Further more, good advice is freely given with your purchases. The expertise gained over numerous years is a priceless asset to tap into - it is after all so much less painless to learn form the experience of others rather than making your own mistakes. Unfortunately year by year we see more Specialist Fuchsia Nurseries having to close in the battle with the garden centres which only carry a very limited range of the more easily propagated cultivars. If we want keep the vast choice the specialist can offer us, it is up to us to endeavour in earnest to stop this trend by supporting them now. Go and see them - you are guaranteed first class plants and service.     CD

MIKE'S BIG ONE by John Clarke, Barnsley
In the 1970s Mike Oxtoby entered and won the Triphylla section at the B.F.S. Northern Show with a plant of Thalia. The plant was potted on and fed so that today it is finally settled in a 125 litre pot. I doubt if he could carry it up those stairs at Sale today.
Four years ago they had a fire at the nursery and the plant was badly burnt. If you go to Mike and Jackies and look closely at the base you can see the scorched branches. If you buy a cutting of Thalia there you know what its parentage is.
Just two other points, the plant has more flowers on the other side, but Mike is not as photogenic on his left hand side and until it was airbrushed out Jackie had her usual clay pipe in her left hand. I removed this after being bribed with a cup of tea made with a new tea bag.

The 3½" Thalia,
as Mike always calls it,
in its full glory.

Photograph courtesy of
John Clarke, Barnsley,

A GARDENER'S LAMENT from an Edinburgh paper
I'm through with gardening, the soil must be against me! You see, I've done everything the book says, I've pruned the Prunus, syringed the Syringa, budded the Buddleia, frozen the Freesia - but they all wilted!
I've watered the Erica little by little, and even sat up late the watched the Phlox by night. My yellow Broom is covered with pests and won't sweep clean, and even my Laurel is not hardy. It's all most mysterious.
After last weekend I feel very Petunia and my Plumbago is worse than ever. To add to it all, the neighbours are beginning to casts Nasturtiums on my Honesty and some scoundrel is writing Euonymous letters.
I'm through with gardening altogether, there's absolutely no Fuchsia in it!