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Closeup of yellow and red calceolarua flower
Plants by post: alpine plant calceolaria can be bought online. Photograph: homydesign/Alamy Stock Photo
Plants by post: alpine plant calceolaria can be bought online. Photograph: homydesign/Alamy Stock Photo

Gardening through lockdown? Go online and support our small growers

This article is more than 3 years old

Help keep independent plant suppliers afloat – and enjoy the therapeutic benefits of gardening in these uncertain times

In uncertain times, gardening can be a powerful therapeutic tool. When distracted by fresh air and new growth – and with your hands and mind busy – it is so much easier to live in the here and now, focussing less on the things beyond your control. Yet, like many industries, the current situation is hitting small, independent growers hard. Coinciding with the crucial spring season, this period could really mean make or break for the many tiny, family-run nurseries that underpin UK horticulture. However, British mail-order plant suppliers will be able to reward your support now with plants to boost your spirits. All without you having to pass your front door.

D’Arcy and Everest has been producing some of the finest alpine plants in the world from their Cambridgeshire nursery since 1992, including some species I’ve never seen anywhere else. These are perfect if you have a bright spot with well-drained soil. This doesn’t have to be a traditional rock garden or alpine bed, as their tolerance for searing sun, poor soil and drought also makes these plants perfect for windswept roof terraces, or brightening up gravel driveways.

Hot buy: purchase chillies from a plant shopping ‘nirvana’. Photograph: Richard Griffin/Alamy Stock Photo

For those with opposite conditions, Long Acre Plants stock the most comprehensive range of plants for shade anywhere. Their website has a useful tool to help you select perfect contenders for specific requirements and locations, from native woodland plants to those that will thrive in that most tricky of situations – dry shade. Plant quality and packaging is top notch, too.

In a market dominated by the big boys, it’s crucial to support the work of our amazing, independent vegetable seed nurseries. My favourite start-up is Real Seeds, based in North Wales. They grow all their own stock, including rare vegetables that even I, an ethnobotanist, had never heard of. Their “Fat Baby” Achocha is a cucumber relative that tastes almost identical to green peppers, but is far easier to grow and at least 10 times as productive. A total winner.

If you love chillies, Sea Spring Seeds, run by world-renowned experts Joy and Michael Michaud, is a plant-shopping nirvana. It’s a tad late to sow these from seed, so it’s just as well they stock a bewildering array of plug plants, too.

If you are after unusual ornamentals, we Brits are lucky to have one of the best nurseries on the planet in Crûg Farm Plants. They have introduced dozens of species from their plant-hunting trips around the world. Their website reads like the inventory of Kew Gardens, except you can order anything (beautifully packed) to arrive in just a day or two.

No outdoor space? Hampshire Carnivorous Plants have wonderful (reasonably priced) exotic pitcher plants. For more flowery indoor specimens, the massive range of African violets and Cape primroses at Dibleys is hard to beat. We’re all in this together, so support these amazing plant suppliers if you can.

Follow James on Twitter @Botanygeek

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