Clematis is such a versatile plant and can be grown in containers, borders and even trained up walls. You can plant clematis in late spring or early autumn to let the plants get established before the summer heat.  Autumn is the perfect time for planting early-flowering clematis varieties as the weather is cooler and the soil is moist meaning roots will be well established in time for spring. This results in bigger and better displays for next year and also means you will save on watering! They are easy to grow and to look after.

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Terri Overett

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.

www.thompson-morgan.com

My wife Pat and I are involved in ‘It’s Your Neighbourhood’ along with 37 other groups, we are known as Forest Road Greenbelt Garden’s. This competition was set up to encourage the improvement of our community gardening through innovative use of trees, plants and shrubs.

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Harry Cook

Customer trial panel member Harry Cook has many years of gardening experience, winning several awards for his own garden displays. Harry and his wife Pat are members of It’s Your Neighbourhood with Loughborough in Bloom and look after the area called ‘The Green Belt’ around their house. He made the news in 2012 when he stopped thieves from taking his award-winning petunias!

Gardening events are incredibly exciting to any gardener. You get the opportunity to see new varieties, garden designs, breeding innovations and so much more. In the mist of everyday life, we sometimes forget about them! The date comes and all your friends are talking about the most spectacular flower show of the year and you are ‘out of the loop’. Well there is no need to worry. If you have missed any shows this year or if you still have the Chelsea blues, then here are some more dates for your diary.

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Terri Overett

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.

www.thompson-morgan.com

I have always been a fan of over the top, in your face bedding displays and every year I plant out hundreds of plants in beds, pots and baskets. Over the last few years, due to work commitments, I have been finding the up keep a bit difficult.

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Bijal Mistry

As a member of Thompson & Morgan’s customer trial panel, Bijal Mistry tests plants, bulbs and seeds in his own garden on the outskirts of Manchester. He has won several awards and is happiest tending to his garden, especially the begonias and poinsettias!

Learn more about Bijal on the Thompson & Morgan blog here.

In December 2012 I wrote my first blog for Thompson & Morgan, all about my first year as a grower of vegetables. Time has passed by rapidly and I have learnt so much in the past 18 months as a beginner gardener. I thought it was time to tell you more about what I have been up too.

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Lorraine Pullen

I am a 51 year old retired public servant and living by the sea in Hampshire with my husband of 22 years, a 10 month old chocolate labrador named Gibson and three hens, Margot, Babs and Geri. My hobbies are gardening which I hope I will eventually become more accomplished at, walking and reading and I volunteer at a local Hospice which gives me an enormous amount of pleasure.

www.lorrainesvegpatch.blogspot.co.uk

Summer is here and correct me if I’m wrong, but the weather is being quite well-behaved so far. The occasional storm is actually a positive for the plants, giving them a good soak. The rain will encourage leafy growth, meaning you get even bushier plants, with the potential for more blooms! But, it is also the time of year where we go on holiday to enjoy the sunshine and watering becomes an issue, so how can you keep your garden looking great during these periods?

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