Abi and Tom's Garden Plants

Abi and Tom's Garden Plants This is the story of Abi and Tom Attwood taking on one of Cumbria's best loved plant nurseries at Ha

24/06/2026

June notes on planting up summer container displays and a mini tour of one combination I’m trying out this year using a mixture of perennials, hardy and half hardy.

Misty June morning
24/06/2026

Misty June morning

A fresh take on a planter that every year I like to do differently using a range of foliage heavyweights and some florif...
22/06/2026

A fresh take on a planter that every year I like to do differently using a range of foliage heavyweights and some floriferous perennials that ramp up the display as the season progresses. All set off beautifully by the faithful red shed (that frankly makes any combination work) At the centre of the old water tank is a smallish Hazel wigwam through which a dark amber red flowered Thunbergia is just getting going. Other members of the cast include:
Ipomoea in different shades of bronze and green (not hardy)
Erigeron karvinskianus (half hardy perennial)
Lychnis coronaria ‘Alba’ White Rose campion (hardy)
Verbena ‘Lollipop’ (half hardy)
Persicaria ‘Purple Fantasy’
Dahlia
The following weeks will be a bun fight for space but out of that will hopefully develop something visually fun, fresh and striking 🤞

Another permanently planted container in the garden. This old galvanised water trough faces east and is flanked on eithe...
19/06/2026

Another permanently planted container in the garden. This old galvanised water trough faces east and is flanked on either side by a range of planted pots and containers including a beautiful deciduous Hawthorn (Crataegus persimilis ‘Prunifolia’) that sits behind the trough.
It has been planted for about 3 years now and seems to positively thrive on neglect. The combination is simple with Rodgersia ‘Bronze Peacock’ shoe horned in with the fantastic evergreen and surprisingly hardy Leucothoe ‘Scarletta’ and the soon to flower Deschampsia ‘Goldquelle’ a stunning grass whose golden haze of utter charm sits above and through the other plants as the summer progresses. In dry weather a weekly soak suffices to keep the plants fresh and in good shape.

Persicaria ‘Lance Corporal’ fabulous hardy perennial for a semi shady corner. First came across this years ago when it w...
16/06/2026

Persicaria ‘Lance Corporal’ fabulous hardy perennial for a semi shady corner. First came across this years ago when it was used by Dan Pearson in the planting scheme for the castle ruins at Lowther Castle. We have this charming grove of it growing beneath Acer ‘Ozakazuki’
ge

As we enter the second half of June the marvel that is ‘Paul’s Himalayan Musk’ is well and truly in full flow. This is a...
15/06/2026

As we enter the second half of June the marvel that is ‘Paul’s Himalayan Musk’ is well and truly in full flow. This is a rambling rose and one that we planted over a decade ago and it was a good five years before any significant growth was being produced. The main reason being that the ground where this is planted is unbelievably thin and I still don’t understand how anything grows in this corner of the site where the limestone is so close to the surface. But somehow a minor miracle has occurred and it is the most wonderful display, I wish I could share the scent with you but it is out of this world, particularly first thing in the morning and early evening. The only complication in the situation is that the crab apple tree which acts as the scaffold is rapidly failing and at some point in the not too distant future I suspect will collapse so I need to come up with an alternative structure…..

14/06/2026

Sunday wanderings in the nursery garden

13/06/2026

A special thistle I had to talk about this evening and one I associate with a fabulous memory of seeing this plant growing in a pretty remote site defiantly erupting from the remnants of a dry stone wall. Cirsium heterophyllum aka the melancholy thistle needs containing but boy is it worth it. A beautiful long flowering, long lived perennial that has the most intensely coloured flower heads.

Digitalis x mertonensis is a short lived hybrid foxglove that we typically get 2 or 3 years out of. It’s utterly sublime...
07/06/2026

Digitalis x mertonensis is a short lived hybrid foxglove that we typically get 2 or 3 years out of. It’s utterly sublime and looks great crammed into a sea of planting so it’s distinctive spire rises above the froth of late May early June
Raise from seed

I love things like this, after selling all our various Knautia from one particular sales bed over the past few years the...
06/06/2026

I love things like this, after selling all our various Knautia from one particular sales bed over the past few years the seeds from ripening flower heads has moved with gravity, the flow of water and gathered at the edge of the timber where a number have rooted and as is usually the case look infinitely healthier growing in the gravel and sub base than the excellent compost we grow everything in….its the best possible advert for these bee drenched summer flowering beauties. It’s a mix of Knautia macedonica and the cultivar ‘Melton Pastels’

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Kendal
LA116RT

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