Readers sometimes ask how I choose the items that I 'try and test'. Almost always they arise from a manufacturer or company sending me a sample or a press release describing a new product. I then explain to them that I am happy to try pretty well anything but won't simply reproduce the marketing blurb - I need to see the product and assess it and will then report on it, good or bad.
But from time to time, I come across something that so impresses me I simply want to recommend it. And this week, it has happened, not with a product, but with a nursery.
The nursery in question is an old and well known firm Burncoose Nurseries near Redruth in Cornwall.
They have a huge range of over 3500 ornamental trees and shrubs and herbaceous plants including rare and unusual magnolias, camellias, rhododendrons and also conservatory plants.
My recommendation comes after ordering some ornamental trees and choice camellias for my Oriental garden. They were excellent plants, well priced, came promptly and superbly packed. So it's a pleasure to give them this wholly unsolicited recommendation; and if you are on holiday in Cornwall, they also have a wonderful 30 acre garden to visit.