🌿 Green leaves, blossom and the return of the swallows 🌿

April News from Border Alpines

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April showers? Not yet at least...

We seem to be into Spring at last here in North Devon. Plants are shooting up everywhere and birds are building their nests ready for their first clutch. This week I saw the swallows return.

The 1st of the month found me at an Alpine Garden Society Show at RHS Rosemoor. It was lovely meeting new customers, as well as a few regular ones, and the AGS members and RHS staff at the garden made us all feel very welcome. I took along a very small variety of plants including Erythronium, Epimedium, Bellevalia, Eomecon, Muscari, Anemone nemorosa and Primula to name just a few. One of the most popular proved to be Freesia lactea which is just coming into flower and the stalwart Anemone blanda 'White Splendour', which does such a good job of carpeting the undergrowth at this time of year.

Back on the nursery we have been busy with orders, so thank you to everyone for your continued custom. We try to dispatch orders on the day we receive them (if placed before 11am) or the following day and you should take delivery the day after they leave the nursery. Occasionally we encounter a little hiccup with deliveries via UPS but this is very rare. We welcome your feedback so please let us know how we're doing by emailing or calling us on 01409 253654.

The woodland anemones (above) are looking at their best at the moment with Anemone nemorosa, A. nemorosa 'Alenii' and A. lipsiensis 'Pallida' stealing the limelight. Another marginal woodland plant, Anemonella thalictrioides (below) continues to astound me; it's a wonder that such a delicate looking plant can give such a wonderful show of flowers. And not forgetting Uvularia grandiflora and Uvularia grandiflora 'Pallida' (below) which are also show-stoppers at this time of year. We grow them in part shade, full sun, in the ground and in containers and it is one plant I would not be without - easy and rewarding in equal measure.

One of my favourite plants is looking its best right now: Bellevalia paradoxa has indigo coloured blooms with lime green on the inside of each individual flower. Muscari 'Peppermint' provides a super contrast to the Bellevalia. I like to grow them both together with Bellevalia 'Green Pearl' - so much more exotic-looking than the common muscari.

A spring must-have that has followed us for the past 35 years is Primula marginata 'Kesselring's Variety'. All our plants come from the original stock we purchased all those years ago. It never fails to put on a show and must be one of the hardiest of the marginata primulas, always popular at the Malvern Spring Festival.

We are busy now selecting plants for Malvern and I think we will have more varieties than ever before for our customers to choose from this year; probably over 350. We have changed the style of our display and hope to show visitors the many different ways to grow our plants. We're looking forward to meeting customers old and new so if you are attending the show please come and say hello, we love to meet you all. Carl will be on hand to answer any questions visitors might have. With his experience of growing and breeding plants over the past 40 years there's not much he doesn’t know about growing and propagating alpines.

EASTER MINI-BREAK
We will be taking a short break with family over the Easter weekend so any orders taken will be dispatched on Wednesday 19 April. Thank you for your understanding.

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We accept online orders from across the UK and many European countries. Postage and packaging will be added automatically at the checkout and you can find out more about our pricing here. We understand the cost of postage is high and are constantly looking for alternative providers who can help us reduce costs. For most of the UK we offer a 24 hour postage service and for Northern Ireland, the north of Scotland and Highlands & Islands we aim for plants to arrive within 48 hours. We will pass on any cost savings to customers as and when we can. Read about what customers say about us here.

You can purchase our plants securely online via PayPal but please note you do not require a PayPal account to do this. PayPal will give you the option of paying by credit or debit card at the checkout stage. However, if you are not comfortable buying online, or are having any problems with PayPal, please contact us. We are happy to accept a cheque as payment for your order, and we can take orders via telephone. If you live locally or are going to be travelling to North Devon, we are happy to arrange for you to collect your order from the nursery. However, please note we are not generally open to the public.

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