News update from Thompson & Morgan

by | Dec 3, 2019 | Gardening News, Gardening Posts

Alstromeria ‘Holiday Valley, Alstromeria ‘Spring Valley’ and Alstromeria ‘Times Valley’

Further ‘reveals’ from our new Spring Range
We’ve just released details and images of a number of new products that will feature in our Spring 2020 range.

All three of the striking varieties in the new Summer Paradise series of alstroemeria – ‘Holiday Valley’, ‘Spring Valley’ and ‘Times Valley’ – have a neat, compact habit and boast wonderful, exotic-looking blooms. Tougher than they might look, the delicate blooms are in fact able to cope with temperatures of down to -15 °C! They are perfect for the front of borders and will also work well in patio pots. And, as many gardeners will know and appreciate, alstroemeria make fabulous, long-lasting cut flowers.

Peter Freeman, our product development manager, said:

‘We were so impressed with these alstroemeria in trials – we think our customers are going to love the way they grow so neatly. And, of course, the fact that they are so hardy is a great bonus!’

Exclusive to our Spring 2020 range is a spectacular new variety of ornamental sage, Salvia ‘Strawberry Lake’. It’s a very versatile perennial which makes a superb patio plant, flowering from late summer into autumn on attractive, mounding foliage. Bees and butterflies absolutely love the ruby-red, ‘open-mouthed’ flowers!

Also new to the range for next season is the amazing Dahlia ‘Tropical Breeze’. With its eye-catching colouring, it is already sparking interest amongst the new generation of dahlia lovers. The stunning blooms are particularly large and uniform for a bedding variety and they flower freely from late May to October! Vigorous plants are neat, bushy and well-branched and show good tolerance to mildew. Like all dahlias, ‘Tropical Breeze’ makes a truly striking cut flower.

T&M Exclusive – Savlia ‘Strawberry Lake’ and Dahlia ‘Tropical Breeze’

Vicky Ager, T&M’s head of direct sales and GMG awards compère, James Alexander Sinclair

Garden Media Guild awards lunch

We proudly sponsored the Practical Journalist of the Year award at the annual Garden Media Guild awards lunch at The Savoy in London on Thursday 21st November. Vicky Ager, our head of direct sales, announced the winner, Alan Titchmarsh, who was unfortunately not in attendance. Vicky said:

‘We were so pleased to be involved in this great event again this year. It was such a pleasure to see so many of the gardening industry’s press, writers, broadcasters and bloggers!’

The Great British Growing Awards
In Grow Your Own magazine’s Great British Growing Awards, we were recently named the winner in two categories – Best Plug Plant Range and Best Online Retailer. Miles Turner, our direct sales manager, commented:

‘We’re very honoured to win these two awards, particularly as they are voted on by Grow Your Own readers who we know have so many brands and products to choose from. We’re so proud at T&M to be part of such a great industry and very happy to be recognised for our contribution.’

New additions to retail gift range
A number of new gardening gift items have recently been added to our retail range, namely a Gardeners’ Hamper and two herb kits. Joseph Cordy, our head of B2B, commented:
‘We’re pleased to be expanding our retail offering to include these premium gardening gifts. Whether customers are buying presents for the festive period or at other times of the year and for other occasions, we think that these gifts can provide an attractive alternative to plants.’

These gardening gifts are available in garden centres in the New Year.

Gardeners’ Hamper, Herb Garden Trio Kit and Chalk Pot Herb Kit

Alstroemeria ‘Holiday Valley’, ‘Spring Valley’ & ‘Times Valley’ (Summer Paradise Series)
| Long-flowering, exotic blooms | Ideal for patio pots and front of borders | Long-lasting cut flowers| Sun or part shade | Height & Spread: 45cm | Available as jumbo plug plants
| Available separately or as a collection of all three varieties | Despatching Spring 2020 |

