by Sonia Mermagen | Mar 16, 2017 | Gardening News, Gardening Posts, Vegetables
With spud prices set to soar for retailers and consumers, Thompson & Morgan brings down the price of seed potatoes and repeats its mantra to ‘grow your own’.
(more…)
Sonia works at Thompson & Morgan in the role of press and communications officer. She is a self-proclaimed ‘reluctant’ gardener and is generally amazed if anything flourishes in her garden. Sonia has a ‘hands off’ approach to gardening and believes that this helps to encourage bees, butterflies and other wildlife. (That’s her excuse anyway!)
by Sonia Mermagen | Feb 27, 2017 | Gardening News, Gardening Posts, Vegetables
An odd-looking tuber vegetable is proving to be a surprise best-seller for mail order horticultural firm, Thompson & Morgan.
(more…)
Sonia works at Thompson & Morgan in the role of press and communications officer. She is a self-proclaimed ‘reluctant’ gardener and is generally amazed if anything flourishes in her garden. Sonia has a ‘hands off’ approach to gardening and believes that this helps to encourage bees, butterflies and other wildlife. (That’s her excuse anyway!)
by Sonia Mermagen | Jan 24, 2017 | Flowers, Gardening Posts, inspiration for the garden
Thompson & Morgan’s 3-in-1 concept now includes hebe and fuchsia.
When does 1 ever equal 3? With Thompson & Morgan’s 3-in-1 concept now extended to include hebe and fuchsia, gardeners can effectively plant one plant and it’ll grow into 3! Following the success of its Buddleja ‘Buzz® 3-in-1’, Thompson & Morgan is now selling hebe and fuchsia in the same way, giving gardeners the opportunity to seemingly grow one plant with 3 different flower colours – giving triple the colour in just one pot.
The Buddleja ‘Buzz® 3-in-1’ concept offers 3 plants in a single container. The plants grow in harmony together, creating a compact ‘single’ bush with 3 different coloured fragrant flower spikes – indigo, ivory and candy pink – which are all big favourites with bees and butterflies. T&M’s unique dwarf variety grows little more than 4ft (1.2m) high, but retains all the best qualities of its larger cousin, B. davidii.
Now applied to the ever-popular shrub, hebe, the 3-in-1 concept will create a patchwork effect with gardeners’ planting plans. The three varieties in the Hebe ‘3-in-1 Pot’ – ‘Bronze Baby’, ‘Blue Clouds’ and ‘Eyecatcher’ – grow together to make a really special feature on the patio as the three hebe varieties offer an interesting array of colour and textures. Hebes are great plants for providing impact and structure in the garden with minimum effort, whilst the flowers are a real magnet for bees and butterflies.
Also available this season is the Fuchsia ‘3-in-1 Pot’ featuring Thompson & Morgan’s three best-selling hardy fuchsias. Perfect for packing borders and containers with colour – especially where space is limited – these three fuchsias will grow together as one, with matched growing habits and continual flowering from June to the first really hard frosts. The three varieties are the hot pink ‘Shrimp Cocktail’, ‘Delta’s Sarah’ with its unusual lilac blue flowers, and magenta pink ‘Garden News’ which boasts stunning frosty pink sepals.
Key notes: 
– All three of Thompson & Morgan’s 3-in-1 plants are rated ‘perfect for pollinators’ by the Royal Horticultural Society.
– A recent report published by Butterfly Conservation has revealed that more than three quarters of butterfly species have significantly declined in the past 40 years and is urging the British public to act by planting suitable supporting plant species
– Learn more about how to encourage bees to your garden
– Learn more about creating a haven for bees and butterflies in your garden.
– Buddleja ‘Buzz® 3-in-1’, Hebe ‘3-in-1 Pot’ and Fuchsia ‘3-in-1 Pot’ are all available
from £14.99 for a 9cm pot
Sonia works at Thompson & Morgan in the role of press and communications officer. She is a self-proclaimed ‘reluctant’ gardener and is generally amazed if anything flourishes in her garden. Sonia has a ‘hands off’ approach to gardening and believes that this helps to encourage bees, butterflies and other wildlife. (That’s her excuse anyway!)
by Sonia Mermagen | Jan 12, 2017 | Gardening Posts
Thompson & Morgan has been at the forefront of cosmos breeding for 10 years since some unusual seeds arrived from California.
