A trio of plants I purchased on the way back from the Blean on Friday. The one with reddening leaves is Mahonia japonica. The other two are Common Dog Rose (Rosa canina) and Rosa rugosa. Horticulturalists have long been preoccupied with breeding roses but these are wild species. Dog Rose is native to the UK but its range extends across Europe, North Africa and South West Asia. Rugosa hails from coastal areas of East Asia, North China, Korea and Japan and is widely grown as a garden plant. 

 I stopped off at Faversham to check out a nursery/garden centre called Edibleculture. Sure enough they have a very interesting selection of plants with an emphasis on edibles. One touch I particularly liked was the cardboard containers they use. They grow and display their plants in plastic pots and transfer them when sold- a brilliantly simple idea. The containers were more than adequate to get the plants home and indeed can be planted straight into the ground.

 Plastic has its uses- for things you want to last forever. A plastic pot can be used over and over again. Our problem with plastic is that we treat it as a disposable item.