Thompson & Morgan Gardening Blog

RHS Chelsea Flower Show Gold two years in a row for amateur potato growers

A Great Pavilion exhibit without a single decorative bloom on show has again charmed judges into awarding a Chelsea Gold Medal to Scots potato aficionados Morrice and Ann Innes.

The exhibit, sponsored by Thompson & Morgan, acts as a simple showcase, highlighting more than 140 varieties, and traces the origins of the potato while drawing attention to its diversity and versatility in the garden and kitchen. Morrice of Old Town, Aberdeen, claims to have the largest private collection of potato varieties, built up over 20 years, and has long championed his favourite vegetable.

In 2015 Morrice and Ann took the first ever Gold Medal for a potato-only display in the show’s 150 year history. Having followed judges recommendations for 2016 by giving the tubers more breathing space on a bigger stand, they have done it again.

Many of the potatoes on display this year come from Morrice’s unofficial national collection of over 300 varieties, and include original South American species as well as historical European heritage varieties such as Karaparea, which was taken to New Zealand by Captain James Cook in the 1770s. The exhibit is completed with some 50 modern varieties grown from Thompson & Morgan seed potatoes including blight resistant main crop Sarpo Axona and high-yielding salad potato Jazzy, currently the mail order supplier’s best seller.

The modest, yet impactful display also includes several plants of wild potato species which were the starting point of many of today’s cultivated varieties. Seeds of these species varieties were supplied by The James Hutton Institute and grown in containers by Thompson & Morgan’s horticultural team in Ipswich. Visitors to the show have commented on the surprisingly pretty flowers of these wild forms.

Morrice said: “We’ve tried to tell the tale of the potato by highlighting a vast array of skin colours, shapes and sizes, while suggesting the best uses of each variety and the places where they come from. You won’t find many of the varieties for sale at the supermarket. Hopefully we’ll help inspire more people to grow potatoes and to try some of the more unusual forms while they are at it.”

Thompson & Morgan has worked with Morrice and Ann in the past, scooping silver and bronze medals at previous RHS shows, and is delighted to see a second Gold Medal awarded to the nation’s favourite vegetable. Thompson & Morgan Vegetable Product Manager, Colin Randel, worked with Morrice to set a world record for the largest display of potato varieties at the 2004 Shrewsbury Flower Show. He said: “Amongst all the glitz, glamour and colour of the world’s most prestigious flower show, it’s great to see a homage to the humble potato stand out from the crowd to scoop another Gold Medal. Morrice and Ann have put on a fantastic display again this year. There’s pretty much every potato colour under the sun on show, from very old varieties right up to our latest hot potato, Jazzy.”

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.

I’m one of the lucky few who get to visit the RHS Chelsea Flower Show the day before it opens to the general public. I attend most years, but took a break in 2015.

The break did me good. When you visit year on year it can start to feel a little samey – exhibitors in the same spot as the year before, doing little different to the year before. This year I had fresh eyes for the show and took plenty of planting ideas away with me.

Chelsea Plant of the Year is always my first point of call. It was great to see T&M’s very own Egg & Chips® plant making it through as a finalist – particularly when there is such focus on a plant’s ornamental value in the garden. Judges praised Egg & Chips® for its unique dual cropping (potatoes and aubergines from the same plant), and its value in small gardens, balconies and patio settings.

Egg & Chips® and Tomtato®

With Plant of the Year under my belt its time for my favourite part of the show – the Grand Pavilion. This is where the plants are the stars (not some designer you may or may not have heard of). This is where nurseries and growers show off their skills and their wonderful collections – all brought on to perfection, often flowering outside of their natural cycle to the delight of the thousands of visitors who flock to the show each May. I could spend a whole day and more in the pavilion.

Particular highlights for me were Peter Seabrook’s Sun Flower Square (four front gardens featuring 80 different container plants, plus much more, brought together with the help of school children. It was great to see the Thrive charity sweet pea, ‘Eleanore Udall’ on display alongside pots of Petunia ‘Night Sky’, Bidens ‘Bee Dance Painted Yellow’ and Marigold Strawberry Blonde’.

Marigold ‘Strawberry Blonde’ and Petunia ‘Night Sky’

At home I’m trying my hardest to encourage my children into gardening, so anything that helps nuture their interest is good in my books.

The Miracle-Gro’wers Urban School Garden featured many vegetables from the T&M range including Egg & Chips®, Tomtato®, Fuchsia ‘Berry’ and many more. Miracle Gro aimed to bring the benefits of school gardening to the fore and certainly did that. The exhibit highlights the wide range of fruit and veg that can be grown in an urban school garden and spreads the 5-a-day message.

Fuchsia Berry

What little time I don’t spend in the pavilion I then use for a whistle stop tour of the show gardens. It’s taken me many years to get my head around these displays. As a true hands on gardener (as opposed to a flouncy designer) I’ve always viewed these gardens as unachievable – flowers are forced to bloom out of season and the hard landscaping is so high-end that most households would need a second mortgage to get the same look.

I came at things with a different approach this year, viewing each show garden as a living art installation and I appreciated them much more than I ever have in the past.

Working with plants every day, Chelsea can be a bit of a busman’s holiday for me, so one aspect I really take advantage of on the Monday press day is the celeb spotting. I didn’t do as well as I have in previous years, but there were plenty of stars to be seen among the flowers – Dame Judi Dench, Rob Brydon, Ainsley Harriot, Richard E Grant, Jerry Hall, to name a few, plus of course the usual gardening gang; Carol Klein, Toby Buckland, Alys Fowler and the man himself Mr T! I took a few blurry candid snaps of celebs, but I’m not brave enough to run up to them paparazzi style or ask for a selfie!

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.