If you want to make your garden the ultimate place to relax and unwind then you can do no better than to invest in a garden water feature.

Water features create a focal point in the garden that you garden plants can be centred around.

Water feature and planter & Wishing well water feature

With a variety of styles to choose from, such as traditional to contemporary water features, there is something for every garden. Some even have additional features such as LED lights and a place for your flowers to be planted for extra colour and texture.

Many water features are now made from hard wearing polyester resin that will not rust or rot, lasting for many years.

Stone water feature & pebble water feature

Most water features are supplied with power leads and pumps and are easy to install. Once installed, all you need to do is switch the pump on with the outdoor cable and the submersible pump will circulate the water. Solar powered water features are also available.

Water features create a tranquil haven for birds and other wildlife in your garden and are a perfect alternative to birdbaths.

Jug water feature & tub water feature

If you are lucky to have LED lights built into your water feature, you will be able to enjoy your water feature at night just as much as in the daytime, enjoying the ambience of running water whenever you want.

Wendie Alexander

I have worked for Thompson & Morgan for nearly four years. In that time I have learnt lots about gardening, but consider myself very much a novice. I have started growing veg on a colleague’s allotment and also growing windowsill seeds such as Salad Leaves and Rocket. I love gaining more knowledge about horticulture and am lucky enough to work here.

Here is a selection of our favourite new varieties in the autumn catalogue. We have picked our top 10 just for you.

Clematis ‘Picotee Kiss’

Clematis ‘Picotee Kiss’
One of the finest hardy clematis introductions in recent years, expect Clematis ‘Picotee Kiss’ to be a future classic. The dazzling pink picotee-edged blooms, each up to 15cm (6in) across, have amazed us on the trial ground, adorning the plants in abundance – once in spring and again in summer! Enjoy the first flush of blooms through May-June, then watch the plants flush into colour again though July- September. Each petal looks like a lipstick kiss! Be one of the first UK gardeners to cover walls, fences and trellis with the stand-out flowers of Clematis ‘Picotee Kiss’. Pruning group 2. Height: 2-3m (6.5-10ft).

Stenocarpus sinuata

Stenocarpus sinuata
One of Australia’s most spectacular trees now available in the UK! Despite the exotic flowers, the Firewheel Tree can be surprisingly adaptable to UK conditions. Many gardeners report getting this unusual exotic through our cold winters, but to ensure years of enjoyment we recommend moving it to a frost-free location over winter, particularly during the first few years in the garden. Thrives in full sun. Height: 2-2.5m (6.5-8ft).

Trachelospermum asiaticum ‘Variegatum’

Trachelospermum asiaticum ‘Variegatum’
The creamy splashed, variegated foliage of this Asiatic Jasmine adds another dimension to an already handsome climbing specimen! and it becomes tinged with crimson in autumn, but – as it’s evergreen – stays on the plant! You’ll be knocked out by the potent fragrance of the twinkly little blooms too! Ideal for covering a trellis, pergola, arch or fence. Height: 3m (10ft).

Clematis ‘Picotee Kiss’

Cornus ‘Royal Red’
Flowering dogwoods have become a design staple in recent years, featuring heavily in RHS show gardens. They have gained a big following from garden designers and home gardeners alike. Be a trendsetter with this new red flowering version. Cornus ‘Royal Red’ produces a profusion of blushing ‘bracts’ around simple, nectar-laden blooms, which will draw butterflies from near and far. Height: 1.2-1.8m (6.5-8ft).

Viola ‘Bunny Ears’

Viola ‘Bunny Ears’
Cheeky little violas that retain that classic pansy face beneath unusually long ‘rabbit ear’ top petals. The compact plants are perfect for smaller containers or planting pockets in rockeries and borders – you can even set them in cracks in walls and paving. Despite their size these tidy viola plants pack a real floral punch, creating cushions of mounded colour in cool corners. Height: 20cm (8in).

Clematis ‘Taiga’

Clematis ‘Taiga’
The name will make you think ‘tiger’, but the blowsy double blooms shout “lion’s mane!” Clematis ‘Taiga’ is a real show off climber, producing countless blooms right through summer over a canvas of rich green foliage. Great for covering walls and fencing, this unusual clematis also suits patio container growing. It also looks great planted in a border and left to ramble through other plants in your display. Make Clematis ‘Taiga’ the king of your jungle this season! Pruning group 3. Height 2m (6.5ft).

Viola ‘Plums & Peaches’

Viola ‘Plums & Peaches’
New colour blend. Pretty spring violas that carry on through summer if given shade. Try this seductive colour blend of friendly-faced violas in shady corners where other summer bedding fails to thrive. Height 20cm (8in).

