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Due to the extreme temperatures being forecast we will close at 1pm on Monday 18th and Tuesday 19th July. Our online shop remains open: www.katiesgarden.co.uk/shopfront
We hope to return to normal opening hours from Wednesday: 10am - 4pm. It's July which means it's Hampton Hack season (named in tribute to the Hampton Court Flower Show). At this time of year many early summer perennials are running out of steam, with flowers finished and leaves looking grotty. The good news is that the correct pruning will give you a second chance to enjoy fresh growth & new flowers in the same season! For Penstemons, Phygelius (cape fuchsia) and woody-stemmed Salvias, such as 'Hot Lips', you are looking to cut the plant back by half - but only once the first flowers are finishing.
Following the shearing give your plants a drink and a multipurpose feed to boost them into second growth. You will be surprised at how quickly you are looking at beautiful flowers and healthy leaves again!  The Salvia nemerosa bed in our garden looked lovely in June ...  But was looking tired by July, with most of the colour drained out ...  So we Hampton Hacked it, and now look forward to our second flowering! Other perennials which can be cut back hard once the first flowers start to fade include: Delphiniums Geraniums Lupins Campanula (bellflower) Nepeta (catnip) Acanthus (bear's breeches) Achillea (yarrow) Alchemilla (lady's mantle) Centranthus (valerian) Centaurea (perennial cornflower) Coreopsis (tickseed) Gaillardia (blanket flower) Knautia Leucanthemum Lobelia Lysimachia Lythrum (loosestrife) Monarda (bee balm) Oenothera (evening primrose) Papaver (poppy) Phlox paniculata types Polemonium (jacob's ladder) Scabiosa Tanacetum Veronica Head to our YouTube channel for tutorials: click here.
Are you watering your plants … or just giving them a wash?? With the hot, dry weather set to continue make sure you’re giving the plants in your garden the amount of water they need. Roses on watering cans and sprinkle settings on hoses are great for watering delicate young plants and large numbers of small plants, but in this weather plain spouts are what’s needed. A light sprinkling will likely evaporate away before it ever reaches the roots, and when watering pots there is also the danger that much of your water will run off the leaves and away from the pot!   At this time of year watering in the early evening gives the water the chance to really soak in. If you have a big problem with slugs & snails it can be better to water early in the morning, so you are not giving them helpfully moist conditions to travel around in during their nocturnal activities! If you are not sure you are giving your plants the right amount of water poke a finger into the soil before watering to test how damp the soil has stayed since the last time, and then give more or less accordingly. 
 Your qualifying purchase can be made on absolutely anything at the nursery.
Gift voucher prizes are valid for one year and can be exchanged for any in-stock plants at Katie’s Garden – what would you choose?! The small print: All Flourish members who shop at Katie's Garden or at www.katiesgarden.co.uk (if registered as a Katie's Garden member) between Saturday 25th June 2022 and Tuesday 19th July 2022 will be automatically entered into our draw to win one of 25 £25 gift vouchers, so please make sure you let us know you are a member at checkout. Winners will be drawn at random from all eligible members. Winners will be notified by email by Friday 22nd July (or by phone if no email address has been given) and will have until 31st August 2022 to collect their voucher. No cash alternative.  To help mark our 25 years in business we have filled the Designer Bed of the garden area with some of our favourite plants of the last quarter century!
Click here to visit the Garden Area page to learn more. You can also see videos about the making of it - with tips & advice - on our YouTube channel - click here. And we would be delighted if you paid the garden a visit in person - find it to the left of Shophouse! Click to enlarge images  Brilliant entries by Pipers Vale Academy and Old Buckenham School, supported by Katie's Garden! It's a Gold for our Suffolk Show Jubilee show garden! Congratulations to the entire Katie's Garden team for all their hard work making this possible from growing all the plants to designing, delivering and staging the display (whilst keeping everything else at the nursery going too)! Our garden has a subtle Jubilee theme: one planter of red flowers, one of blue and one of white, plus a fourth filled with (sort-of!) suitably named plants, including Lavender Platinum Blonde, Agastache Golden Jubilee, Thymus Silver Queen, Pittosporum Elizabeth and Kniphofia Royal Castle Hybrids. A rainbow of hanging baskets is arrayed above the spread of some of our favourite plants for the time of year! Congratulations also go to the two schools we supported in the Garden For All Seasons category at the Suffolk Show. Fabulous displays by the young gardeners at Pipers Vale Academy and at Old Buckenham Hall School saw them both win Silver Gilt! ** Photos and videos on their way very soon**
If you are planning on going red, white & blue, we have plenty of plants to choose from! Head to Shophouse for themed collections of plants for your pots and baskets, including a display of pollinator-friendly options. Take the easy route with Trixi Mixes - 3 plants in 1 for instant impact for just £4.99! Or go even easier and let us plant up planters and baskets for you! Click here to order online. We will be open 10am to 4pm as usual throughout the Jubilee Bank Holiday weekend.
