Our autumn plants range boasts spectacular spring bedding plants, shrubs and perennial plants and with such a huge variety available you will be spoilt for choice. We asked our gardening guru Michael Perry for his top 10 plants from our autumn range, so that we can bring you our autumn plants ‘behind the scenes’.
This is a primrose mixture like no other! I first saw the red-eyed variety at a trade show about 5 years, and just knew we had to offer it to our customers! Since that first sighting, more colours have been added to the range, each with that distinctive eye. It’s modern, contemporary, and isn’t something you’ll be able to find in the shops! The contrasting inner ring has never been seen before in primroses and makes ‘Planets’ the perfect variety for lighting up your spring borders and pots.
I’m sure you’ve all seen the Chelsea Flower Show Plant of the Year Hydrangea ‘Miss Saori’, well this is the sister variety ‘Love’. First seen in hydrangea trials, this variety stood out thanks to the 2-tiered blooms in punchy, candy pink. So, if you thought all Hydrangea plants were boring, then you need to think again!
Now, a hardy begonia is not a new concept, species forms have been around for years. But they aren’t often very showy, but ‘Garden Angels’ is from the amazing breeder and selector Dan Heims, who has created a begonia for your perennial borders, with metallic, patterned foliage as well as sprays of begonia blooms!
I love cut flowers, and I love trying out new and different cut flowers. ‘Blue River’ is, would you believe it, a cut flower clematis! I remember seeing a glorious vase of them on the breeder’s trade stand in Germany a few years ago. It’s one of those informal Clematis too, which will weave through borders, helping your other plants to look good!!
Now, don’t say I never bring you new roses! This is wildly different. All the way from a plant selection company in Australia, this rose plant has been tested for many years, in almost every climate around the world! It isn’t ashamed to be colourful either, with paint-splashed blooms in psychedelic colours, that’s why they call it the ‘decorator rose’! I think this rose will change the way we use roses in the UK!
Despite the cheeky name, this clematis makes a lot of sense! Usually, your large-flowered clematis plant would only produce flowers from about the 2 foot mark, and have … ahem.. a bare bottom! However, these new French varieties have been selected for having blooms from the top to the bottom! A huge advance in clematis, and will hopefully be the benchmark for new clematis varieties in the future!
This mixture came about in a rather serendipitous manner, as our reception just picked some tulips from our trials and placed them in a vase. She seemed to choose the blousy, peony-flowered types, and the colours worked really well together, so when I walked past, I knew we had a new Tulip blend on our hands!
Now, this is one we have been offering for a few years now. The first seed was sourced from a botanical university, and we found that- not only are the flowers like a pure blue chrysanthemum- but the plant also blooms quite late, September to October. This is just brilliant, as it injects colour into the border way after most bedding and perennial plants have faded.
I remember this being on the front cover of the very first plant catalogue I worked on, and that was back in 1998! A favourite with customers for many years, as each flower has a really unusual, and somewhat surprising, gardenia fragrance!! For a dramatic spring spectacle, grow Daffodil ‘Rose of May’ in bold drifts naturalised in grass. Narcissus flowers are also excellent for cutting for a lovely springtime arrangement indoors.
These definitely have the wow factor! The difference with this selection is they’re super big blooms, and the claws (type of bulb) are supplied with shoots on already, so growing them on could not be easier! Grow your own uber gorgeous cut flowers, and show off a bit!
To see our full autumn range you can request or beautiful autumn catalogue here.
Terri works in the e-commerce marketing department assisting the busy web team. Terri manages our blog and social media pages here at Thompson & Morgan and is dedicated to providing useful advice to our gardeners. Terri is new to gardening and keen to develop her horticultural knowledge.
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