The Fairview Gardener

We recently made the acquaintance of Glenn Satterthwaite, co-proprietor of The Fairview Gardener, a nursery at Churcham, just the other side of Gloucester. he and his business partner Paul have owned it since 2009, and describe it as a centre for gardeners, rather than a garden centre.

We decided to go along this morning to have a look, and found a very tidily kept place (always a good sign), with an attractive range of well-grown plants and appropriate sundries, on a compact site. Glenn and Paul grow a wide range of the plants themselves, producing all the vegetables and bedding plants, and about 50% of the perennials. They have an active Gardeners Club, with members receiving a discount on purchases and having the opportunity to attend talks and workshops. For further information visit their website.


Display beds at The Fairview Gardener



Petunia Littletunia Sweet Sherbet

It's always interesting to see the latest in bedding plants and how the old favourites are regularly being reinvented, especially as even commonly seed-raised plants like Lobelia erinus are now being propagated as cuttings. The range of variations in Petunia and its allies is also constantly changing - I hadn't seen the dwarf forms being sold as Littletunia before, and we picked up some of the really dark velvety, almost black cultivar 'Black Velvet'. It was interesting to see that many plants in the batch have yellow stripes in the flower though, either as full or partial stripes, which suggests that the clone is not stable in propagation.


Bedding plants produced at The Fairview Gardener.