How to Collect and Store Seeds From Autumn Trees & Shrubs
In this guide, we’ll go through the step by step process of collecting and storing seeds from autumn trees and shrubs. Come the springtime, you’ll be well stocked and ready for planting season!
Autumn pruning: trees and shrubs
Our essential autumn pruning guide will shed some light on what you should prune this autumn. Learn how to protect your plants so they'll thrive in spring.
Best Fruit Trees to Plant in Autumn
Autumn is a great time to plant fruit trees. Find out how to get a great crop of juicy fruit by spring time with our top tips.
How to care for trees in late summer
Late summer provides the perfect time to give your trees and shrubs some extra care to ensure they’re in top shape for the autumn season.
Let the grass grow: a wild(er) garden to support wildlife
Perfectly manicured lawns are beautiful, there’s no doubt about that, but we need to question the impact of frequent grass cutting on our wildlife.
Making your winter garden glow
This post is all about making your winter garden glow so that you can enjoy your garden all year round. Winter is not a season usually associated with the garden, but with a few carefully selected trees, your winter garden can offer great pleasure, even if you do choose to admire it from inside. Winter flowering trees are an obvious choice for winter interest and they come in all shapes and sizes. If you have a small garden, you can’t go wrong with the simply stunning ‘Prunus Snow Showers’: as the name suggests, the snow-white flowers cascade down the weeping branches, giving the perfect floral vision of beauty over winter. The ‘Snow Showers’ is also compact, so you can plant it in a large pot on a patio if you’re short of space. Another small tree, although certainly larger than the ‘Snow Showers’, is ‘Prunus Autumnalis Rosea’. This outstanding tree offers a stunning floral display of semi-double pink flowers that hang from the branches over winter. The candyfloss-pink flowers almost look out of place in winter, but that adds to their ‘show-stopping’ effect and makes them all the more precious. If you want a truly unusual flower, the Hamamelis, or Witch Hazel, is unrivalled. The flowers are comprised of colourful petals that resemble ribbon and most varieties are scented. Choosing which Hamamelis to plant can be difficult as they all offer such varied colour, but we love the burning red colour of the ‘Hamamelis Diane’ as it adds a firey burst of life to your outdoor space. You can also get trees that hold their fruits over winter: this has a double benefit of looking great and also being a natural bird feeder during the colder months. ‘Mauls toringo ‘Scarlett’ is one such variety and the glossy scarlet-purple fruits add a wonderful splash of colour over winter. Equally, for fruits that change as the winter months press on, the ‘Cotoneaster Exburiensis’ features apricot-yellow fruits in autumn that take on pink tints over winter. Of course, evengreen trees offer year-round interest as the glossy foliage provides a steady dose of colour; you can utilise evergreen trees as backdrops for winter flowering trees, as the flowers really stand out against the foliage. The very large, dark green, waxy leaves of the ‘Magnolia Grandiflora’ make the perfect foil for a winter flowering tree like the ‘Prunus Autumnalis’. If you want colourful leaves, look no further than the Photinia ‘Pink Marble’: this cousin of the ever-popular Photinia ‘Red Robin’ is a real delight in winter as the green foliage is marbled with a vivid pink and white variegation. Some deciduous trees have a lot to offer in winter, too. In fact, varieties like the Betula ‘Snow Queen’ are widely planted for their stunning bark: the ‘Snow Queen’ has the most beautiful white bark that sparkles and shines over winter. Equally, trees that have an unusual shape or structure can become a fantastic architectural feature in winter: one such tree is the highly unique Salix 'Erythroflexuosa', also known as the Golden Twisted Willow. The corkscrew-like branches are red when young and mature to a golden green colour. To make your garden truly glow, cover the branches in solar-powered lights and admire the contorted skeleton of this distinctive tree. If you have any suggestions for winter interest, let us know. We always love seeing pictures of your garden and you can post them on our Facebook page.