Star Jasmine ‘Pink Showers’

Star Jasmine ‘Pink Showers’
The first pink trachelospermum for UK gardeners. This pretty evergreen climber offers unique candy-pink star-shaped flowers with the same rich perfume we know and love. Star Jasmine ‘Pink Showers’ is perfect for large patio pots, grown up an obelisk or trained on trellis, and will thrive in borders against walls or fencing in sun/partial shade. We can only offer limited stocks this autumn, so make sure you’re at the front of the queue! Height: 3m (6.5-8ft).

Narcissus ‘Butterfingers’

Narcissus ‘Butterfingers’
Large butter-yellow trumpets surrounded by creamy-white petals make this a choice selection for spring displays. Tall sturdy stems and good fragrance make Narcissus ‘Butterfingers’ an ideal early season cut flower. Bulb size 12/14. Height: 45cm (18in).

Camellia ‘Night Rider’

Camellia ‘Night Rider’
A little shrub offering big impact! The size of most camellias rule them out for many gardeners, but everyone has the space to grow Camellia ‘Night Rider’. This compact form is one of the most exciting developments in camellia breeding for many years. Not only is it small in size, it also offers some of the darkest blooms in the genus. Velvety, cup-shaped, maroon flowers smother the glossy, evergreen foliage from February through April, bringing a contemporary look to container displays and mixed border plantings. For those with the space for mixed shrub displays, ‘Night Rider’ makes a perfect underplanting for larger rhododendron and camellia varieties. We have secured limited stock for the this season – order today to reserve your prized specimen! Height: 1.2m (4ft).

Wendie Alexander

I have worked for Thompson & Morgan for nearly four years. In that time I have learnt lots about gardening, but consider myself very much a novice. I have started growing veg on a colleague’s allotment and also growing windowsill seeds such as Salad Leaves and Rocket. I love gaining more knowledge about horticulture and am lucky enough to work here.

Innovative Egg & Chips® plant makes the finals in two of gardening’s most prestigious floral awards

Thompson & Morgan is celebrating a second time in as many weeks, following the industry success of its latest dual cropping creation, Egg & Chips®.
The innovative potato and aubergine graft has been well received by all sectors of the industry and customers alike, with strong sales in its first season on the market. Already an announced finalist in the RHS Chelsea Flower Show Plant of the Year, the Ipswich-based seed and plant specialist has just been informed that Egg & Chips® has also been shortlisted as one of the five finalists in the prestigious Fleuroselect Fleurostar awards.

Egg & Chips®

Traditionally a bedding plant event, organisers where so impressed with the unique attributes of Egg & Chips® that it is being pitted against four new floral creations in this year’s ceremony; Argyranthemum ‘Grandaisy’, Dahlia x hybrida ‘Dahlegria Red Yellow Bicolor’, Dianthus caryophyllus ‘Capitán Colón’ and Begonia hybrid ‘Miss Malibu’.
Thompson & Morgan new product development manager, Michael Perry said; “We’re really pleased to see recognition being given to this very special creation. Previous finalists of these two prestigious awards, such as Petunia ‘Night Sky’ and Viburnum ‘Kilimanjaro Sunrise’, have gone on to become top-sellers for the industry, so expect to see Egg & Chips® widely grown on allotments, patios and gardens across the UK. Our recent focus on dual cropping vegetable plants has opened up home growing to everyone. Both our Egg & Chips® and Tomtato® plants allow home grown crops to be produced in the smallest of spaces. As long as you have room for a large patio pot, you have the space to grow your own potatoes and aubergines or potatoes and tomatoes.”

Egg & Chips®

Michael says these quirky plants could be the answer to encouraging the next generation of gardeners too.  He adds: “These plants really capture the imagination of children. Grow Egg & Chips® with your kids or grandkids this summer and see their amazement as they harvest large shiny aubergines from the top and a crop of large white potatoes from the pot below.”

Egg & Chips®

The FleuroStar Contest will be held at nine locations in The Netherlands and Germany as part of the annual Flower Trials open days. More than 30 professionals working in plant breeding, production and retail, as well as trade journalists and marketing specialists, will choose the ‘Winner with the Wow Factor’ based on the highest average score on commercial potential and point of sale attractiveness. The winner will be announced on 16th June at the Green Inspiration Event at RAI Amsterdam, Netherlands.
Egg and Chips® can be grown outside in a sunny sheltered spot and will crop right through to the first frosts of autumn – even longer if you can bring the pot indoors later in the season. So there is still time to grow Egg & Chips® this season. Visit www.thompson-morgan.com and search ‘Egg & Chips®’ to order yours.

Kris Collins

Kris Collins works as Thompson & Morgan’s quality control manager, making sure customers new and old are kept up to date on the latest plant developments and company news via a wide range of media sources. He trained in London’s Royal Parks and has spent more than a decade writing for UK gardening publications before joining the team at Thompson & Morgan.

The Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) has been a guiding figure in the UK’s gardening community since it was founded in 1804. The RHS has been at the forefront of horticultural practice, research and education ever since. The RHS was founded on principles of encouraging and improving the science, art and practice of horticulture in all its diversity.

The main aim of the RHS was to provide a repository of horticultural knowledge for the general improvement of the country. Now the leading gardening charity in the UK, the RHS is dedicated to helping people share their passion for plants, and encouraging excellence in horticulture.

Aubergine ‘Bonica’ & Broccoli ‘Red Fire’ F1 Hybrid

Thompson & Morgan (T&M) has been in the business of horticultural practice for nearly as long as the RHS. T&M began trading in 1855, also to provide excellence for the horticultural community. The aim of the company is to provide quality and innovative products; incorporated with the valuable knowledge needed to educate customers to grow their own produce successfully.

By providing quality products, T&M has become one of the leading horticultural companies in the market place today, frequently winning medals and honours for gardening excellence, especially from their customers, who are always happy to champion their favourite company.

Carrot ‘Primo’ & Dwarf Bean ‘Sonesta’

T&M, just like the RHS, wants to achieve gardening excellence and so the Royal Horticultural Society has given its seal of approval by endorsing a range of T&M seeds. These seeds all have the Award of Garden Merit, which means each plant is expected to perform under a variety of strict requirements. Such as excellent for ordinary use in an everyday setting, availability, of good constitution, essentially stable in form and colour and needs to be reasonably resistant to pests and diseases.

The extensive range of seeds include the staples of British vegetable growing. From the delicious Aubergine ‘Bonica’ to Radish ‘Mars’ F1 Hybrid with the range including everything else in-between.  Along with this large range of seeds is a range of the RHS Kids’ Collection.This collection includes a fantastic range of fun seeds for kids to grow. The Cress Extra Curled will have the children excited about growing their own food, and the Snake Gourd is an amazing looking gourd to delight the youngsters.

RHS Kids Collection Carrots & Runner Beans

The Royal Horticultural Society and Thompson & Morgan have brought another great improvement to the gardening world, with extensive trials over the years both have worked hard to bring the gardener a crop they can rely on and which includes the latest in horticultural breeding.

Wendie Alexander

I have worked for Thompson & Morgan for nearly four years. In that time I have learnt lots about gardening, but consider myself very much a novice. I have started growing veg on a colleague’s allotment and also growing windowsill seeds such as Salad Leaves and Rocket. I love gaining more knowledge about horticulture and am lucky enough to work here.

The greenhouse is packed to the gunnels with plugs-in-waiting and half hardys. With the cold spell behind us, at least for now, at last I can start thinking about hardening some of them off. I’ve managed to plant the millions (well, 2 dozen actually) of sweet peas on the allotment, as well as some more tree lilies salvaged from the carnage created by slugs and snails. Half of the postiplug Minitunias have been demolished as well, so displays will be somewhat diminished sadly. I’ve received some surprise (as yet unnamed) trailling antirrhinums, bidens and fuchsias to trial though so hopefully they will compensate. It took three 50 litre bags of compost to refill the tomato trough, but at last I can transplant the Tutti Fruttis.

Fred the cat & chillies and curcumas

The salvias and cannas can be relocated to the shelter of the patio now, so I can set up the tubs for the cucamelons. I’ve got the T & M Incredibloom® and fuchsia plant food at the ready so there should be no excuse for a poor harvest. It’s Russian Roulette as to whether I remember to open the greenhouse door in the morning (think tropical rainforest) and then close it again in the evening (frozen waste). A friend once trapped a neighbour’s cat in hers overnight but I digress!

Caroline’s overflowing greenhouse & ricinus

The sunroom is crammed with the cucamelons, courgettes De Nice A Fruit Rond, patty pans and chillies, all fed and potted on into 4” pots, ready for planting into their final positions by end May. The curcumas and eucomis are finally emerging too. I’ve got several thriving hosta divisions wedged in behind the bin store in the front garden. The helianthus Lemon Queen, run riot in one of the containers on the roof terrace, has been dug out, split and potted on for our National Gardens Scheme Open Day Plant Sale, now currently residing between shed and greenhouse. David reckons if he stands still long enough I’ll plant him too!
Tulips in pots on the patio are coming into bloom in succession (more by luck than judgement), their leaves the object of a running buffet for my Oriental cat Fred. I can’t have New Guinea impatiens, begonias or hostas at ground level as he munches on them too. (Winky the Sphynx cat is partial to chives.) I’m getting impatient with the tulips now, even as I enjoy their riot of colour, as I am already planning their replacements: all those zingy T&M petunias and bidens in waiting!

