Thompson & Morgan Gardening Blog

To enter, simply click on the buttons below and follow the instructions. Increase your chances of winning by completing all of the entry methods.

T&M & HB Sunflower seeds

Thanks for taking part in this exciting giveaway in partnership with Happy Beaks, a brilliant bird seed supplier with a wealth of garden bird information including a British bird library and bird feeding tips.

The prize

The sunflower bundle for birds prize includes:

• 1x Happy Beaks Sunflower Hearts – 5kg
• 1x Happy Beaks Carriage-Style Lantern Seed Feeder
• 1x Seed Collection Tin
• 1x Sunflower ‘Choco Sun’ – Seeds
• 1x Sunflower ‘Solar Flash’ F1 Hybrid – Seeds
• 1x Sunflower ‘Ms Mars’ – Seeds
• 1x Sunflower ‘Harlequin’ F1 Hybrid – Seeds

Sunflower seeds and hearts are a helpful source of nutrition for our feathered friends, but these brightly-coloured blooms are just one of the plants that will attract birds to your garden. Looking for more bird-friendly ideas? Try these…

Top 5 garden plants for birds

Birds feed from the heads of sunflowers in autumn
Image: Sunflower ‘Russian Giant’ – Start-A-Garden™ Seed Range from Thompson & Morgan

If you love to see birds in your garden, it’s easy to fill a few feeders with good quality bird food. But with a little planning, you can also pack your borders with the plants, flowers, shrubs and trees that provide the vital food and shelter they need. 

Here are five plants that will attract birds to your garden:

1. Sunflowers

These distinctive gold and bronze sunflowers look great in containers
Image: Sunflower ‘Solar Flash’ F1 Hybrid Seeds from T&M

Sow sunflower seeds from March onwards to enjoy a spectacular display through summer and into autumn. Easy to grow, simply choose compact varieties if you want to grow them in containers and small borders.

When the brightly-coloured flowers have faded, they form large, round seed heads. Rather than cutting the stems down, leave them in place as a high-energy food source to sustain visiting birds throughout the year. Rich in essential nutrients like protein, healthy fats and carbohydrates, the seeds are especially valuable during colder months or when other food is scarce. Finches, long-tailed tits and nuthatches particularly enjoy sunflower seeds.

2. Crab apple tree

The yellow fruits of this crab apple deepen to a dark glossy scarlet in time for Christmas
Image: Crab Apple ‘Red Sentinel’ from T&M

Crab apple trees vary in size, from compact specimens suitable for container gardens through to full-sized varieties that reach 5 or 6m tall. Benefiting from a long season of interest, they produce a profusion of pink or white blossom in spring followed by small fruits that mature in autumn and persist well into winter.

Crab apples are especially loved by starlings, thrushes, waxwings and blackbirds. The unharvested fruits soften after a few frosts to create a nutritious snack for the local feathered community.

3. Holly

This variegated female variety produces a fabulous display of scarlet winter berries
Image: Holly ‘Golden King’ from T&M

Holly can be grown as a thick, evergreen hedging plant or a tree. Easy to grow and maintain, you can clip it into a formal shape or leave it to grow more naturally. The green leaves provide a perfect backdrop for the scarlet berries that remain on the plant until late winter. You’ll need a male and a female plant for pollination – only the females produce berries.

Loved by blackbirds, redwings and song thrushes, the small, calorie-rich holly berries are a convenient food source for a wide range of birds throughout the winter. Packed with carbohydrates and healthy fats, they offer a concentrated source of energy that helps birds maintain their body temperature and overall health in harsh weather conditions. But it’s not only the berries that birds love. Holly leaves are dense and evergreen, providing secure shelter from predators.

4. Ivy

Providing a paradise for wildlife, ‘Woerner’ makes a wonderful evergreen hedge
Copyright: Alamy Stock Photo

Ivy is a shade-tolerant, evergreen climber that quickly covers walls, fences and trellises with a leafy display. A great way to conceal an eyesore, it’s easy to grow and doesn’t require fixings to help it cling. If left unpruned and allowed to establish itself, ivy becomes more shrubby. In this adult phase, it flowers every autumn and produces berries in winter.

A versatile source of food and habitat for birds, densely-grown ivy is a valuable haven. Its thick foliage provides protection from predators and harsh weather conditions, making it an ideal habitat for small birds such as wrens, robins and sparrows. Additionally, the intertwined stems and leaves create a complex and secure environment that birds can use for building their nests. In terms of food, the small, dark berries are a rich source of calories, helping birds sustain their energy levels. Thrushes, blackbirds and starlings relish these berries, while birds like robins and wrens enjoy feasting on the wide variety of insects that make ivy their home.

5. Honeysuckle

In sheltered gardens ‘Gold Flame’ retains its rounded green foliage all year round
Copyright: Darby Nursery Stock Ltd

If you don’t have much space, traditional climbing honeysuckles are a clever way to make your garden more bird-friendly. Trained over fences, pergolas or trellis, the gorgeous flowers bring a welcome flush of colour and scent to any garden.

