Garden Cottage Nursery

20/08/2026

A couple of late flowering New Zealand Shawia (Syn. Olearia) in the hedge besides the Nursery are putting on a great show on this dull late "summer" morning.
Shawia virgata is unusual for being deciduous, it grows in to a large twiggy bush with dark slender stems. It is good by the sea and also quite frost hardy.

Shawia virgata daisies are small but numerous with a sweet scent.

Shawia 'Talbot de Malihide' a large and tough hybrid, not as quick or as large as the more common earlier flowering S. x macrodonta, but IMHO far superior to the long popular S. x haastii.

Shawia 'Talbot de Malihide' is named for an early 20th century Anglo-Irish plant enthusiast and politician It is a hybrid of S. avicenniifolia, in turn named for its leafs resemblance to those of mangrove tree - Avicennia... which is named to commemorate Ibn Sina, latinised as "Avicenna" , an influential Persian 11th century philosopher and physician, by many regarded as the father of modern medicine.

14/08/2026

We gave the tubs around Poolewe a wee polish.
The young at heart volunteers did a great job cutting the grass too, it looks so much better ❤️

Thankyou to Ben and Lesley from Garden Cottage Nursery for replanting all the pots in the village (at no cost) and thank you to the young couple who cut the grass along the front too. The village is certainly looking better for it all.

11/08/2026

Plants for coastal shelter - Ozothamnus rosmarinifolius
the 'Swamp Everlasting bush' is invaluable as a hardy shrub that will thrive in wet peat. This form of the species has compact small heades of white 'everlasting' (compact pappery petal-less daisies) flowers from tight red-purple buds.
This form will also happily grow in soils with normal drainage or even dry soils, though we do grow another form from stony coastal habitiats with longer, narrower leaves and broader domed flowerheads that is more suitable for free draining sites.
Visit our website for more info on hedges and shelter planting:
http://www.gcnursery.co.uk/windbreak.htm

Plants available from our nursery for £10 each in 3L pots.
Nursery Open
10am-6pm
Monday - Saturday
3.5km North of Poolewe.

10/08/2026

We grow a great range of hardy and tough large growing shrubs that thrive in the difficult coastal conditions and poor soils of the West Coast of scotland.

Nursery Open
10am - 6pm
Monday - Saturday
3.5km North of Poolewe.

Shelter planting info here:
http://www.gcnursery.co.uk/windbreak.htm

07/08/2026

Woody plants cuttings tutorial part 5 of 5 - Semi-ripe cutting with a wound of Crinodendron hookerianum.
In this video I cover how to take a Internodal Semi-ripe cutting with a wound of the beautiful red flowered Chilean lantern tree.

Wounding a cuttings by taking away a strip of the outer bark from the bottom of the cutting can speed up the rooting of a cutting, but more exposed surfaces are more points of infection for fungus and other pathogens. Rooting hormone usually comes with some fungicide mixed in to help prevent rot getting in.

Nursery open 10am to 6pm
Mon to Sat
3.5km north of Poolewe.

06/08/2026

Woody plants cuttings tutorial part 4 of 5 - Heel semi-ripe cuttings of Contoneaster procumbens 'Queen of Carpets'.

In this video I cover how to take a heel cutting of a Contoneaster, showing mostly what the bench looks like as a cutting occasionaly passes through the frame 😉

Heel cuttings are good for some slower rooting or more difficult to root woody plants including Cotoneaster, Berberis as well as plants with pithy centred stems like Sambucus as well as if only less vigorous cutting material is available.
Pull a side shoot down and away from the stem wuntil it tears away. Trim up the ragged edges around this exposed 'heel', trim off the lower leaves that would be in the soil onces inseted, plus any excess leaves to reduce transpiration (drying out) and insert the cutting in to a quite freely draining compost mix. Applying some rooting hormone to the base of the cutting and placing it in a propagation case will speed up the rooting.

The 'Mallet' cutting is a variant where you very cut a short section of the main stem with the side shoot and insert it as a cutting, traditionaly popular for Berberis cultivars.

Nursery open 10am to 6pm
Mon to Sat
3.5km north of Poolewe.

04/08/2026

Poolewe Tuesday Market.
Another dull wet day & it isn't the best day for wandering around the Nursery, so why not visit the market in Poolewe Village Hall. We have a table there with a selection of our plants as well as bags of Chanterelle mushrooms Lesley picked & cleaned yesterday.

25/07/2026

Woody plants cuttings tutorial part 3 of 5 - Inter-nodal semi-ripe cuttings of Parahebe 'Angela'.
Internodal cuttings are good for many quicker and easier to root plants like Parahebe, H**e & Osteospermum (Dimorphotheca).
Make a clean diagonal cut halfway below two sets of buds, trim off excess leaves to reduce transpiration (drying out) and insert the cutting in to a quite freely draining compost mix. Applying some rooting hormone to the base of the cutting and placing it in a propagation case will speed up the rooting

Nursery open 10am to 6pm
Mon to Sat
3.5km north of Poolewe.

21/07/2026

Woody plants cuttings tutorial part 2 of 5 - Nodal semi-ripe cuttings of Weigelia 'Florida Variegata'.

Probably the most common sort of semi-ripe cutting, particularly with plants with opposite buds; make a clean cut immediately below the buds, trim off excess leaves to reduce transpiration (drying out) and insert the cutting in to a quite freely draining compost mix. Applying some rooting hormone to the base of the cutting and placing it in a propagation case will speed up the rooting. Deciduous shrub cuttings like this are best taken around now (mid July) here as our short growing season means that cuttings taken later may not start to root before they drop their leaves and go dormant in autumn, evergreen can still be struck later. Nursery open 10am to 6pm Mon to Sat 3.5km north of Poolewe.

19/07/2026

Woody plants cutting tutorial part 1 of 5 - intro taking cuttings and greenwood cutting of Hydrangea macrophylla.

I sound a bit croaky in this one as I had just swallowed a midgie 🤢

This cutting is a bit on the heavy side for a soft/greenwood cutting and could be taken from the next node up if the cutting was to be placed in a propagation case or similar.

If this seems like a bit of a faff why not come and buy a ready grown plant from us...

Nursery open 10am to 6pm
Monday to Saturday
3.5km north of Poolewe