A beginner’s guide to growing fruit trees
There’s nothing more rewarding than enjoying the crop from your very own fruit tree, and yet so many of our customers avoid planting fruit trees for various reasons: some say that it’s too difficult and others say it will require too much maintenance, but this blog post is all about dispelling the myths and giving you all the advice you need to start growing your own fruit. We want to make one thing clear: planting a fruit tree does not mean compromising the ornamental value of a tree. So many fruit trees have decorative foliage or showy flowers, that you actually get the benefits of an ornamental tree with the bonus of your own crop. Believe us when we say that you’ll never look at supermarket fruit in the same way once you’ve tasted your own home-grown fruit. Key information The first thing that you need to know is that some fruit varieties need pollination partners to be planted nearby in order for them to produce a crop. This post recommends a range of fruit trees, some of which need pollination partners, but as this is a beginner’s guide, we have also included some recommendations for trees that are self-fertile, meaning that they won’t need to be planted near a suitable pollination partner and will produce fruit without pollination from another tree. The second thing that you need to know is what a ‘rootstock’ is. Essentially, fruit trees come in different types, called rootstocks, and each rootstock has different qualities. For example, you can have a Braeburn apple tree on different rootstocks, and you can pick a rootstock based on what you want from your fruit tree. Some rootstocks are ‘dwarf’ so that the tree remains small, others are more vigorous, and some are used for their disease-resisting abilities. You can find lots of information about rootstocks on the RHS information page by following this link. Finally, in order to keep your fruit tree healthy, we would recommend applying some mulch after planting. Mulch is a covering which goes on top of the soil and it has many benefits, including: retaining moister in summer, suppressing weeds and improving the soil texture. We would recommend wood chippings or compost, but you can find a more information on mulch and its benefits here. Now you know the basics, you need do make the big decision of what to pick. Best for smaller gardens: If you’re short of space, you can’t go wrong with a G5 ‘Stella’ cherry tree. To explain that a little more, G5 stands for Gisela 5 and it’s a dwarf rootstock, meaning that the eventual size will be around 3m high and around 2.5m wide: perfect for a small space. You will need a sunny spot for this cherry to thrive and, ideally, some shelter (planting it near a south facing wall would be ideal). The best bit about the Prunus ‘Stella’ is that it’s self-fertile, so you don’t need to worry about having a pollination partner. All our trees come with a planting booklet, so you can follow the step-by-step guide to planting your new tree when it arrives. Best for a heavy crop: If you have a little more room and want something that’s a heavy cropper, go for a ‘Scrumptious’ apple tree on the M106 rootstock; this rootstock is semi-vigorous and it is widely used for its ability to thrive in poorer soils. Scrumptious apples are renowned for being one of the tastiest dessert apples around, and they taste even better when they’re fresh from the tree. The ‘Scrumptious’ is in pollination group 3, so you could plant it with Malus ‘Crispin’ for a bumper crop. As with most apple trees, Malus ‘Scrumptious’ produces delightful flowers in April and May: the white flowers have a pink blush to them and add interest during late spring. If you would prefer a pear tree, the wonderful ‘Conference’ pear tree is certainly worthy of planting. This is a partially self-fertile tree, meaning that it will produce fruit without a pollination partner, but if you want it to fulfil its heavy cropping potential then plant it alongside another variety like the ‘Williams Bon Chretien’ for cross-pollination. The fruits of the ‘Conference’ are absolutely delicious and you can watch them grow over summer and pick them in late September: a real autumnal treat! Easiest to grow: Not only is the ‘Lapins’ cherry tree an easy one to grow, it also produces the most divine dark red-black fruits. Lapins is a self-fertile variety and it produces a good crop with very little effort. Once you’ve planted your tree in a sunny spot, make sure you keep it well-watered and that you apply mulch to retain the moisture. The fruits will be ready for picking in July: avoid pulling the fruit when you pick them and instead pick them by the stalks (to avoid bruising). You can enjoy your cherries fresh or store them in the fridge for 1-2 weeks. If you see any branches that need pruning, do so from late July (after crop) until the end of August. Then all you have to do is keep the tree well-watered when it’s dry and wait for the next lot to appear the following year! Key things to remember: The sweeter the fruit tastes, the more sun it will need If you’re short on space, choose a self-fertile variety Keep your tree well-watered and make sure it doesn’t try out at all Choose a rootstock that is appropriate for your garden’s size Now that you’ve got all of the essential information, get choosing! We would also love to hear from you and see pictures of your first crop.