Honeysuckle serves as a valuable resource for birds, offering both nourishment and habitat within its intricate growth. The twining vines and dense foliage provide hiding spots from predators and safe spaces for nesting. In terms of food, honeysuckle produces small, nectar-rich flowers that attract insects. These flowers eventually give way to clusters of berries that are an important food source for birds like warblers, thrushes and finches in the late summer and autumn months. The ripening berries also offer a concentrated energy supply at a crucial time for birds that are preparing to migrate.

We hope this has helped you to incorporate more plants and flowers for birds. For a wealth of information and advice on wildlife gardening, visit our dedicated hub page.

Terms & Conditions

1. This competition is open to UK mainland residents aged 18 or over.
2. No purchase is necessary to enter this competition.
3. The promoter is Branded Garden Products Ltd, trading as Happy Beaks and Thompson & Morgan
4. The Competition opens at 11.59am on 14th August 2023, and closes at 11.59pm on 27th August 2023. Entries received after that date and time will not be considered.
5. Employees or agents of Happy Beaks, Thompson & Morgan and related brands – Branded Garden Products, their families or other persons connected with this promotion are not eligible to enter.
6. To Enter: use the Gleam widget and choose from the methods available.
7. If you have any questions about how to enter or in connection with the Competition, please email us at blog@thompson-morgan.com. Do not email us to enter; only email if you have difficulties using the online entry form above.
8. There will be one winner randomly selected who will receive the prize of bundle prize of:
   1x Happy Beaks Sunflower Hearts – 5kg
   1x Happy Beaks Carriage-Style Lantern Seed Feeder
   1x Seed Collection Tin
   1x Sunflower ‘Choco Sun’ – Seeds
   1x Sunflower ‘Solar Flash’ F1 Hybrid – Seeds
   1x Sunflower ‘Ms Mars’ – Seeds
   1x Sunflower ‘Harlequin’ F1 Hybrid – Seeds
9. Entries on behalf of another person will not be accepted and joint submissions are not allowed.
10. The winner will be chosen from a random draw of correct entries.
11. The winner will be notified by email within 3 working days of the closing date. If a winner does not respond within 14 days of being notified, then the winner’s prize will be forfeited and the promotor shall be entitled to select another winner.
12. If a winner rejects their prize, then the winner’s prize will be forfeited and the promotor shall be entitled to select another winner.
13. The Prize is non-exchangeable, non-transferable, and is not redeemable for cash or other prizes. Branded Garden Products Ltd retains the right to substitute the Prize with another prize of similar value in the event the original prize offered is not available.
14. Branded Garden Products Ltd may request that the winner participates in publicity arising from the Competition. The winner is under no obligation to participate and may decline this request. Participation is at the winner’s discretion.
15. If you agreed to sign up to our mailing list, you are agreeing to receive occasional emails and catalogues from Happy Beaks, from which you can unsubscribe at any time. This is a voluntary entry method, and not a mandatory condition of entry.
16. If you agreed to sign up to our mailing list, you are agreeing to receive occasional emails and catalogues from Thompson & Morgan, from which you can unsubscribe at any time. This is a voluntary entry method, and not a mandatory condition of entry.
17. By submitting your entry, you agree to be bound by these terms and conditions.
18. Branded Garden Products Ltd accept no responsibility for any damage, loss, liabilities, injury or disappointment incurred or suffered by you as a result of entering the Competition or accepting the prize.
19. All entries must be made by the entrant themselves. Bulk entries made from trade, consumer groups or third parties will not be accepted. Incomplete or illegible entries, entries by macros or other automated means (including systems which can be programmed to enter), and entries which do not satisfy the requirements of these terms and conditions in full will be disqualified and will not be counted. If it becomes apparent that an entrant is using a computer(s) to circumvent this condition by, for example, the use of ‘script’, ‘brute force’, masking their identity by manipulating IP addresses, using identities other than their own or any other automated means in order to increase that entrant’s entries into the promotion in a way that is not consistent with the spirit of the giveaway, that entrant’s entries will be disqualified and any Prize award will be void.
20. Branded Garden Products Ltd reserves the right at any time and from time to time to modify or discontinue, temporarily or permanently, this Competition with or without prior notice due to reasons outside its control. The decision of Branded Garden Products Ltd in all matters under its control is final and binding and no correspondence will be entered into.
21. Branded Garden Products Ltd reserves the right to disqualify entries if it has reasonable grounds to suspect that fraudulent entry has occurred.
22. Branded Garden Products Ltd shall not be liable for any failure to comply with its obligations where the failure is caused by something outside its reasonable control. Such circumstances shall include, but not be limited to, weather conditions, fire, flood, hurricane, strike, industrial dispute, war, hostilities, political unrest, riots, civil commotion, inevitable accidents, supervening legislation or any other circumstances amounting to force majeure.
23. For further information and to see how we store your data, please check out the full Happy Beaks Privacy Policy.
24. For further information and to see how we store your data, please check out the full Thompson & Morgan Privacy Policy.

Thompson & Morgan

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.