Starting Rooted

I've been growing plants for quite a few years now, but this year felt like the right time to do something with it. Rooted is a small plant growing business based here in Abbots Bromley — just me, growing seasonal bedding plants, named dahlias and winter colour by hand in the village.

The idea is simple. Growing plants, available locally. No delivery charges, no garden centre markup, just good plants grown properly a few miles from where you live.

This week the first dahlia tubers arrived from Peter Nyssen — 36 tubers across 12 named varieties including Café au Lait, Arabian Night, David Howard and Penhill Dark Monarch. If you know dahlias, you'll recognise those names. If you don't, you're in for a treat — they're some of the most spectacular flowering plants you can grow in a British garden, and they come back year after year if you look after them.

Getting them into pots is one of the more satisfying jobs in early spring. Each tuber goes into a 3 litre pot with good compost, and from there it's a matter of watering, feeding and waiting. By July they should be flowering plants ready to buy from the village shop in Abbots Bromley.

The plug plants follow in late May — geraniums, begonias, osteospermum, nemesia, trailing lobelia and fuchsia — all grown on here before going to the shop from mid-July.

If you're local and interested in what's coming, follow along on Instagram at @rootedgrows or drop me a message at rootedgrows.uk@gmail.com. More updates as things grow.

Tom @Rooted — Abbots Bromley