Creating a sensory garden series – smell
When we think of sensory gardens, scent is usually the first thing on our minds. Whether you catch the drift of a sweet floral fragrance or the more sharp smell of herbaceous plants, scented trees and shrubs can be a real sensory treat. We would recommend planting scented trees and shrubs near a seating area so that you can unwind with the drifting fragrances; alternatively, plant your scented shrubs along the edges of a path so that they can greet guests as they pass by. Flowers Different flowers, big and small, have different scents. Some are sweet, light and fruity and others are much more pungent and heavy. Either way, flowers are a great way of filling your garden with fragrance. Flowering trees If you have room for a tree, one of the most deliciously sweet fragrances has to come from the Cytisus battandieri, which is more commonly known as the Pineapple broom tree. This Morrocan native has vivid yellow flowers that smell like cooked pineapples: a real treat for the senses! Prunus ‘Fragrant Cloud’ is a prolific flowerer in spring and the flowers do not have the usual light fragrance of a flowering cherry tree, but instead they have a much stronger and richer floral scent. Of course, we can’t not mention magnolia flowers in this category; magnolia flowers are large and have a bold fragrance that varies between different varieties. Flowering shrubs If you want a fragranced shrub then an unusual choice comes with Hamamelis mollis - Chinese Witch Hazel. The striking yellow flowers appear in winter and have a strong fragrance; if you want to achieve year-round interest then this is the perfect plant. Viburnums are another winning winter option for fragrance and the flower heads have a light, often honey-like, scent. Perhaps one of the most obvious choices is planting a lavender, but it should not be over-looked as it is highly popular for a reason. The deep-violet flowers are aromatic and attractive to the senses of both humans and insects alike; we really like lavenders surrounding a seating area as you can sit back and soak up the scent whilst insects and bees flock round the flowers. Foliage Foliage is often aromatic, rather than sweet, but it can be a real delight to walk by on a windy day. One of the classic choices for aromatic foliage is the Laurus nobilis, also known as the Bay Laurel. The bay leaves are a popular choice in a herb garden and they smell even better when you pick one up and crush in it your hand. Equally, another popular plant is rosemary and we sell Miss Jessopp’s Upright’ which has a pungent scent and is great for planting in a rockery. Rosemary has many benefits and is proven to reduce levels of the stress hormone, cortisol. As well as that, rosemary repels mosquitos and other garden pests so it really will work wonders for your garden. If you’ve got room for a larger option, a eucalyptus tree can add structure, colour and foliage fragrance; the rounded leaves have a light menthol-like scent which is accentuated further when the leaves are crushed. No matter what you choose, planting a few fragranced trees and shrubs can make your garden all the more inviting for both you and for wildlife.
