Show us your gardening purchases 2025

You're allowed to moan, @john558, especially if the issue in question affects your ability to garden.

 

Loads of gardening stuff in Lidl today. Bought these two trellises for £7.99 each. Had to go through an actual till for once as couldn't imagine how I would balance these on the self service checkout!

 

Lawn shears. Something I thought I can easily live without. Well, those two small areas of lawn below the level of the mower blade finally needed to be sorted instead of using hedging shears .
The reviews were good apart from someone who said they stick but they don't clean them often .

I tried them out yesterday, they are light, easy to use and don't stick. You can swivel the blade around at several angles between horizontal and vertical. A good buy at £19.99 with no delivery charge (I got them at a local GC ).

 

I bought a pair like that a couple of years ago and then promptly lost them. Pretty impressive being able to lose something that size.

 

I also have a pair - mine used to stick until I cleaned the blades. I wonder if that was my review! I use them for cutting back perennials etc., as I can snip with one hand and hold what I'm snipping with the other.

 

I have a pair of, what were called dagging shears, spring steel one handed operation; I used these for trimming grass edges and soft growth on all sorts of plants. I still have them just not sure exactly where they are as I haven't seen them since covid, I know they are in my garden somewhere.
I now have something similar from a German company made in Solingen; these have a posh name, but look the same and do the same job.
I'd still rather have my Sheffield made pair back.

 

Just received an order from Jurassic Plants, very pleased with the plants received, good packaging and really good instructions on the care of the young plants.
I ordered a number of starter plants, so small 10 to 15 cm plants that will need growing on for a while prior to planting. Including Crinodendron patagua, Zanthoxylum acanthopodium, Camellia cuspidata, a Sophora, and a Katsura.

 

Nice selection @NigelJ ! I have a 2m crinodendron patagua and it rarely flowers. So if you work out how to persuade it, please let me know! Also the zanthoxylum - mine is from seed from @noisette47 and it also hasn't set flowers/seed yet. Probably wasn't helped by being regularly bashed by a land rover - but it's somewhere safer now

 

I have a pair of little snips that always stick; cleaning the blades only helps for a few minutes.

 

Today I received 2 plants I had ordered online. They both look very uninspiring at the moment, but hold potential for the future.

• Lavender "Sensational". This is a hybrid variety that is considered quite tough and has several advantages. I already have several of them (bought last year) and needed one more to complete a scheme. So far the other ones have done well for me.
  
  
• "James Brydon" waterlily. The water is much cleaner normally, but while planting the waterlily some of the aquatic soil made the water murky.
  
  

 

I've always liked Fuchsia 'Hawkshead' so bought one today. Not a bad garden centre price, 3 litre pot - £12.99.

 

I bought a new rose - The Bees Knees, from Style Roses.

 

I was not familiar with this one, so I looked it up. Seems like a good one!

 

Thank you @CostasK, I hope so!

 

I bought one from them as a bare root in February. Yours looks better than mine @katecat58 .

I also bought Amethyst Star at the same time. It's in a container and doing much better than any of my roses in borders! (I've just realised that the flowers might look very like the ones in your avatar!)