Savouring spring foliage

I love this time of year! The winter skeletons of our trees are becoming greener by the day. Everything looks so fresh, bright and full of promise for the year ahead.

Its easy to only think of perennials in terms of flowers and colour but this amazing group of plants have much more to offer. Its a case of looking at plants in a different light and appreciating their foliage and form in life and in death.

I thought I would share a few shots of some lovely foliage from the garden.

I always look forward to the pleated bright green sword like leaves of crocosmia emerging in spring.

Sedums are great plants, they have all year round interest starting with their large suculent like fleshy leaves. They have lots of different foliage colours from blue greys through to dark purples. Pictured above is Sedum 'Herbstfreude' (Autumn Joy) and Sedum 'Matrona'. They have beautiful large flat heads of flowers through summer, loved by bees and long lasting seed heads through winter providing great structure.

Grasses provide great spring foliage and instantly add a naturalistic feel to a planting giving it movement and grace. This is Hackonechloa macra my favourite Hakone grass coming from Japan's Honshu Island.
It looks great in pots and is very easy to blend with other plants. I think this species grass is much easier on the eye than many of the different cultivars of this grass. Simple is often best!

How exciting! The first crimson thistle's are emerging on Cirsium rivulare'Atropurpureum'. This great plant is perfect for naturalistic planting and associates well with grasses. Preferring a moist soil in full sun it will start to flower from early summer. Keep deadheading the spent flowers and you will be rewarded with fresh new ones.

In the beginning...

Today marks a new chapter of my life. Not that I have decided to join the 21st century and start a blog! But setting out on a new journey to start our plant nursery.

It has been in the pipeline for a good few years now. I started out in horticulture 6 years ago at the tender age of 21 after gaining an apprenticeship with a local landscaping company. My horticultural journey has evolved in many ways since then. I went to Sparsholt College to gain a qualification in horticulture which was a good start from which to progress and develop.

After working for different gardening company's all over the south of England my passion for plants was developing and I knew I had to follow my dream of starting a nursery.
I gained a keen interest in naturalistic planting styles and observing plants in their natural habitats. Influenced by the work of great plantsman like Piet Oudolf, Noel Kingsbury and Neil Lucas I knew I was on the right track.

After months of searching we found a perfect site for Blooming Wild nestled in the beautiful rolling hills of North Dorset. We are renting a plot of land in an existing plant nursery, which has the added bonus of having two natural water sources.

We have done a lot of clearing work already and are looking forward to carrying on. This is our year to set up the nursery so we can have a full growing season next year.

This blog will be a place for us to share our experiences of setting up our business. We are expecting many highs and lows! Watch this space........

Here is a few pics to show you what we have been up to.

After a lot of elbow grease we got the site cleared.

Much more work to be done!