Tulips & more tulips

I did treat myself to some T & M perennials as well this summer. Brunnera Alexander’s Great are said to grow far bigger than Jack Frost, so we will see in due course. Following the success of Digitals Illumination I’ve also bought new Ruby Slippers. But my most anticipated plant so far this spring is the Ricinus communis Impala. The four seedlings are romping away, their leaves and stems already deep red. I shall plant one in the raised bed out front with melianthus major, grasses & ferns for an architectural effect, and one in the island Prairie bed out back combined with (yet more) grasses, thalictrum, angelica & eupatorium. But my Piece de Resistance (or dramatic flop) will be planting up the kadhai (won in a prize draw at GROW London last year and an unwanted eyesore ever since) with ricinus as a centre piece surrounded by fiery red hot pokers and cannas, on the roof terrace. It will probably end up looking like a sacrificial altar – hope it doesn’t frighten the neighbours!

Caroline Broome

Caroline Broome has been gardening for more than 20 years. Having passed the RHS General Certificate, she has since developed her East Finchley garden into a “personal paradise” that she and her husband invite the public to visit each year via the National Garden Scheme. Learn more about our contributor using T&M’s ‘Meet the experts’ page. 

With all the talk about the collapse of our bee populations and the decline in the number and variety of our native butterflies, gardeners can do their bit by providing the flowers that can help to support butterflies, moths, bees and hoverflies as they journey around our gardens looking for a pollen and nectar fix.

Some years ago, the RHS developed lists of plants called ‘Perfect for Pollinators.’ The two lists are for cultivated plants and wild plants across the seasons. Check out http://www.rhs.org.uk for more details and the lists.

Rudbeckia ‘All Sorts Mixed’ & Cosmos ‘Xanthos’

Over the last century, gardeners, growers and breeders have concentrated some of their efforts on developing and using double flowers to increase the effect of the display and this, alongside many other factors, has not helped us to support our pollinating insects because the pollen and nectar are hidden deep in the flowers, making them inaccessible to the insects.

The ‘Perfect for Pollinators’ lists contain, for the most part, wild species of plants whose flowers are simple, single and easily accessible. Comb through your latest Thompson & Morgan seed and plant catalogues and compare them with the ‘Perfect for Pollinators’ lists. It will not take you long to find some stunning plants for your garden that will not only give you a lot of pleasure, but will help to support some of our vital flying insects as well – everyone is a winner!

Ageratum houstonianum ‘Pincushion Mixed’ & Perfect for Pollinators

The new Rudbeckia collection, with three fabulous cultivars that will flower from July until October, with their simple, flat, open daisy-like flowers are a perfect example of a flower design that suits all of our pollinating insects. The new yellow Cosmos ‘Xanthos’ is another excellent example to search out.

Plants that have lots of very small flowers in clusters, such as the new Ageratum ‘Pincushion Mixed’, that will flower from June to September, are perfect examples of plants that will provide that quick nectar fix that butterflies and moths need to give them the energy to search out a mate – an essential part of maintaining their populations! The 2016 catalogue contains a number of different strains of Foxgloves and I feel sure that we have all seen bumblebees struggling to clamber into one of those inviting trumpets to get their daily pollen supply and a nectar fix for energy.

Foxglove ‘Dalmation Mixed’ & Cornflower ‘Classic Fantastic’

Many of our hardy annuals (HA in the catalogue), that can be sown directly into the garden in April and May, will provide hundreds of nectar and pollen rich flowers from June right up to the first frosts of autumn. Some can even be sown in September and October, lasting the winter as young plants and flowering in April, May and June. Examples to look out for include the new Nigella ‘Midnight’, Amberboa muricata, Ammi visnaga, Bupleurum ‘Green Gold’, Calendulas, Californian Poppies, Cornflowers, Cosmos and Daucus ‘Dara’ .

I will leave you to go through the rest of the catalogue yourself to discover the many other wonderful examples of plants that can provide that essential support for our butterflies, moths, bees and hoverflies. Remember that 30% of all that we eat is reliant on pollinating insects – apples, pears, plums, blackcurrants, blueberries and runner beans, to name but a few.

Graham Porter

Graham Porter

I have worked in horticulture for the past 49 years and have become more involved with and concerned about the environmental impact that our profession has had on the world. I am married with 2 grown up children and 4 wonderful grandchildren. My first book, ‘The Yorkshire Organic Gardener’ was published in November 2018. I am Vice Chair of the Chartered Institute of Horticulture’s Young Horticulturist of the Year competition and am also the CIH Northern Branch Regional Organiser for the competition.

Recipient of 2021 RHS Harlow Carr medal for services to horticulture in the North of England.