Announcing our Plant of the Year nominees
Announcing our Plant of the Year nominees for The RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2022
The Thompson & Morgan horticultural team produces a wealth of content around gardening and food production. Since the first seed catalogue was published in 1855, Thompson & Morgan has grown to become one of the UK’s largest Mail Order Seed and Plant companies. Through the publication of our catalogues and the operation of our award-winning website, Thompson & Morgan is able to provide home gardeners with the very best quality products money can buy.
How to pinch out fuchsias
Compact bushy fuchsias look fantastic planted in patio containers
Image: Fuchsia ‘Swingtime’ from Thompson & Morgan
Longtime fuchsia enthusiast Carol Gubler explains here how to pinch out your fuchsia plants to control flowering time, grow bushier plants, and kickstart extravagant blooming. Carol draws from a lifetime of experience with these fabulous flowers to create excellent tips and advice you can trust. Don’t miss the video demonstration below too!
My family first got the fuchsia bug in 1963 when my late father stopped to admire the plants growing in a neighbour’s garden – they were fuchsias and he was hooked! Gradually the garden was overtaken by fuchsias – and in 1979 we moved as a family to a little village near Guildford, where to this day I grow lots of fuchsias (about 500 different types!)
I am Assistant Secretary of The British Fuchsia Society and involved in anything and everything to do with fuchsias!
Suffolk train stations back in bloom
The T&M team, ActivLives’ gardeners and station manager Jackie at Ipswich Train Station
Colour has returned to Ipswich and Stowmarket train stations thanks to a partnership between train operator Abellio Greater Anglia, local seed and plant specialist Thompson & Morgan and Ipswich-based charity ActivLives.
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.
Growing a fuchsia standard
Standard fuchsias such as ‘Angela’ adds height & colour to your garden.
Image: Thompson & Morgan
Growing a fuchsia standard is a great way to show off these elegant, jewel-coloured flowers while adding height and colour to your border. Also ideal for containers, standard fuchsias make a statement on your patio, balcony or positioned either side of your front door. Here’s how to train your own fuchsia plants into striking standards.
Plants and gardens have always been a big part of my life. I can remember helping my Dad to prick out seedlings, even before I could see over the top of the potting bench. As an adult, I trained at Writtle College where I received my degree, BSc. (Hons) Horticulture. After working in a specialist plantsman’s nursery, and later, as a consulting arboriculturalist, I joined Thompson & Morgan in 2008. Initially looking after the grounds and coordinating the plant trials, I now support the web team offering horticultural advice online. I have a keen interest in drought resistant plants and a passion for perennials, particularly hardy Geraniums. I previously stood as regional secretary for the International Plant Propagation Society which gave me lots of opportunities to see what other horticulturalists were up to in their nurseries and gardens.
Bedding plants – a revival
Begonia ‘Frivola Pink’ looks great in beds, borders, or in patio containers
Image: Thompson & Morgan
If you enjoyed watching ‘The Great British Garden Revival’ then you’ll be aware of Christine Walkden’s passionate campaign to bring back ornamental bedding plants. The magnificent displays often seen at grand country houses like Waddesdon Manor and seaside towns like Eastbourne are still incredibly popular.
Descended from the Victorians’ love of the art of ornamental bedding, these “eye-catching displays were the gardening ‘bling’ of yesteryear,” explained Christine. Here’s how to stage your own mini-revival, using the latest cutting-edge bedding plants bred for size, colour, disease-resistance and longevity.
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.