Show us your gardening purchases 2025

Self control is vastly overrated in my opinion.

 

In Lidl today an outdoor shelf that was labelled as Cyclamens for £1.99 was actually full of Gaultheria, not a cyclamen in sight. These went through the till at £1.99 too. As you can see in the photo there are roots hanging out of the bottom of the pots so I'm going to have fun getting them out.

And another Lidl purchase from last week - a Bromellia. Morrisons has lots of poor specimens of these with the flower already dead, which they are offering for a not-at-all bargain half price.

 

@CarolineL The past couple of years the Acanthus senni has grown really well and last winter it didn't get cut back to the ground and growth started 12 - 18 inches up the old stems. This year it will get a severe prune, long handled pruners and gauntlets, shredded and shreddings used to deter badgers from a the rhubarb.
It's flowered really well year though.

 

Crikey - don't get involved in Toad Lillies, they're addictive! I had quite a collection back in the day.

 

Sorry @longk that ship has already sailed! Farmyard sell lots of different ones, and I have got quite few. There are some with really strong dark colours on the flowers, and a lot of height variation.
@NigelJ I'll still keep the acanthus in cold greenhouse this winter, to give it a chance to bulk up before coping with garden. If I remember, acanthus can be grown from root cuttings, so I'll have a try

 

@CarolineL

Yes they can; as I discovered trying to remove one a few years ago.
Good idea to keep the A sennii in the cold greenhouse overwinter.

 

Discount bulb shopping is on!

I'm rather fond of botanical tulips so am trying a few things amongst the Festuca I planted on heavily sanded ground- with any luck some will take. Seen that my soil is naturally heavy clay and my location a bit further away from Anatolian plains than I'd like, the chances are quite slim.

Worth a try anyways

The Oxalis will be a container plant and the Greenlands are just one year indulgence for cut flowers, I like them very much.

And the Nectarowhatnots were cheap, surely they'll fit somewhere

 

Some nice choices @Selleri! I find the siculum multiplies quite well, and the tulip batalinii type you've bought are also pretty good at keeping going, even for me - and I'm even further from Anatolia

 

@Selleri I hope Nectaroscordum behaves better with you than it did here with me. It developed an urge for world domination and it took a year or so to get rid of it. Around here in a few places it grows on verges, perhaps your colder conditions might deter it a bit. I found Nectaroscordum tripedale to be better behaved, but that is less readily available.
Your species tulips will do well in a sunny well drained spot.

 

I couldn't keep Nectaroscordum alive here. Pity, as I rather liked it.
The species tulips ar egenerally easier than the others, but they can still disappear if conditions aren't spot on for them. I have Persian Beauty [quite similar to P. Pearl] and they're very cheery when they come through, but I only have a few of them now. Odalisque is another nice one if you like that strong violet/cerise colour.

 

Better than an apostrophe between the d and s of Friends.

 

I got this today (without flowers) in a 9ltr pot a lovely plant. I planted up in a large squat terracotta pot.

Salvia Greggii ' Violet' ...

 

That's pretty, @Victoria.

 

I love green and purple ... so what a combination!

 

Received this today, I purchased a really nice long cardboard box containing various adverts, there was a flower pot included with a rather dead looking cutting in it.

It's a hardy shrub so it's probably alive but a bit disappointing bearing in mind the height of the box.
I wondered what my £8 p&p was used for.

Remind me never to buy online again.