Creating a sensory garden series – sight
Creating a sensory garden is so much more than just having the odd scented summer flowers around your garden; with careful consideration you can create a tranquil outdoor space that engages the senses all year round. When you think of a sensory garden, you need to think beyond just a ‘scented’ garden. Sensory gardens should evoke a range of your senses and it is as much about the colours that you put together as it is about the fragrances that you have. We will be releasing a series of sensory garden blog posts to guide you through creating your own sensory space. Today’s post is about sight and we’ve put together some tips and suggestions for designing a sensory garden that is appealing to the eyes all year round. Sight A well-designed garden is something that takes a lot of time and a lot of careful planning. The scope of this blog post do not stretch to designing your garden for you, but the intention is to get you to think about how you want your garden to look and how you think it will work best for your senses. You can take various approaches when it comes to how your garden looks. Some gardeners like a theme: whether that’s through planting with a set colour scheme or planting contrasting colours all around your garden, you need to think about the overall look that you want to achieve. Structure: If you’re wanting structure then you can go about it in several ways. Consider the shapes and silhouettes you want to create through planting and that will help you decide. You can plant trees that grow tall at the back of borders and these can add height and provide screening to make you feel like your garden is your own tranquil retreat that is cut off from the rest of the world. We would recommend bamboo for screening in a sensory garden because they hit two senses: sight with colour (particularly the phyllostachys nigra – black bamboo) and with the structure and sound with the rustling of the light and papery leaves in the wind. You can also get structure from weeping trees. There’s a whole host of them on our website and they are perfect for achieving that year-round sensory garden because the pendulous frames of weeping trees look delightful when topped with snow. We would recommend something like Prunus Pendula Rubra for a small garden, Betula pendula ‘Youngii’ for a medium sized garden and Salix Chrysocoma for a larger garden. Climbers are also a great choice for structure as you can add a pergola or some trellis and have the beautiful vines of the climber weave their way around the structures. Many climbers also offer fragrance and colour too, so they make the perfect choice for a sensory garden. You can view our range of climbers here. Colour: Your outdoor space needs to appeal to your sight and colour is one great way to do that. Ideally, you want to ensure that you have colour all year round, so pick your trees and shrubs carefully to make sure that you have different coloured interest at different times of the year. In winter, evergreen varieties are great staples and Photinia Pink Marble (Pink Marble Cassini) is an outstanding evergreen. This delightful shrub has leaves that emerge a vivid pink colour and mature to a rich green with splashes of cream; there’s nothing nicer than bright colours in a sleeping winter garden. Equally, if you want to plant a shrub, Escallonia Gold Ellen is another fantastic evergreen and the golden leaves really brighten up a bed or border over winter. You can also plant a winter-flowering tree like Prunus Autumnalis Rosea which flowers over from autumn until early spring. For spring colour, you are truly spoilt for choice! So many varieties burst to life in spring and flowers are often abundant at that time of year. Any magnolia tree will put on a good show and we like Magnolia soulangeana as it produces delightfully large flowers for a comparatively small tree. Summer colour can come from leaves, fruit or flowers. It could come from the deep purple leaves of the Betula Purpurea or from the glossy fruits of a cherry tree like Prunus Stella. Equally, summer flowers can really steal the show and if you need something small in size but with mighty flowers then a lovely hydrangea will do the job: the Hydrangea paniculata Little Lime is a great choice. Autumn is a special time of year for many gardeners and the final bursts of colour from deciduous trees makes for a wonderful display. Acer trees are synonymous with and, if you have the room, planting a selection of acer trees can really make a fantastic scene in autumn. The burning red leaves of the Acer rubrum sit really well alongside the crisp yellow shades of the Acer Kelly’s Gold. If you haven’t got room for an Acer, the compact ‘Sorbus Autumn Spire’ features mustard-yellow berries and deep red leaves in autumn, so that really does add a lot of colour without taking up a lot of space. Whatever you decide to plan for sight-appeal, remember that you want to create an outdoor space that looks great all year round. After all, going out in winter to prune your roses and plant your spring bulbs can be made a lot more enjoyable with some winter flowers surrounding you!
Environmentally friendly gardening series: a guide to natural pest and disease control
At some point or another, every gardener faces the perils of seeing their plants and trees become victims of pests and diseases.
