Customer trial panel member profile – Harry Cook

by Rebecca Tute | May 14, 2013 | Customer Trial Panel

Customer trial panel member Harry Cook has many years of gardening experience, winning several awards for his own garden displays. He made the news last year when he stopped thieves from taking his award-winning petunias!

Harry Cook

My name is Harry Cook. I stared gardening at a young age when I helped a relative on an allotment growing potatoes and vegetables. I also won a competition for ‘Best Preparation of a Seed Bed’ at Brooksby Agriculture college when I was in the Young Farmers’ club.

I left school at 15 and went to work at Whatton House working for Lord Crawshaw in the gardens. I then went to work for Loughborough Parks Department for 17 years, firstly working on sports grounds and playing fields and then moving onto tractors and machinery, before finally being made up to charge hand doing ground maintenance. I then moved on to work for a construction firm for 35 years driving heavy plant.

When l retired l had a lot more time for my garden and started to enter my front garden into competitions. l entered Loughborough in Bloom and won 3 trophies. l was also entered into the RHS East Midlands in Bloom for ‘Best Front Garden’, winning 3 Frank Constable Gold awards. l have also entered Garden News competitions, winning the Unsung Hero Award for the work l do for the community.

l have been doing customer trials for Thompson & Morgan for 3 years, which l really enjoy. The front garden is quite small, but l put up lots of baskets and tubs around it. I also put flowers on top of the bay window and over the front door, which makes it look twice as big. l have adopted some of the council-owned land at the front of the house (with their permission). The house sits next to a very busy roundabout, which brings its own problems, but the joy the garden brings to other people makes all the hard work worthwhile.

Rebecca Tute

Rebecca works in the Marketing department as part of the busy web team, focusing on updating the UK news and blog pages and Thompson & Morgan’s international website. Rebecca enjoys gardening and learning about flowers and growing vegetables with her young daughter.

Customer trial panel member profile – Bijal Mistry

by Rebecca Tute | May 14, 2013 | Customer Trial Panel

Customer trial panel member Bijal has been testing plants for Thompson & Morgan for a few years. He has just joined the blogging team and will be giving updates on his garden throughout the year.

Bijal Mistry

I started gardening as a child helping my mum planting baskets and tubs. I clearly remember going to the garden centre on Sundays every week without fail!

Having studied design through college and university and also working with home furnishings as my career, I feel that I am a fashion and design conscious person. However my garden is where I can go completely mad and experiment with all types of colours, shapes and forms without batting an eyelid at rules!

I love over the top, in your face bedding plant displays and the front garden and majority of the back garden is where I go wild with containers and baskets of all shapes and sizes.

The garden itself is a typical front and back that you would find with a semi-detached house.The front faces due south, so bedding plants love it here and I can even grow a few exotic things too, even on the outskirts of Manchester!

Over the years I have won many prizes for the garden in local Britain in Bloom competitions. My biggest win to date was in 2011 when I won 1st prize in the Front Garden Category of the Garden News magazine’s annual competition.

I have been trialing plants for T&M now for about 4 years and it has allowed me to try things which I would not normally grow, especially veg.

In an ideal world I would love to have an allotment and also an area where I can grow my own cut flowers. I would also like to be the holder of national collections of tuberous begonias and poinsettias, as these are my favourite plants. I probably wouldn’t have a social life or any friends, but I would be happy being surrounded by plants!

Rebecca Tute

Rebecca works in the Marketing department as part of the busy web team, focusing on updating the UK news and blog pages and Thompson & Morgan’s international website. Rebecca enjoys gardening and learning about flowers and growing vegetables with her young daughter.

Customer trial panel member profile – Shirley Reynolds

by Rebecca Tute | May 14, 2013 | Customer Trial Panel

The latest Thompson & Morgan customer trial panel member to join the blogging team is Shirley Reynolds.

Shirley Reynolds

Gardening is my every day pleasure. I just love to see the daily changes of bare soil being hidden by wonderful coloured flowers.

I tend my small garden like a mother does her baby! Up early, out early in the garden just to see what has grown overnight – it is amazing what grows in the dark. I talk about my garden and plants like a mum does her baby too! And yes, I am like Prince Charles… I do talk to them.

My garden is 27′ wide 20′ deep – small, but every bit of space is used. It is facing S.S.E and enclosed by high wall and high fencing, so it can get the sun all day long. It’s also sheltered, except when very windy – it just whips around. I live on an estate, but pretty close to the country – in fact just a few doors away.

My favorite plant has to be the lily. A plant that from a small bulb, a stem up to 6′  will grow, then shows off a beautiful flower head with an amazing perfume. The amazing colours and details portrayed on each large flower are spellbinding.

All my flowers are planted in containers. I do this so I can change them around as they bloom or die off. I also find them more manageable. I can put the ones that need overwintering at the bottom of the garden and cover them. I also grew my vegetables also in containers, but now I have dug up my lawn…less work than mowing lawns, plus fresh veg and salad as I want it.

Hanging baskets are also a favourite – from just 8 plug plants in a container  they can grow to 3′ across and sometimes 4′ hanging.

I am passionate about my garden. Gardening is therapeutic and very calming. It’s full of surprises too.

What inspired me to garden? Nature and watching something grow and blossom daily. Butterflies and bees, flitting from flower to flower. Ladybirds wandering over the leaves, seeming to go around in circles. Also Michael Perry and Thompson & Morgan inspired me for producing wonderful plants and the best lilies.

Also knowing I have given my time and care to help the growing of plants that are amazing. It’s simply a worthwhile adventure, something different every day. It makes me feel worthwhile too – they need me to tend them!

It is nice talking about the plants to people and also nice to be asked how do I do this etc, so giving advice that is appreciated. That’s also my inspiration and my love for gardening.

Rebecca Tute

Rebecca works in the Marketing department as part of the busy web team, focusing on updating the UK news and blog pages and Thompson & Morgan’s international website. Rebecca enjoys gardening and learning about flowers and growing vegetables with her young daughter.