At the garden centre

When I was a teenager the two worst things in life were being seen out shopping on a teacher training day with your mum and staying in on a Friday night watching Gardeners World. Now as grown up I love shopping with my mum (especially plant shopping - "oh you should definitely get this..!) and if I manage to stay awake during Gardeners World I feel like I'm winning! When Ocean Finance kindly got in touch and asked me to share my favourite flowers around the house and garden as part of British Garden Week, I thought I'd hop off to one of my favourite garden centres and take you plant shopping with me. 

Our garden is something that Dan and I love doing together, he's in charge of the veg patch and I manage the flowers. This year I've been busy mulching the beds and trying to tackle the bindweed that threatens to over take the minute you close your eyes. It's definitely getting there - I've been growing as much as I can from seed and moving what we already have around but sometimes it's fun to buy a few new plants when they're in bloom so you can get some instant gratification. 

As a novice gardener there is no science behind my plant buying, I just buy what catches my eye. If it stays alive and looks good then will add to my list of plants to buy again. Roses do really well in our heavy Essex clay soil, which is good for me as I love them. Here I am explaining my vision to my sister about this climbing Banksiae Lutea Rose, I spotted it when I visited Monet's Garden last year and has been on my wish list ever since. I snapped it up when I saw it in the half price section. 

Another reason I love going to the garden centre is because of the colours and textures that are everywhere I look. Nature has the best colour combinations and I touch nearly every leaf or bloom that catches my eye. I fell in love with this soft peach Iris which promptly went into the trolly alongside a mauve version to keep it company. The flowers have finished for the year so I'm already looking forward to next when they flower again. 

I was on a yellow and peach roll during my visit and thought this Geum Banana Daiquari and Geum Cosmopolitan were too lovely to leave behind. There was a bare patch under a tiny cherry tree and I knew that they'd be perfect to sit alongside. I do try and buy with a spot in mind I just get very easily distracted and swayed - for example this trip I had hoped to buy some peonies! 

I could go crazy each time I visit buying anything that takes my fancy but I'm learning that gardening takes time and patience to get right. At the moment I'm really enjoying the changes each month brings, seeing what pops up from last year and even more exciting seeing what seeds itself. I'll do a before and after garden post very soon as the transformation is a good one. 

Have a great weekend everyone and hope you get outside if you can. xx

A huge thanks to my sister for taking these pictures, you can follow her on Instagram here.

Thanks to Four Walls - Ocean Finance for sponsoring this post all thoughts and opinions are my own.
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