Environmentally friendly gardening series: a guide to composting
We all know that planting trees is good for the environment, but there are lots of simple things that you can do to make sure your garden is running at its optimum eco capacity. Over the next few months, we will be adding posts that give you advice on creating and maintaining a truly environmentally friendly garden. This post focuses on composting. Getting started More and more people are using a compost bin as a way of utilising their household waste. It’s cheap, easy and it yields great results. Creating your own compost heap has never been easier: not only can you buy ready-made bins, but you can easily make your own if you have some old pallets or lengths of wood lying around. You can click here to read North Ayrshire council’s guide to building your own compost heap from unwanted pallets. Filling your compost heap Once you’ve got your heap, the most important part about having it is making sure that you put the right waste in it. You can put in: Vegetable peelings Fruit waste Teabags Grass cuttings Plant cuttings Crushed egg shells Fallen leaves Shredded egg cartons You should avoid: Meat products Dairy products Any plastic/glass Diseased plants Pet waste Weeds You need to aim for a 50/50 ratio of both ‘green’ and ‘brown’ waste. ‘Green’ waste is the ‘wet’ waste, which includes your veg peelings, fruit waste, tea bags, egg shells and fresh green grass cuttings. Brown waste is your ‘dry’ waste, and this comprises of your dried grass cuttings, dry leaves, wood shavings and shredded egg cartons. You want a good mix of both in your compost heap because the green materials are rich in nitrogen and the brown materials are rich in carbon: mix them both together and you’ve got a very efficient compost heap. Maintaining your compost heap In order to have a healthy compost heap, you need to give it regular airing; this involves turning the waste regularly and mixing it up. Air circulation is key to efficient composting because the microbes that break down the waste rely on air for survival. You can make this job a lot easier by getting an aeration tool, but a large garden fork will suffice if not. Using your compost Compost can take between 3 and 12 months to be fully ready and this depends on what you added to your compost heap and also how often you aired it. You can check to see if your compost is ready by looking at the consistency of it and feeling it. It will be ready when you have a dark brown-black layer at the bottom of your heap and it will feel almost spongy to the touch. You want to make sure that you cannot see any of the individual matter that you added to your compost as it should have decomposed fully if it is ready. Compost adds a healthy boost to any garden soil and it greatly improves the quality and structure of the soil. Not only is your homemade compost full of nutrients, it is also fantastic for suppressing weeds. You can use your compost in many ways, including mixing it with your existing soil when planting new trees and shrubs and spreading it around your flowerbeds to enjoy the benefits of improved soil quality. Let us know how you get on with your composting. If you build your own compost heap then please send us a photo of your handiwork.
why do leaves change colour in autumn?
As the hot months of summer fade into the cooler autumn, deciduous trees start to ready themselves to drop their leaves. They do this because they are not going to need the leaves in winter. The weather will be cold and plants cannot heat their own bodies. In the cold weather, their inner processes slow right down. Water becomes less available and less mobile in the plant in freezing weather, so it makes sense to get rid of leaves that could be losing precious water to the air. The plants deal with all of this dramatic change in circumstances by dropping their leaves. However, the plants do not just throw away health green leaves intact. Before shedding the leaves, they withdraw as much of the goodness from the leaves as they can. The most noticable change is that they break down and remove all of the chlorophyll. Chlorophyll is the green pigment that they normally use to absorb sunlight and convert the energy to carbon-based storage compounds. As the chlorophyll degrades, its green colour disappears from the leaves. Other colours that were previously there, but masked by the green chlorophyll, suddenly become visible. These colours include the yellow-orange carotenoids and the red-blue anthocyanins. The combination of these two remaining pigments produces the vivid fiery autumn colours that we associate so strongly with autumn in certain parts of the world. Further changes also occur. Most obviously, the parts of the leaves that are joined to the branch begin to break down. The cell walls in these regions are degraded, and once they reach a certain stage in this process, the leaves just fall from the trees. This produces the atmospheric raining down of yellow and orange autumn leaves that brings us so much enjoyment as the last days of summer slip away. Incidentally, the warm sweet smell that we associate with kicking our feet through piles of autumn leaves is actually the smell of the bacteria that have begun to degrade the leaves as they lie piled up on the ground. The bacteria are not harmful to humans or animals, and this process is just the same as that of a good healthy compost heap. The leaf colours of autumn are one of life’s great pleasures, like the light of an open fire or a hot drink in cold weather; and you can easily have your own show in your garden. A wide variety of suitable trees are available and listed below. For an even more dramatic show, various parts of the world are well worth a visit. In Maine in the USA, where Maple trees are grown extensively for their maple syrup, whole hillsides change to yellow and orange in autumn. In the west of Scotland there are also large stands of deciduous trees that turn mountainsides to fiery reds and yellows every year. What a sight to see!Next week – evergreens – what’s their secret, and why do they not drop their leaves?
