Lost and Found

I hold my hand up, my name is Gill and I am a plantaholic. Our garden is very small and juvenille, just three years old. Already it is packed to the gunnels, perhaps a little over the gunnels. There are plants in the borders, in terracotta pots, in horrid plastic pots, in a barrel, plants waiting to go in the ground or to be potted on, some waiting to go to clients, plants in the greenhouse, some in the narrow strip at the front of the house and down the side in the resting/holding area, plants absolutely everywhere. But still it is not enough. There is a self inflicted duty of care, however, all these lovelies should be cared for and nurtured. Often I fall a little short of the mark.

My memory is just fine, where most of the garden residents are concerned, but occasionally I will wake in the night and think “whatever happened to ….”. I have been mourning the loss of Fuchsia fulgens, a plant that I grew and loved at Cliffe and managed to source again last year. It did well in its new home and flowered beautifully, I just couldn’t believe that I didn’t have winter-cossetted backups. But then again, it could have slipped through the net. Must try harder.

It is time to introduce you to one of my horti-drug dealers, Alan from Alan’s Tropical Plants, from whom I have in the past satiated my need, if only temporarily. On Wednesday I was taking a sneaky look on his website and Fuchsia fulgens was in stock. As this was where I had got my last specimen, one click and it was in my basket. No harm in taking a look at what else tickled my fancy. Oh dear, it seems a lot. I took a deep breath, deleted more than half whilst gently weeping, and pressed “buy”.

Friday, returning from watering the greenhouse, a virtual spotlight highlighted a Fuchsia fulgens-esque plant in a group of pots. I peered closer and low and behold, a very healthy looking, just about to flower FF, had been hiding in plain sight! For weeks I had been confusing it with another fuchsia. Silly Gilly.

On the off-chance that my order was not quite set in stone, I emailed Alan to confess my stupidity and asked whether or not I could swap out FF for something else. Luckily, I had a long list of suggestions that had earlier been deleted from my shopping list. Very quickly I had a reply, “no problem, which substitute would you like?”. More decisions, I plumped on a salvia, a gal can never have too many salvias. This morning a cheery knock at the door behind which was the smiling face of Paul the delivery driver presenting me with a beautiful box of goodies. And what is more, Alan popped in a freebie from my previous list.

The worth of these fine folk, and all those like them, should be sung from the rooftops. Healthy happy plants, slightly left field selection, fantastic service, local business and reasonable prices. When compared with many other, often large and corporate, concerns, they are crossing the finishing line whilst the rest are lagging behind studying their profits. I am very happy I came across Alan’s nursery, I am yet to visit in person, it is not too far away, but it is definitely on the cards. There is no doubt that I will be back on-line, having a look, just in case there is something I fancy. I also have no doubt that there will be.

As to what these new acquisitions are, you will have to wait to find out. For the moment the itch has been scratched. It can’t last.