At Last! Cotinus!

Lol poor you! But great you got it! Hope it does well! :)

Very best wishes to Fred to a swift return to health. I love that variety - enjoy!

Good job you found Fred, or he would probably have died. I hope he'll be happy in his new home.
I think I would have bought a few of those cacti lol :D

Hello Gattina. A little about GC in other countries. Honestly many don't need them. One example my sister in Cyprus. When visiting a friend's house and sees something she doesn't have, cuts off a small piece, push it into the ground in her garden and here it grows. The opposite do her friends. Different cultures, different growing conditions and different plants to grow. Here of course we have to buy most plants ready from the GC.

Well done Gattina on your find, that was a good bit of snooping around even if you weren`t dressed for the occasion, lol, I hope Fred does well for you....

Oh, how infuriating - no garden centres, no plant suppliers, that's a reason to not live in Italy as far as I'm concerned. Are there not even online suppliers of plants, Gattina? I'm always moaning I can't get anything I want at the garden centre any more - I've spent £400+ on plants for clients this year, and the vast majority came from online suppliers, think I spent about £30 at the garden centre. This is a real problem for the uninitiated in this country - if they don't know much about plants, they can't hunt for a supplier of a specific plant on line, can they?
My biggest delight was recent - I actually found somewhere selling Hebe Wingletye AND Lavandula 'Munstead Dwarf' on line - all you can find everywhere these days is L. 'Munstead', which is larger, and as for H. Wingletye, forget it, most places haven't even heard of it. I smiled for a week after ordering those, lol!
Hope the Cotinus grows well...

I am so pleased that you have found one Gattina, Fred will repay you with a beautiful show if you give him a little TLC. I have not seen a picture of him, but I would prune once he is dormant to encourage both his shape and vigour.

Thank you, Dear Pimpernel! He's a little shy and not really very photogenic yet. I just want to make sure he's going to survive my re-potting him before I start chiving bits off the poor little blighter. He isn't very big to start with. I've been out this afternoon and bought him a bigger, terracotta pot instead of the plastic one he's in at present. Do you think it would be ok to leave off the pruning for a year until he's big enough to have some growth to spare? He hasn't really got any shape yet to be encouraged, and is barely coping with instructions in English to "Grow you little B****r!"
Don't think I haven't thought of buying online, Bamboo, but there are two things stopping me - here, they very rarely use the Latin names for plants, and I'm not at all certain of the local names that they give them. The second thing is, there is just not the same culture of gardening AT ALL, and any on-line suppliers seem to be catering for professional garden designers on a large scale. There is a third thing, and that is, I don't trust 'em. If I can't trust them face to face, I'm certainly not going to buy stuff I haven't seen from people I know nothing about! Sad, isn't it? You say that this is a problem for the uninitiated, not knowing what to buy on line because thy don't know what they want in the first place: Well, that's what GoY is for, isn't it? I'm discovering dozens of things that I want, that a month or so ago I didn't know existed! (I'm sure you know what I'm trying to say!)

Lol, yes I know what you mean - but really, aren't you going to end up in some sort of nightmare where you want all these plants you've discovered, but can't source them where you are? I know the gardening culture isn't there - Britain is known for being a nation of gardening nuts, according to most of Europe, there isn't the same obsession with it elsewhere.
As for the Cotinus, let the poor thing get going before cutting it - they can be quite slow for the first couple of years or so.

Not a word of it Bamboo Fred needs knocking in to shape not cosseting. A short back and sides will get his roots going.

By the sound of it, the plant's got a No. 1 currently...

Lol...But no picture

That is a great story Gattina! I enjoyed it very much, you paint a great picture of an English gardener abroad! You must write a book about your experiences. Whenever we go on holiday I try to find such a book about where we are going. I read a great one about a couple who bought a run down old place in the Algarve and set about learning to live with the locals. Yours would have it's own twist, being a 'gardening' book! Good luck finding more treasures...a 'mist tree' fantastic! ;))))

Oh you are all so kind! You'll be pleased to know that Fred now has a pot companion - Bert! I managed to find a rather nice Heuchera Palace Purple yesterday - something of a triumph. I shall have to be much more careful with this latest baby, since I managed to kill my first p.p. by planting it in full sunshine. I've put them together in a nice sheltered spot and shall be talking to them encouragingly every few days.

I agree with Karen susan, you should write about your experiences.I love your stories and I for one would buy it.I hope Fred gets through your winter with its friend Bert.All you need now is to find that Gaura! Do you have to declare all your plants or bulbs ,when you buy from the U.K, or do you sneak them in!

Since we're within the EU, we don't have any problems bringing plants backwards or forwards, Rose. The only problem is how to keep them alive in the suitcase! I think if we tried to bring seed potatoes into this, the major potato growing area in the whole of Italy, someone might get a bit agitated, but there's nothing in the rules to say that we shouldn't. Colorado beetles are not unknown here, though, so maybe bringing potatoes from here to the UK could be frowned on.
I think I might try writing that book: the trouble is that so many people have done the same thing first, and where to start?

