New plants from a fabulous mail order nursery

 I have been spending money again (heavy sigh and rolling of eyes from Chris) but on plants this time (of course, books, gemstones and wool also figure highly in my spending).  I found a fantastic nursery specialising in plants for shade and couldn't resist buying a few lovely things.  In fact, I was looking for Lathyrus vernus which is a spring flowering member of the sweet pea family and which was mentioned on Beechgrove Garden (BBC Scotland, Thursday nights around 7.30pm, except I watch it on catch up TV at a later date, although it is probably available on the internet too.  It is a really good  gardening programme that doesn't try to be ultra fashionable and gives solid advice and how to do things as well as visiting various lovely gardens in Scotland.  Well worth a look.) Anyway, this plant was mentioned and the presenter said that it had come through the Scottish winter with no problems and she couldn't understand why more people didn't grow it.  (I used to have a plant but wasn't sure where to put it, then it just sat about and eventually I gave it to a friend - I don't regret that at all as she loves it and I know where the new ones are going and am very excited about finding such a great nursery.) Right, after that rather long introduction, back to the nursery.

It is Long Acre Plants in Somerset and they are on the internet as www.plantsforshade.co.uk .  They have a wonderful array of shade loving plants and my only problem was not buying everything!  In the end, I chose six plants: Lathyrus Vernus x 2, Viola odorata 'Baroness Alice de Rothschild', Chasmanthium latifolium ( a lovely delicate grass), Galium odoratum (woodruff, which can be invasive, but that is fine as it is going right at the back of a border) and Hepatica nobilis 'Mid Blue' (in the photo above).  They nursery was a pleasure to order from and sent me emails to confirm my purchase, to tell me when the plants had been dispatched and also the courier's details and tracking number.  The plants arrived beautifully packed, and are really good quality.  As an added extra, they included another Lathyrus as the plants were small!  Fantastic customer service! 

the sweet pea-like flowers of Lathyrus vernus

Of course, I sent them a very nice email, thanking them and saying that the big so-called 'expert' mail order plant companies could learn a lot from them.  I am delighted with the plants and am looking forward to being able to get them planted (if it stops raining).  Have a look at the website - it is full of lovely things!