Winter's coming on . . . .

. . . . . though it's still pretty warm! We made our usual trip down town this morning for the fresh fish and bits and pieces of shopping, and I bought a couple of 12” clay pots with Love Oban vouchers which Mrs M gave me last Christmas! I’ll use them for putting special plants in out on the deck. Today's Blip is of Cakebread's Garden Centre, looking a bit empty as winter comes on.
 
I've been wheeling several barrow loads of plants down the drive and into my neighbour's unheated greenhouse. He doesn't use it over winter so it's quite useful to put some of my more tender plants in out of the rain - and probably the frost later on. Wheeling down is fine, wheeling up is very hot! I've put various plants in - an almost hardy pelargonium, a couple of Hedychium species, a trayful of Pilea matsudai 'Taiwan Silver' which is supposed to be hardy but I'm not risking it, a crateful of Furcraea parmentieri which are now three years old but too valuable to risk, several young plants of my new shrub Rostrinucula dependens, four solid plants of the fairly hardy bromeliad Billbergia nutans  and various other special things. I’ve always enjoyed trying these nearly hardy or out of the ordinary plants and have agreed to write a blog about them for Scotland’s Gardens Scheme, which will be fun!
 
Deck Man is out there again, so I’ve put the outside lights on so he can see what he’s doing. He’s making the replacement steps to lead from the deck down to the car parking space.