Pollution tolerant plants and trees.
We often get customers contacting us about the suitability of certain trees and shrubs for areas that suffer with pollution, and this is a particular issue for many urban areas. This post has been designed with the urban gardener in mind and we’ve selected the best pollution-tolerant plants that can be planted for a range of purposes. There are obviously many benefits to planting trees and shrubs in your garden, and this especially applies to urban areas that can have high levels of pollution in the air. Trees and shrubs filter the air and can improve the air quality by sequestering carbon dioxide from the atmosphere during the photosynthesis process, then releasing oxygen back in to the atmosphere as a by-product. Trees and shrubs also benefit the environment in many other ways, including creating a habitat for wildlife and providing shade As well as the many positive environmental factors, planting trees or shrubs in your garden also makes your outdoor space look more appealing and can therefore increase your property value. A good specimen tree can provide a focal point and scented shrubs make your garden feel a lot more welcoming. Trees and shrubs are also great for hiding unsightly buildings or creating divides between your garden and neighbouring gardens. Shrubs There are a range of shrubs that can tolerate atmospheric pollution, and you should look out for hardy evergreen varieties as many of these can easily cope with pollution. Lavandula, more commonly known as lavender, are outstanding plants that offer great interest all year round. With lavender being evergreen, the healthy grey-green foliage will add a splash of colour to your garden all year round. The real benefit of planting lavender does of course come from its outstanding flower heads that appear over spring and summer. The highly fragrant flower heads are purple-blue in colour and are tubular in shape; they are perfect for planting in a sensory garden and also add great aesthetic value during the summer season. Another great pollution tolerant genus is Euonymus: these delightful shrubs come in a wide range of shapes and sizes, and there are many compact varieties that are suitable for smaller gardens. Most euonymus have variegated leaves so the foliage is highly attractive and many are evergreen so they will give you interest all year round. Some varieties hold brightly-coloured fruits in autumn which adds a further colourful burst during the season. One of our favourites has to be Euonymus Harlequin as this evergreen has striking foliage that is dark green, creamy and pink – an unusual combination that stands out particularly well in a winter garden. Trees If you have more room in your garden then a tree can become a real garden focal point. There are many pollution tolerant species, but one of the most popular for urban planting has to be the Platanus x acerfolia (London Plane Tree). This is a large tree that is known for its attractive bark; on mature trees, the bark flakes off to create a patchwork of mottled cream, brown and pink shades. The large open branches hold glossy maple-like leaves and in winter spherical fruits hang like baubles. This is a great choice for a feature tree and it will grow to be a real garden statement. Do be aware though that the London Plane does require a lot of space and should not be planted near to buildings. If you have a smaller outdoor space, crab apple trees are a great choice. One of the most pollution tolerant choices is the Malus ‘Evereste’ as this is a hardy tree which will happily thrive in an urban garden. Not only does this tree offer fruit, it also gives great floral and foliage interest. The crab apples can also cooked up in to a delicious crab apple jelly. The final recommendation is a particular variety of prunus (flowering cherry trees). The ‘Shirofugen’ is highly pollution tolerant and is a truly beautiful tree. It offers flowering interest from late spring through to early summer and the double white flowers open from pink buds. The foliage is also highly attractive as the leaves have a copper tint when young and put on a delightful autumnal show with bright red and orange shades. There are of course many more trees and shrubs that are pollution tolerant but these were a selection of our favourites.
