New Taxus Baccata Stock

Over the last few weeks we have been busy bringing in some new stock for the year.  Some of which being various Taxus baccata shapes, so I thought it would share some images.       

170-190cm high x 60-80m wide spirals

Various sized Taxus baccata cones.

60cm diameter Taxus baccata Domes

New Half Standards In stock 2017

After recently receiving some beautiful half standards last week I thought it would be nice to show off our new stock. 

Half standards are perfect for adding height and structure to your garden, either side of your front door or along a low wall to create privacy.  

Viburnum tinus 'Eve Price' has a lovely medium size leaf and will usually flower three times year.  

Other varieties such as, Buxus sempervirens and Ligustrum jonandrum have a smaller leaf so creating a tight uniform ball shape is very easy and effective. 

Prunus lusitanica

A Day making Hornbeam Arches

Now that all the topiary in our nursery has been trimmed and with autumn fast approaching we will be using the last of the good weather to focus on other essential jobs.

Arches are one of the most popular living structures found in gardens across the country and for many years now here at Crown Topiary we have been perfecting these in several different varieties.  Today we will be making Hornbeam arches. 

Slowly and precisely we train and tie pre selected trees to a bespoke galvanised steel frame. These frames comes apart at its apex which helps with shipping and planting.

  This is definitely a job for two people as the trees can take some persuading. 

It usually takes a few season for the arches to look thick and mature so we always think a few season ahead to make sure we do not run out of quality stock. Here are some we made 2 years ago.

We have found Hornbeam (Carpinus betulus) to be the most popular arch over the years as it is affordable easy to use, looks fantastic in full leaf and although deciduous it can retain is leaf over the winter.

Cleaning and maintaining your equipment

Today as it's raining I have decided I will get out all the tools we have used over the cutting season and give them all a good clean, oil and sharpen.

The CK legend shears are self sharpening and I have found that using sharpening stone will make the blade worse, so I will just be cleaning and oiling the joints. 

With the secateurs I will be doing the same thing but these blades will need sharpening with a stone.

Now that they are all cleaned and oiled, I will be storing these in a dry place over the winter.

New Stock 2017 Jan and Feb

After having a few deliveries this year I thought I would share a few of the new pieces we have welcomed into our care.

Pine clouds

Yew cones

Ilex crenata balls

Large Pine cloud

Yew half standards

Instant hedging troughs

Once a year in November we put a few days aside to replenish our Box instant hedging troughs which we have been making for around 25 years. We tend to make a few hundred every year with the aim to always have enough from the previous years batch available for sale while this years batch has time to root together and mature.

We use 30-40cm high bare root box plants from Holland that come in bundles of 10 which I separate and root trim.   

The plants will then make their way to the potting station, 9-10 plants are placed into the 100cm length troughs and as always we use a good quality compost to give the plants the best start possible.

As you can see in the back ground we have already made well over 150 troughs which now have been trimmed to 30cm high.  These troughs will be well looked after until around June time when the roots will have knotted together and after the new growth is been trimmed they will be ready for sale.

If you would like more information on our Instant hedging troughs please click this link or contact us by email.

New stock 2016

Its that time of year again..

Today we had our first delivery of root balled stock, some spirals, lollipops and many box balls. This will be our first of many delivery's over the next few weeks and soon our nursery will be full to the brim once again.

Some truely massive balls

As the majority of these plants are for stock, we will be needing to transfer them into containers until we can find them a new home.  We always use good quality compost and Rootgrow to ensure all the plants have a good start for strong and healthy future growth.

Now that we have the plants potted up I can find a place for them in the nursery to help fill out the gaps.

We still have plenty left to pot on Monday....

Some of my favourite plants

If you have had a look at our website or around our nursery, you may have realised that we have a lot of different shapes and sizes to choose from.  It may have been a lot to take in, so my aim in this blog is to show you some of my favourite plants currently in stock, plants which are usually available all year round and what they can all be used for.

Box balls

This particular box plant is around 130-140cm diameter and is perfect dome shape.  This would make a wonderful center piece or as the main dome with various sized smaller domes plants around for a cloud hedging design. 

Box Spirals

These fantastic thick box spirals will give quite an impact. Standing around 160-190cm high and 60cm wide these would work very well as a pair with one either side a front door, back door or Patio.

Ilex crenata cloud

This cloud tree is a perfect feature plant suiting modern or oriental style gardens. 150-170cm high and has already been planted in a nice wooden planter this would be difficult to find a nice spot in your garden or patio for this piece.   

Cones and Pyramids

Our range of Cones and Pyramids are a great way of giving your garden structural shape, you can plant these in a uniformed row, in planters on a patio or either side of your front door or even individually placed around the garden to hide unsightly areas. cones and pyramid can range from 60-250cm high.

Box Duos

These 130-140cm high and 90-100cm wide Box duo plants are quite unusual. Another plant which would be perfect for a center piece. smaller matching duos and trios are available which are again perfect for pairing either side of a front door or planted to start a pathway.

Pleached and Boxhead Hornbeam trees

Pleached trees and box head trees are mainly used to extend the height of your garden fence or wall to make your own private garden. We can supply newly pleached trees at any time of year and shape them to meet your requirements.  Box head trees are usually only available in the rootball season.

For more detailed information on any of the above plants or if you would like to see the full range, please have a look through our portfolio of stock.

The Topiary Calendar... May

By now your Box plants will all have had a flush of bright new growth, your Hornbeam trees will have started to leaf and generally your garden will look like it is coming to life.  This is an important month for weeding, feeding and watering and with BBQ weekends becoming a realistic option you may want to put some time into you garden and topiary.    

Lush and healthy for the start of summer

We started feeding in March and this has definitely helped the plants in the nursery get nutrients they need early on in the season resulting in everything looking lush and healthy for the start of summer. If you have not started a feeding program you should do so now, we recommend evergreen plant food.

Do not slack on watering

The temperature has picked up over the past few weeks and It is very important that you do not slack on watering any plants that you have in containers. With the lack of rain we have increased the watering in our nursery to 2-3 days a week.