Whitegates Nursery Seasons

At West Rounton, for all Your Gardening Needs

Buy direct from us the grower!

 

Spring

As we leave the icy depths of winter behind things are slowly beginning to warm up and start growing. Now it is time to start getting busy in the garden. The first job to be getting on with is a general garden tidy up. Early spring is your last chance to prune your roses and remove any dead growth from the top of your perennials.

You can get your garden soil ready for growth by forking it over and improve its quality by adding compost or manure- try some of our great Humax products! Now is the best time for adding plants to your borders and flower beds. We have perennials available in a 12cm pot for just £1 – these are probably half the price of what you would pay elsewhere. We have lots of varieties including lupins, foxgloves, hollyhocks, aubretia, saxifrage all which will add colour and fill space in your borders. Over 50,000 perennials are produced on the Nursery in spring. We are able to offer fantastic value and provide plants with growing conditions best suited to your garden. We also have a huge quantity of shrubs on offer in a dedicated covered area all at brilliant prices.

Now is the time to add fertiliser around the base of your roses, shrubs and hedging to give them a welcome boost. Once you have planted up your borders spread a layer of compost or bark around your plants. This will help to retain moisture and stop weeds from germinating- meaning less work for you!

You can make a start sowing seeds. Early sowings of vegetables and salads can now take place in the greenhouse and as spring progresses sowings can be made outside. We are now stocking a greater range of seeds and propagation equipment than ever before. We will also have available seed potatoes and onion sets. Later in the season we will have a large range of vegetables and salads in cells for planting out. This year we are adding more varieties of both.

Spring is a good time to add instant colour to your garden, we have lots of great options for adding colour to your pots and hanging baskets. Use pansies, primroses (only 50p), pots of bulbs, heathers, bellis daisy etc for maximum impact. We grow over 250,000 of such plants, so we can offer our customers great spring value.

Many keen gardeners now like to buy their own bedding plugs and hanging basket starter plants. This year we will be offering both. All our plants are grown in larger units and cells than you would find elsewhere- but are the same price or cheaper! This enables our customers to grow a better product and gives better results with fewer losses. We do not offer these plants for sale until March, wait for the weather to warm up and save on your heating costs.

2007 has seen us add a large tree area with hundreds of fruit and ornamental trees for sale. We have also significantly expanded our selection of roses, fruit bushes and bare root hedging plants.

Finally don’t forget to look after your lawn in spring. This will get it looking great throughout the year. Apply a feed and weed and patch up any bare areas with an appropriate grass seed.
 

Mothers Day & Easter gifts.
Visit us to see our large range of gift ideas. We have planted baskets, pots and arrangements. One of our houseplants would provide the perfect gift for Mum, or how about a plant for the garden.

 

Flowers.
We can also provide you with a beautiful bouquet or flowers priced from just £10. We also have many different types of bunches of flowers starting from just £1 each. Flowers available include Lilies, Chrysanthemums, Carnations etc. This service is available all year round. Please try to order your bouquets in advance, you can book by telephone on 01609 882355. Funeral wreaths and flowers can also be provided please call for details.
 

 

Summer

By the end of May / early June we hope the risk of frost has passed and it is finally time to plant out summer bedding plants. We have hundreds of thousands of bedding plants available from March (as starter plants) through to July/August. We have a fantastic amount of varieties and colour themes. We will again be offering our super special offer on finished bedding plants of 6 packs for £10 – giving a 20% saving on our already low prices! We also stock thousands of geraniums, fuchsias, pelargoniums, osteospernums etc. If it is hanging basket plants you are looking for we have over 50,000 of these too! Surfinias (trailing petunias) and many other top quality hanging basket plants are just £1 each- including bacopa, verbenas, helichrysum, trailing begonias etc. You can also bring your pots and hanging baskets to us and we will plant them up for you.


When filling your own pots always try and use fresh compost where possible, this will give your plants the best possible start. Old compost can carry disease and will be lacking nutrients.


Once you have planted up your pots and hanging baskets you will need to water them regularly (daily for hanging baskets), apply a general feed (about every 1-2 weeks) and keep dead heading. Also keep an eye out for slugs and other pests, if they are dealt with quickly they will not damage your plants. During dry spells it will also be necessary to water newly planted shrubs and perennials to give them the best possible start in life.
As all plants continue to grow throughout the season ensure that the taller growing plants and climbers are well supported using canes, trellis and plant supports.


In the vegetable garden keep a check on weeds, water when needed for maximum yields and make sure pests aren’t eating your crops before you are.
 

 

 

Autumn

From September onwards it is time to plant up spring flowering bulbs. We offer a large range of quality bulbs at the best possible price. We generally have these in stock from September through to the end of November.
Autumn is also a great time for planting shrubs and perennials. The soil is still warm and plants planted now will become established before winter sets in. The best plants for autumn colour include many acers, pyracantha and cotoneaster. It is also the best time to split perennials, move plants from overcrowded areas or transfer plants to a better position.

September and October are the best months for applying an autumn lawn feed. It will improve root growth , green up your lawn and will prepare your lawn ready for winter. Bare patches can also be reseeded but don’t leave it too late.

Before the first frosts arrive bring in your tender plants which you want to save for next year. Such plants include canna lilies, dahlias & geraniums. When your bedding plants start looking tired its time to replace them with a new colourful autumn/winter display, many more plants are now available at this time of year. On the Nursery we produce around 300,000 winter pansies, wallflowers, kale, heathers, cyclamen, primroses etc.

We grow over 20,000 cyclamen, our indoor range of large cyclamen which retail at £1.99 are very popular with our customers. £1.99 is not a sale price- that is the standard price throughout the year.

It is also time to tidy up your perennials, most can be cut right back to smarten up your flower beds. Ideally a mulch should then be spread over the crowns of the plants to give them a feed and protect them from the cold weather ahead.
 

Christmas
Christmas at Whitegates starts from 1st of December. On the run up to Christmas you will find a huge selection of Christmas gift ideas including plants, arrangements, baskets and bowls. We have a great range of hyacinths, poinsettias, azaleas, Christmas cacti etc.

We also stock hundreds of quality Christmas trees. We have a great variety of cut trees including our best selling low drop Nordman Firs. We also have potted trees of all sizes. From 2 feet to 20 feet, we can supply you with a quality tree! Our prices are as usual as low as we can go – whilst delivering the great quality which our customers expect.

Holly wreaths are another speciality for us, all homemade. We supply many different types and sizes with over 1500 produced on the Nursery.


Winter
This is the one season of the year when there is little to do in the garden, but not for us! The Nursery is open all year round – just closing between Christmas and the New Year. We have a full selection of plants, gifts, flowers and sundries available right throughout the winter. One of our best sellers at this time of year is our great range of bird care products including feeds, feeders and nesting boxes.