Conservation: Creating a wildlife-friendly garden
Here at Mail Order Trees we are constantly amazed by the wonders of wildlife, and we do whatever we can to create the perfect environment for encouraging a whole host of creatures, bugs and birds to make a home on our tree lines and at our nursery. We have around 50,000 planted and container grown trees surrounding our nursery and we therefore see a vast array of wildlife nestled amongst our trees and shrubs. We often carry a camera when we’re out collecting trees just in case we see anything special and we have found lots of wonderful examples of just how amazing nature really is. Here are just a few of our favourites: Every spring we see birds making nests in and around our nursery, but this female blackbird picked a very unusual position to make her nest. Despite her brown colour, this bird is actually a blackbird, and it is only the adult males that have the black colouring. The young birds and the females have brown feathers and a distinctive orange-yellow beak. This mother created her nest in a stack of black crates in one of our poly tunnels, and when we spotted her unusual nesting position we worked around the stack of crates to avoid disturbing her. Soon after her nest was complete she laid her eggs and sat patiently on top of the eggs to incubate the birds. We regularly checked in on the mother and noticed her absence in late spring; we peered into the box and found two small fledglings in the nest. We did not photograph them at this time as they were very small and we didn’t want to distress their mother in case she was nearby, so we left it a couple of weeks before returning with our camera. When we came back the fledglings were much bigger and we managed to get a few pictures of them before they flew away from the nest. One of the best things you can do to encourage birds to make a home in your garden is to plant large trees for them to make their homes in, although, as you can see from our little blackbird, they don’t always choose the most conventional places to build a nest! We found this large moth on one of our Malus Cardinal trees and immediately got the camera out. At first it was wary of us and revoked its wings to camouflage in with the leaves and the bark of the tree, but after a few minutes of us staying very still it spread its wings and flew from leaf to leaf. It landed on the floor right next to us so we managed to get the outstanding shot of it with its full wingspan on display. We got back to the office to research the moth and found out that it was the UK native ‘Privet Hawk Moth’. This moth is the largest UK native moth and it has a wingspan of around 12cm. You can spot this type of moth by its highly unusual pink and black stripes on its body and you will only ever see it in June and July. Sadly, many people regard moths as pests, but this is not always the case. Only a small percentage of moths are in fact pests, and people need to do more to encourage these creatures into their gardens as their numbers are in decline. You can plant trees like the Crataegus Paul’s Scarlet (or any other Hawthorn variety) to encourage moths into your garden, or if you need something a little smaller then they love honeysuckle (like the lonicera henryi). Planting either of these suggestions will invite moths into your garden and they will also create a natural habitat for a much larger range of wildlife too. Finally, the last of our pictures is of a very popular bush that is a new addition to our website. Our first home-grown batch of buddlejas (buddleias) are now for sale on the website and these are extremely popular with butterflies. These bushes are so synonymous with the decoratively winged creatures that their common name is in fact the ‘butterfly bush’. The butterfly in the picture is a nymphalidae ‘Peacock’ male butterfly and you can identify this variety by its highly striking ‘eyes’ that are on the upper handwings. Butterflies are a national favourite for gardeners and their vast array of patterns, shapes and sizes makes them seem very special indeed. If you have young children visiting your garden then try planting buddlejas or other fragranced flowers and setting up a butterfly watch – you can even have a look online to see what you’ve found and you can share your findings with others on the butterfly conservation website. Children love recording the prettily patterned visitors and it’s a great way of introducing young children to the concept of variety in nature.