We were delighted to welcome some young gardeners from Pipers Vale Primary Academy for a tour of the nursery and very pleased to experience their enthusiasm for all things horticultural! Look out for their show garden at the Suffolk Show next week, featuring numerous plants donated by Katie’s Garden. We have also been working with the gardening club of Old Buckenham Preparatory School for their entry in the Garden for All Seasons schools category. Good luck to all the youngsters involved!
In the Glasswells Home & Garden tent you will find our very own show garden, competing in one of the “grown-ups” categories. Preparations are underway at the nursery, ahead of set-up day on Monday!
The Suffolk Show is held at Trinity Showground in Ipswich Tuesday 31st May and Wednesday 1st June. Before that we have the Suffolk Plant Heritage Spring Plant Fair at Helmingham Hall on Sunday. You will also find our plants available to buy at Otley Hall, Woodbridge Open Gardens and Waldringfield Open Gardens this weekend, as part of the St Elizabeth Hospice Great Garden Trail. Who needs Chelsea! May has thankfully seen a lot more rainfall than April, but if the dry spell gave you pause for thought, have a read through some of our top tips for reducing water usage in the garden!
The frosts (should) have passed, so you can get on with filling your patio pots and hanging baskets! We have lots of bedding packs outside, including night stocks, tobacco plants, alyssum, pansies and many others, but you will find most of the seasonal plants packed into Shophouse. Find flowers in every colour of the rainbow, with handy tags to let you know if they trail or grow upright!
We have a great choice of grow-your-own plants for May. Salad pots are in Shophouse, including tomatoes, cucumbers, courgettes, peppers, basil and more. Outside we have our starter packs with all sorts of brassicas and other veg plants, with strawberry plants alongside. Head "over the hedge" for fruit bushes and fruit trees! New for this week is the Cut Flowers range - annual plants ideal for turning into beautiful bouquets. Including Cosmos, Cornflowers, Dahlias, Salvias and many more. Make the most of our current offer: 6 for £10! 
Help the bees and give a Helping Hand to local people in need! April is the month for seed sowing and you will surely find no packets more worthy of your money than our new Throw to Grow Bee Mix seeds. This special blend of annual and perennial flowers benefits bees, butterflies and other pollinating insects – as seen in our display garden last year. And more than that, each packet sold will raise vital funds for Ipswich-based charity Helping Hands Suffolk. This community group - made up of amazing volunteers – provides practical support, friendship and dignity for everyone under the homeless umbrella and other vulnerable friends in our local communities. Pick up a packet on your next visit to the nursery, or add one on to your next online order by clicking here.  Come and get inspired by the latest installation in our garden area! It Came From Japan is filled with plants native to Japan - lots of easy-care leafy evergreens with some beautiful spring blooms too. If you decide to recreate the look we have a handy display of Japanese plants just outside Shophouse!  Spring is a wonderful time of the year for fragrance in the garden. Take some time out from your busy life to really enjoy the sights and smells of your garden: follow your nose and see what you can find! Wallflowers and Hyacinths are fabulous for fragrance and did you know that many Primroses, Daffodils and Tulips are also scented? Garden Pinks - of the same family as Carnations and Sweet Williams - have long been a favourite of gardeners (and butterflies too!). Shrubs worth a sniff include Osmanthus, Skimmia, Sarcoccoa (sweet box), Mahonias, Daphnes and some Viburnums. |
