Monkton Elm News, Events and Tips Blog

Our Plant Advisor, Will Michieli, recently attended the Chelsea Flower Show as part of his prize for being a ‘Westland Rising Star’. Will was named ‘Westland Rising Star’ in January in the Garden Centre Association’s (GCA) and Westland Horticulture’s Rising Stars programme. 

Drop in and see us this month if you’d like some free advice on how to create red, white and blue bedding plant baskets and tubs in time for the Commonwealth Games, Wimbledon, the World Cup or even to commemorate the 100 th anniversary of the start of WW1.

Now’s the time to sit back and enjoy your garden. Whether you’re a keen gardener or a hobbyist, dust off the garden furniture and BBQ, and enjoy some well-earned time outdoors.

Darcey Bussell (Ausdecorum) June heralds the start of the main flowering period for Roses. Here at Monkton Elm we are proud to stock David Austin English Roses.

We have had our most successful year at the major flowers shows, gaining our 24th Gold Medal at Chelsea 2013 and a further 12 RHS Gold Medals. This year would see a major mile stone reached, if we could win our 25th Gold Medal at Chelsea this year.

This year we are pleased to be introducing three new English Roses for the 2014/15 season. Our new varieties are ‘Olivia Rose Austin’, a great all-rounder that combines beauty and fragrance with superb health and ‘The Lady of the Lake’, which is only the fourth repeat flowering rambler to be added to our English Rose collection. We are particularly excited about our third new rose, ‘The Poet’s Wife’, as it is the first yellow rose we have introduced for over 10 years.

Hillier Nurseries hope to secure a 69 th consecutive Chelsea Gold Medal with a garden exhibit recounting the story of Hillier: the plants, the people, the passion.  

Worthy causes from across the South West have this spring (2014) received a total of 2,014 saplings to help with projects they are running.

To link with the Butterfly Conservation’s ‘Save Our Butterflies Week’ we are offering advice on plants that appeal to the insects from May 18 until 26.

We have selected Children’s Hospice South West (CHSW) as our Charity of the Year for the eighth year running.

Our plant of the month for May is the wonderful Lavender family. Lavender is a traditional garden favourite, and quite rightly so, the foliage is wonderfully dramatic and the striking flowers are great Summer colour for us, and provide a popular nectar bar for an array of Bees and Butterflies and other insects.