Larry Smith and the Riverside Gardens team talk all things pots, plants and pruning in their weekly gardening column.
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Finally, we have had a bit of stable weather, it is not wildly swinging from warm and sunny to freezing cold, and finally, we are also seeing all the beautiful plants that were supposed to be ready for Spring starting to appear.
So many plants have been sitting just waiting for a bit of decent spring weather to enable them to put on enough growth to bring them up to size for sale.
It was a frustrating spring for growers, for us, and for customers who we have been telling that we will be able to supply their plants as soon as they are ready.
We have been advised by some of our growers that some of the plants that we would usually be seeing late spring, early summer will still not be ready until mid to late January.
This will have a knock-on effect for the autumn stock because the slow growing spring stock is still occupying the space that the autumn stock should now be growing on in.
It will be an interesting few months ahead.
The funny thing is, now that the spring stock is arriving, so has the Christmas rush and gardening is often not the priority that it was in spring, but still it means we can at least start to fill some of our outstanding customer orders.
The Christmas rush certainly has kicked in here at the Garden Centre with most customer purchases being gifts for loved ones or plants and garden features to beautify an area ready for Christmas.
Some of the popular gifts that are going out have been things like hanging sun catchers of hummingbirds, stars, dragonflies and bees.
Fragrant candles, Australian bush fragrant diffusers, and it seems anything to do with Highland cows have all also been in high demand.
The glass surface protectors with their Australian themed pictures from our tableware collection have been a real stand out with customers.
If you are looking for gifts for gardeners you could look at doing a garden gift hamper of secateurs, a hand trowel, a handheld garden hoe, a pruning saw, gloves and a sun hat, or maybe a bird bath for their garden to bring in the birds or even a bird feeder.
Metal watering cans, especially the older types with the long spout can be a gift that will be greatly appreciated and treasured by keen gardeners
Windchimes can be a very thoughtful gift, but make sure they have a soft harmonious sound so that each time they hear them they have good thoughts of you and not wonder why you were trying to torture them.
Wind spinners are another idea that can be added to most gardens where they will add colour and movement to the garden.
Made of metal and brightly painted they will spin on the slightest of a breeze.
Standardised plants are a another very popular gift, from grafted grevillea and acacia to standard gardenia, lily pilly, azaleas and camellia.
Camellia Marge Miller is a low mounding camellia that when grown as a standard on a metre stem they form a beautiful weeping feature plant that look stunning in a nice stylish planter.
They require a partial shaded position and will flower from April onwards displaying masses of double pink flowers over their deep green foliage.
Gardenia standards are always a favourite of mine with their clear white flowers coming in flushes throughout the year.
The soft sweet fragrance of their flowers is quite tropical, as is their bold glossy green foliage.
They can be grown in part shade to full sun and if clipped after flower they will form a dense bushy ball of foliage.
Hydrangeas are always a popular gift plant at Christmas as their large bright ball type flowers are just coming into their prime and looking great.
This year we have also managed to get a very limited number of Hydrangea Run Away Bride.
These were the plant of the year for 2025 and have been extremely hard to find, arriving this week, I do not expect them to last for long.
We often find that people leave buying plants as gifts for Christmas until the last minute because they are not confident in their ability to look after them, but they also run the risk of what they are wanting will be sold out.
So, if you are worried about looking after plants until Christmas, call in now and make your purchase, and then we can look after them for you.
Then you can collect them in the days before Christmas to have them looking as fresh as a daisy.
If all else fails, there is always a gift voucher for the Garden Centre or even our Laugh A Lot mini golf.