Found your blog after a mini-trip to Britain to see my daughter and grandchildren - and a visit to a huge beautifully-run GC with a fantastic restaurant! Like you (again!) I decry the lack of GCs here! The one we do know of - about an hour away - has a wonderful indoor plant display, but a sad weedy overgrown outdoor section, so I have to rely on seeds (which often choose not to germinate at this altitude), or plants from a lovely GC near Partner's family, but only when we have the cash to go by ferry! We're off there for Christmas on the ferry, so I'll be trying to cram as many plants into the car as poss! Heucheras are top of my list - never seen one here, but I have the perfect place for them in the shade of the boilerhouse along what I refer to as 'Hosta Highway.' Good luck to Fred and Bert. Hope they grow bushy and happy. :o)

Mine has dropped half of it's leaves in the last three days and is now looking ragged, three years since it was pruned so there will be no smoke next year. I noticed two embryonic holly seedlings in the pot with it...Thank you Mr Black bird.

So many parallels, aren't there, Nariz? I've noticed that once we get into high summer, UK bought seeds just don't tend to germinate here - I imagine something to do with very high temperatures - so much for successive sowings of "Little Gem" and parsnips. I have got wary now when we go back to the UK and visit GCs - I used to stand with my mouth watering, Where to start? We used to drive back, and having the car made SOoooo much difference, but these days we just aren't up to it, and it's exhausting and more expensive, so we just do BA or Ryanair. Big disappointment for a gardener. This last trip, more than half my luggage allowance was taken up by bulbs. Sad old woman!

Not sad at all! Very sensible! And with Ryanair's miserly 10kgs cabin baggage allowance I have learnt to pack light so that I can bring back goodies. This trip I managed to bring back 20 packs of seeds, a large jar of peppercorns, a chocolate bear, a box of truffle chocolates, a pack of small freezer boxes, a paperback book and a replacement piece of computer amongst my dirty washing! ;o)

LOL, Nariz! I do the same. Chocolate oranges, Christmas crackers (unknown out here) Marks and Spencer tights and knickers, curry powder, Sequestrine, Over the counter medicines, 10 packets of seeds, pickling spices, printer cartridge refills, codeword books (I am an addict) small plants, makeup, etc., etc.,

Oh, yes, I forgot to mention the make-up! Still can't get to grips with Spanish stuff and brand-name cosmetics are so expensive here! Another - sort of - parallel, I'm a Sodoku addict, but my Mum was a code-word addict!

What about marmite? I'd have to take that back with me...

It's strange, Bamboo, people who come to stay seem to think Marmite makes a welcome gift, and I have a cupboard full of the damned stuff. So, no, not something for the suitcase.

Lol..I love it Gattina ....and it does not go off, so plump up those pillows ...What do you charge for B&B....I listen to radio 4 and Italy is on it's Ar&e....

It's late at night, Pimpernel, and I've been out and have had maybe one too many glasses of wine, so be patient with me.... What the H*** are you talking about? Ar&e????

Oh..never mind..I am sure Maria will put me up...

I'm not sure you would put up with Maria, though.....And she ain't got Marmite, so there! What she has got, and brings out at every available opportunity in the name of hospitality is a very dusty box of Ferrero Rocher with a sell-by date of December 1989. Good Luck!

Lol..Lol Oh my ! More lollin... 1989 was vintage.

Still is.

Hee hee, you lot - who's Maria, and why has she got a box of Ferrero Rocher that's so old? Nay, let me rephrase that, how has she got a box so old? Put ferrero rocher anywhere near me and they'll be gone in half an hour...

I'm like you, Bamboo - chocolates are an endangered species in this house, but Maria, our very elderly neighbour, like a lot of Italians, doesn't really care for very sweet stuff, and obviously at some stage someone (probably English) has given her a present which she hasn't got round to eating, so she wheels them out if she has visitors. If you think the chocolates are old, you should see the box of teabags she has! I think they must have a preservation order on them. Needless to say, when we go a-visiting, we politely decline both. Her home-made wine is a less dodgy choice, although I shouldn't want to drink much of it.

Pimpernel, I'm a LOT more sober now, and I still can't for the life of me work out what Ar&e is!!! Please tell - it's bugging me. (you can tell me in a pm if it's something dodgy!) Is it something REALLY obvious? Am I being a daft old gardener?

The terrible state of the Italian economy. I was referring to the bleak prospects... Italy is on it's Arse ! You are just politer than me.

Mind you I would still rather be somewhere as beautiful as you are.

Grooaaannnn! How thick can I be? I'm obviously far too pure-minded! LOL!