The ‘Cupcakes’ series of the ever-popular cosmos was born out of a chance find in a California back yard in 2007. When Diane Engdahl discovered an unusual cosmos flower in her garden in Santa Rosa, she sent the ensuing seed to the plant breeding team at Thompson & Morgan. Instead of its flower being made up of individual petals, rather like a daisy, as with most cosmos, the petals of this unique bloom were fused together, creating one single ‘cup’.
For nearly 10 years, plant breeders at Thompson & Morgan have been busy ‘fixing’ this new trait across the cosmos colour mix, developing new shades and refining the habit of this new cosmos shape. This long-standing cottage garden favourite was celebrated in 2016’s Year of the Cosmos and visitors to RHS Garden Wisley were asked to vote in a poll to name their favourite garden cosmos as part of the Royal Horticultural Society’s annual People’s Choice Competition. Once votes were gathered, Cosmos bipannatus ‘Cupcakes White’ came out on top of the 84 varieties on show in the RHS garden.
It’s easy to see why cosmos are so popular. Sales of cosmos seed and plants have increased hugely over the past 10 years. This is partly due to breakthroughs in breeding which have led to new varieties such as ‘Cupcakes’ and ‘Lemonade’ (see below), but it is also down to the fabulous garden performance of this very stylish flower. Available in so many colour ways, heights and flower types; easy to grow; not prone to disease or pest attacks – cosmos really are every gardener’s dream plant!
Initially marketed as part of Thompson & Morgan’s exclusive Cosmos ‘Cupcakes’ mix, ‘Cupcakes White’ boasts pristine white petals which are fused together to form the single ‘cup’ that is the unique trademark of the ‘Cupcakes’ series. Tall, bushy plants are free flowering; ideal for elegant border designs and container growing, and perform well in all types of weather. Cosmos make fabulous cut flowers and each plant will produce an impressive number of blooms.
During T&M’s trials, it was remarked that bees appeared to be taking shelter from wind and rain inside the flower ‘cups’, with sometimes more than one bee sharing the protection that the fused petals afford. Cosmos are always a favourite with pollinating insects, but the knowledge that bees are using this new variety to take refuge from inclement weather, makes them all the more appealing.
Top tips for growing cosmos from seed
• Sow cosmos seeds in a heated greenhouse or propagator in April.
• Good light is important to prevent ‘stretching’
• Young plants can be planted out after the very last frosts, usually in late May/early June
• Regular dead-heading will promote flowering right up to the first frosts
• When dead-heading cosmos, cut the stem right back to the first leaf rather than just pulling the flower head off
• Seed can be planted outside, where you’d like them to flower, in May or early June
Thompson & Morgan also offers a number of cosmos varieties as plants which, depending on the size of the plant at the time of delivery, can be planted straight out into the garden, or they can be potted up and grown on before transplanting.
Cosmos ‘Cupcakes White’ – 1 packet (30 seeds) £1.99
Cosmos ‘Cupcakes Mixed’ – 1 packet (100 seeds) £1.99
Height: 120cm (48″). Spread: 60cm (24″)
Also from Thompson & Morgan’s own breeding comes another stunning cosmos variety – ‘Lemonade’
To create this multi-flowering subtle yellow cosmos with a striking central white eye, T&M’s plant breeding team took a very bright yellow, but late-flowering Japanese cosmos variety and crossed it with earlier-flowering cosmos with better, shorter habits. The resulting delicate, yellow blossoms of Cosmos ‘Lemonade’ marked a major breakthrough in cosmos breeding. Flowers are produced en masse throughout the summer on short to medium-high, branching cosmos plants. Fantastic for patio pots or as a robust and floriferous border filler – its colouring and habit means that it combines well with most other plants in bedding or container displays. Cosmos ‘Lemonade’ also makes a great cut flower and looks stunning in a vase, either on its own or mixed in with other flowers.
