The Ashridge Nurseries Blog

Everyone is familiar with tulips in pots but a prevailing wind will swiftly flatten any top heavy parrot tulips, even with support, while low growing flowers will be lost to view in a pot at the end of a walkway. Dwarf tulips like Little Red Riding Hood work well in...

Different types of tulips flower at different times; the really tough tulips like the dwarf Kaufmanniana and Greigii, see pink Heart's Delight and red and white striped Pinocchio, will break through the frosts of March to reveal charming open flowers. Most of the standard Dutch style tulips bloom in April...

The warmth of September has kept the soil temperatures at a perfect pitch for planting potted perennials and shrubs. Autumn is quite the time to settle in fickle plants that like to bed their roots in before they have to do anything exceptional or enervating like flowering. However there is...

Rosa rugosa makes a truly decorative hedge on its own or mixed with other hedge plants, especially if the plants are in the sun so that they flower well. Choose vibrant pink or purest white flowers for your summer interest and then enjoy the enormous orange gobstoppers of hips that...

More and more frequently communities are gated, electric gates installed, and iron railings sharpened. All no doubt sensible security measures but how about considering a much cheaper alternative to all of this hardware? We suggest a thorny hedge, alive with prickles and scratchy bits so that no self-respecting intruder (unless...

It took a trip to an Italian supermarket to fully appreciate the merit of greengages. To wit, a house full of sixteen hungry (and often hungover) souls presented with an array of nectarines, white peaches and  melons first thing in the morning and guess which fruit disappeared fastest? Yes...

Bee Blog July 2016 The swarming season is all but over here in the south, but as the season is still running quite late, I wouldn’t be surprised if there are still bees thinking of setting up a new home, in the north. I’ve heard of some good swarms this...

Bee Blog  May 2016 The BC weather site is already issuing pollen warnings along with their forecasts and all those who suffer from hay fever will be diving for the nasal spray and various others of the manifold reliefs for the menace of pollen. It’s called hay fever because the...

How much do you love the native woodlands of Britain? Nurseries like ours sell more native trees than anything else, so you'd probably think that I'd be one of their biggest fans. And I am. For now. We get asked about native plants for woodland & gardens a lot. I'm...

This is a reasonably long list of the trees that like growing on heavy clay soil. We don't grow all of them, this is intended to be a reference for garden projects big & small - don't say we never treat you! But id any are of interest, please do look...