially in the summer months.

View How to plant garden plants online

Toby Buckland - To Host Gardeners` World

Toby Buckland is set to take over from Monty Don as the main host of the BBC's Gardeners' World.

Best4plants would like to congratulate Toby on his appointment as lead presenter of Gardeners' World. Working with Toby at Gardeners World Live 2008 was a real Joy and we wish him every luck in the future.

More information about Toby Buckland can be found here: www.best4plants.co.uk/tobybuckland

Toby will join the Gardeners' World regulars Carol Klein and Joe Swift on September 12 when the main series returns to our screens.

Best4plants @ RHS Tatton Park Flower Show

Gold and 'Best in Show' @ RHS Tatton Park

BBC TV Presenter and Award Winning Garden Designer Chris Beardshaw has won Gold and 'Best in Show' with his garden at this years RHS Tatton Park Flower Show.

Using plants supplied by best4plants.co.uk, Chris and Frances had this to say about the quality of our plants, "Thanks again for your help with the plants - for us it is the most crucial element!".

To celebrate the success at Tatton Park a number of the plants used in Chris's award winning garden are available to buy online with massive savings!

Chris Beardshaw's Plant list
More information about the garden Can be found here

Best4plants @ Gardeners World Live 2008

Gold and 'Best in Show' @ Gardeners World Live 2008

Toby Buckland’s Ethical Garden supported by www.best4plants.co.uk & www.EcoSci.co.uk has won an RHS Gold Medal and the coveted ‘Best in Show’ award at BBC Gardeners World Live 2008.

Now in its 16th year, BBC Gardeners’ World Live 2008 promises to be bigger and better than ever, with a tantalising mix of show gardens, floral displays, practical demonstrations, entertainment and shopping opportunities in spades.

Toby has presented and guest-presented for many garden series like Real Wrecks for BBC1, BBC Gardener's World Live and Home Front In The Garden for BBC for BBC2 and RHS Garden Challenge and Weed It & Reap for UKTV Style.

Click here for pictures of Toby Bucklands Ethical Garden

About the garden:

Everything in the ethical garden has a former life. The walling stone is from a Devon recycle centre, salvaged from a demolished building and wall. Originally the limestone was a byproduct of the local China clay quarries, where it lies in a seam over the mined clay.

At the heart of the garden is a hand-crafted greenhouse made from reclaimed Douglas fir and pitch pine, along with window-frames from salvage. Sunk into the slope, it's intended as a generator of year-round produce with internal raised beds that are designed to trap heat in winter and retain moisture in summer while providing protection in our increasing unpredictable climate.

Coblands new website goes Live! www.best4plants.co.uk

On 01 June 2008, Coblands nurseries – who there highly commended at the 2008 Grower of the Year Awards, revealed their striking new website, www.best4plants.co.uk.

The aim of the new look website is to launch Coblands directly into the online retail market. The recent press release by the centre of Economics and Business predicted that by 2020, 40% of all shopping would be done via the Internet.

Best4Plants offers a wide range of nursery quality shrubs, herbaceous, grasses and ferns, the majority of which have been grown and nurtured on-site by their expert staff.

Best4Plants offers the customer a whole host of exciting features, such as the mystery plant finder; this enables customers to upload a picture or description of a desired plant. Best4Plants will then endeavor to identify, source and deliver the plant direct to the customer’s door.

www.best4plants.co.uk allows the customer to sign up to an email newsletter, which is bursting full of great tips, hits and bargains.

From the amateur gardener to the professional, Best4Plants offers the latest fashions from the most sought after garden designers.

It doesn’t stop there; with a focus on after-care the customer can be confident that www.best4plants.co.uk will be on hand throughout their horticultural journey.

This website along with their retail garden centre at Reading, now brings this wealth of knowledge and expertise to the amateur gardener.