Watling Street, Towcester, Northants, NN12 6GX
  • was successfully added to your basket.

Mon-Sat: 9am-5:30pmCafe: 9am-5pm

Sunday: 10:30am-4:30pmCafe: 10:00am-4pm

I had the pleasure of attending the National Plant show at Stoneleigh yesterday. Just a quick visit to meet one or two new English suppliers. David Austin roses had an amazing stand there with an array of beautiful scented flowering roses. A rose called Boscobel featured very heavily. I planted 3 in my garden 4 years ago and they are an absolutely fantastic rose to enjoy (a picture of one of mine attached), they are heavily scented disease free, grow easily, flower for a long period through the season and you may get a second flush of flowers. Highly recommended.

I am afraid we didn’t manage last week to take the honey from our hive. As it was so hot most of the bees spent most of the week outside the hive trying to shield it from the sun, they were also a little angry due to the heat so we thought we had better not disturb them. Also John got stung by a couple of them and had an allergic reaction to the sting, a quick visit to our amazing A & E for a couple of anti histamine jabs.

We have been watering our plants by hand twice a day here at the Garden Centre due to the intense heat. They really have struggled and some are showing signs of stress. Make sure plants are well fed and watered. My melons at home have grown so quickly in this heat they are going a little yellow, I have obviously not given them enough feed. As a result of this I am struggling to get any fruit to set on the plant. When plants are growing fast they need plenty of nitrogen, phosphates and potash. Soluble feed in the water gets to the roots quicker.

Enjoy your garden, hope to see you soon.

Ashley Warren

Ashley Warren has lived and loved horticulture and agriculture all his life; he had his first greenhouse at the age of 10 and his first cow when he was 16. He started landscaping in 1984 mainly in Milton Keynes and then all over the country. He moved to Daventry Road Farmhouse in 1987 and has developed Bell Plantation Garden Centre in Towcester, Northants over the last 30 years.

preloader