Salvia ‘Strawberry Lake’ | Exclusive to Thompson & Morgan | Free-flowering from late summer into autumn | Ideal for cottage gardens or exotic borders | Great for patio pots | Half hardy perennial | Full sun | Height: 45cm | Spread: 30cm | Available as jumbo plug plants | Despatching Spring 2020 |

Dahlia ‘Tropical Breeze’ | Superb bedding dahlia | Large uniform blooms | Great for patio pots, beds and borders | Stunning cut flower | Half hardy perennial | Full sun | Height: 45cm | Spread: 30cm | Available as jumbo plug plants | Despatching Spring 2020 |

Your all time favourite T&M plant

by | Mar 20, 2015 | Gardening News, Gardening Posts

Today we celebrate our 160th birthday! We began in a small garden behind a bakers shop in Ipswich, tended by William Thompson, the baker’s son. From the back garden we moved to a nursery at the edge of Ipswich and then to an even larger one!

We have now grown into one of the UK’s largest mail order seed & plant companies, providing gardeners with the very best quality products, tips and advice. You can read more about our humble beginnings here.

We wanted to know if there was an all time favourite Thompson & Morgan plant, so we took to facebook to find out! We had begonias, sweat peas, poppies and so many more! Who can blame them; we have so many varieties for you to choose from. But we would just like to share some of them with you.

  1. ‘French beans last year, had nearly 3 carries bags of 8 plants, and amazing flavour. I can’t wait to get these on again and some nice flowers to attract the bees would be amazing’ – Sam
  2. ‘Fuchsias all the colours there sooooo pretty xxx’ – Lisa
  3. ‘Difficult choice and it keeps changing but I think it has to be Alstromeira ‘Indian Summer’. And a very Happy 160th Birthday!’ – Annie
  4. ‘Sweet pea high scent’ – Karen
  5. ‘Favourite flower would be Antirrhinum ‘Madame Butterfly’ a prolific flowerer and so ‘bubbly’, my favourite vegetable would be Mange tout ‘Shiraz’ because it has a long season, pretty flowers and pods and lovely flavour’- Sue
  6. ‘I’ve only just started gardening and the plants u have of you are only just growing but I’m liking the hellebores at the mo’ – Paul
  7. ‘Any poppy variety. They just make me smile year after year’ – Ruth

indian summer

Don’t forget to comment your favourite T&M plant below.

Pick a bouquet a week – and the flowers still keep coming!

by | Feb 28, 2013 | Flowers, Gardening News

Pick a bouquet a week – and the flowers still keep coming!

There’s a great deal of excitement at Thompson & Morgan, one of the UK’s largest mail order seed and
plant companies. And it’s all about some very unusual plants!

We’ve all seen bunches of alstroemeria (or Peruvian tree lilies) in florists and supermarkets, but this new 3 variety mix is very different. Thompson & Morgan has specially selected 3 distinctively bicoloured, long-stemmed and vigorous varieties which were originally grown exclusively for the cut flower industry and were not until now available to the home gardener.

alstromeria tree lily

Kelly, from the Design Team being creative with these wonderful bouquet flowers

The long, strong stems are extremely ‘upwardly mobile’ and ‘knit’ together to form a fabulous column of colour from June to November, with plants typically producing in excess of 30-40 flower stems each. You really can pick a bouquet of beautiful, florist-quality alstroemeria blooms each week throughout the summer and the plants will just keep churning out more.

T&M’s new product development manager, Michael Perry says, ‘These alstroemeria are 4 feet taller than any others we’ve seen! They are very unusual varieties which are rarely available. We’re thrilled to be able to offer them.’

He is urging gardeners to grow some for themselves. ‘Get them going up a frame or obelisk in a pot on the
patio, up a fence at the back of a border or up the side of a fence – they’ll get taller and more colourful by the day.’

alstromeria tree lily

A fantastic array of colours and shades

These commercial-quality, premium plants are now available to gardeners who will be pleased to hear that they are all hardy varieties which will successfully overwinter and produce even more flower stems in their second year.

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