The big pots at the garden centre

I thought I would get a plant as a house warming present for a colleague who I have to visit at home this evening. She only moved in last Friday so a plant for the garden seemed suitable. I decided to go to a large garden centre which I first visited last spring as they had a range of plants I knew other places wouldn't have.

When I got inside I was confronted by the usual vast arrays of rather too vivid flowering pot plants, some of which did tempt me for our garden as they will add instant brightness to the patio by the back door. My garden expedition yesterday evening showed me that I am a bout two years behind in the garden and I fear I may never catch up and cope with the weeds. some instant gratification is very appealing though.

I bought a penstemon and osteospermum for my friend's garden, a couple of pretty begonias and some mini petunias for our's. One of the assistants there told me that everything is about a month late so my request for some morning glory plants was to no avail. Come back later was the message. Instead I invested in a good batch of John Innes compost to freshen up my old plants and get some new seedlings established. Once I get going in the garden I love it, but with too much writing still to be done I can't easily multitask.

The huge greenhouses are temperature controlled and have sophisticated automatic watering systems to grow on the thousands of small plants in their pots. They all seem to originate in the Netherlands apparently. Why they can't be raised here I don't now. As I walked between two greenhouses I spotted this array of pots which always attract me. I love the colour of clay pots as well as the blue and green ceramic finishes on some of the others which I think are made in south-east asia. This patch of pots are beyond my pocket. The largest clay pots, which I haven't shown in this picture were priced at £70, the mid range ones in the picture are £25. Perhaps i will wait for the end of season sales, as I have done in the past to get the bigger pots that we have at home. They do look good when filled with flowers and foliage, but i also like them all stacked up in these odd poses.