Cosmos ‘Lemonade’ – 1 packet (30 seeds) £2.49
Cosmos ‘Lemonade’ – 30 garden-ready plants £14.99
Height: 60cm (24in). Spread: 40cm (16in)
For further information on growing cosmos, please go to Thompson & Morgan’s website and read an article by Graham Rice taken from The Seed Raising Journal from Thompson & Morgan.
Sonia works at Thompson & Morgan in the role of press and communications officer. She is a self-proclaimed ‘reluctant’ gardener and is generally amazed if anything flourishes in her garden. Sonia has a ‘hands off’ approach to gardening and believes that this helps to encourage bees, butterflies and other wildlife. (That’s her excuse anyway!)
by Sonia Mermagen | Dec 20, 2016 | Gardening Posts
Grow your own dramatically different Christmas veg.
Let’s face it; like Brussels sprouts, brassicas like broccoli and cabbage, have had a bit of a bum rap over the years. However, they have recently been enjoying some really good press and are even looking quite cool in the vegetable ‘it crowd’, trending heavily and inventively in culinary circles, restaurants and in those classic Christmas gift favourites, the celebrity chef cook book.
So why not give these colourful and super nutritious vegetables a place at your Christmas dinner table this year? In festive magazines and online, you’ll find numerous interesting and tasty recipes to present them at their best. And then you can grow some yourself ready for next Christmas!
Cauliflower has had a bit of a rebrand in the last year or so; no longer the bland horror of school dinners, but now appearing on menus sliced, seasoned with chilli, garlic and cumin and served as a ‘steak’; or grated, sautéed and used instead of rice as part of one of the low-carb diets that are doing the rounds.
Broccoli too has a new friend in the Instagram fitness sensation, Joe Wicks, aka The Body Coach. His speedy, tasty and nutritious recipes often include ‘midget trees’ – broccoli florets – and indeed a 25% increase in tenderstem broccoli has been attributed in part to the online nutrition coach’s Lean in 15 recipe programme.
But the real star in the brassica family has to be broccoli’s handsome Italian cousin, 
the stunning romanesco. With its whirling, almost alien-looking spirals, you’d be forgiven for thinking that this vivid green marvel is some kind of genetically engineered vegetable. In fact, romanesco has been around since the 16th century and predates broccoli and cauliflower. Sometimes referred to as caulibroc or broccoflower, the flavour of cooked romanesco sits somewhere between cauliflower and broccoli, but with an added tasty ‘nuttiness’. Needless to say, it’s full of good stuff: super-rich in antioxidants, vitamin C, fibre – you name it. The thing is, due to its fabulous pointed, whorled spears, romanesco doesn’t travel terribly well. Supermarkets find it difficult to store and package. You might find them on a nice farmers’ market stall, but the best way to get your hands on these fabulous green natural marvels, is to grow your own.
So if you’re ready to up your brassica game at home, take a look at the wide range of varieties available from Thompson & Morgan. Whether you choose to grow broccoli, cauliflower or romanesco, you’ll find brassicas are easy to grow.
Here are some top tips for growing brassicas from Thompson & Morgan’s Veg Guru, Colin Randell:
- Grow your cauliflower, broccoli and romanesco in soil that’s been well prepared.
- Keep well watered especially during dry spells.
- Brassicas enjoy a fortnightly liquid feed, particularly a seaweed feed, if possible.
- If feeding or watering is erratic, this may mean head development is not as good.
- Pick cauliflower and romanesco heads when young – you can keep a watchful eye on how they are developing by peeling back the protective leaves.
- Many gardeners use protective garden fleece, especially when growing small cauliflower and romanesco.
Head over to our brassicas hub page to find all of our best brassica guides and variety recommendations in one easy place. To grow your own visually stunning and super tasty romanesco, click here. Seeds are available for £2.29 for 125 seeds. And to check out Thompson & Morgan’s full brassica range, go to www.thompson-morgan.com/brassicas
Sonia works at Thompson & Morgan in the role of press and communications officer. She is a self-proclaimed ‘reluctant’ gardener and is generally amazed if anything flourishes in her garden. Sonia has a ‘hands off’ approach to gardening and believes that this helps to encourage bees, butterflies and other wildlife. (That’s her excuse anyway!)
