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Propagation, planting out and cultivation posts from writers that know their subjects well.
My name is Amanda and I live in Pembrokeshire with my fiancé and our garden is approximately 116 meters square. I want to share with you my love for gardening and the reasons behind it, from the good to the bad and ugly. I want to do this for my own personal pleasure. If you would like to take the journey with me then please read my blogs and share with me your gardening stories.
Today Alan (my Husband) has put my 4 foot portable greenhouse up after being stored away for the past 8 months since it was last used. I also have a 2 foot one which just fits nicely together alongside the 4 foot one, close by the kitchen door and will be erected as the first one fills up. You will see from the photograph that Alan has made a bracket which is fitted to the front of both greenhouses and screwed into the wall, following an unfortunate experience last year when on a very rough day it lifted the greenhouse up together with all the plants! This seems to work very well now against strong winds. Updated 8th February: We have had storm Imogen whistle through today with winds of 60-70 mph here on the South Coast of Bournemouth and thankfully my greenhouse is still standing.
I started gardening 65 years ago on my Dad’s allotment and now live in Bournemouth, where spend a lot of time gardening since retiring. In 2012 I won the Gold Award for Bournemouth in Bloom Container Garden. I am a member of Thompson & Morgan’s customer trial panel.
A variety that will regenerate the buddleja market! That was the expert verdict of industry specialists as they crowned Buddleja ‘Buzz™ Indigo’ Best New Variety: Hardy Nursery Stock at the recent UK Grower Awards 2016.
Hailed as the world’s first patio buddleja, all colours within the Buzz™ series have gone down a storm with UK gardeners looking for a more manageable way of adding the iconic flower spikes of buddleja to their planting displays. The dwarf variety reaching little more than 4ft (1.2m) in height, retains the best qualities of its larger cousin B. davidii, but has done away with all its negative aspects.
Not only do plants in the series remain bushy and compact for container growing, they will grow in almost any free-draining soil too. The scented flower spikes have extremely low fertility, virtually removing the risk of self seeding in the garden – or worse, in brickwork and hard landscaping features – something that has seen B. davidii added to the UK invasive plant species list, vastly reducing its appeal with the gardening public. While Buzz™ blooms won’t set seed, they are the only dwarf variety to retain the large flower size of B. davidii and certainly produce a lot of nectar – an essential attribute if gardeners are to help conservationists turn around the dramatic decline in UK butterfly populations*.
Buddleja ‘Buzz Indigo’
These unique attributes, plus a new colour-break, set the Thompson & Morgan entry apart from the crowd, with award judges stating: “Buddleja ‘Buzz™ Indigo’ has the potential to revitalise Buddleja sales with the support of a good marketing campaign, regenerating the market for the species.”
This is the second time that Thompson & Morgan’s exclusive dwarf buddleja series has been applauded at the UK Grower Awards, considered by industry insiders to be the Oscars of the plant world. In 2010, following an extensive breeding programme at its Ipswich HQ, Thompson & Morgan launched the first colour in the Buddleja ‘Buzz™’ series – ‘Lilac’, which quickly took the title of Best New Plant Variety at the 2010 award bash.
Growers Winner Banner
Since then T&M Plant Breeding Team has been developing new flower colours to maximise the potential of this groundbreaking series, which has transformed the way buddlejas are used in UK gardens. Buddleja ‘Indigo’ was launched for the 2015 gardening season, joining ‘Lilac, ‘Magenta’, ‘Sky Blue’ ‘Candy Pink’ and ‘Ivory’.
Buddleja Buzz™ 3 in 1
There are no new Buzz™ colours for 2016, but the latest concept is set to be another strong contender for the awards in 2017. Buddleja ‘Buzz™ 3-in-1’, new to the Thompson & Morgan Spring Catalogue, offers three different flower colours, seemingly on the same plant. Supplied as a 3litre potted plant it is actually three varieties grown together; each will grow in harmony and produce a compact bush with fragrant, indigo, ivory and candy pink flower spikes!
Notes
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.
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 T&M spring catalogues arrived this week and I am so excited! I have been choosing my plants for the summer customer trials. I shall concentrate my efforts on two areas – patio containers and hanging baskets and our allotment and greenhouse.
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.
Cosmos are always a favourite option with Thompson & Morgan customers. Easy to grow, free flowering in beds and containers, a wide colour range and an excellent cut flower. Cosmos are an obvious choice for beginners and established gardeners alike.
The mail order seed and plant specialist sold more than 117,000 packets of Cosmos seeds, across some 40 varieties, during the 2014- 2015 season. It is looking to take that further this season by showing support for the industry-wide Fleuroselect Year of the Cosmos marketing campaign. The firm’s 2016 Seed Catalogue contains a dedicated inspirational spread to this popular genus, and will champion new Cosmos ‘Xanthos’ as the Thompson & Morgan Flower of the Year 2016.
Cosmos ‘Xanthos’ – Flower of the Year 2016
Horticultural Director, Paul Hansord, said: “New cosmos are always popular with our customers – we struggled to meet demand for our exclusive Cosmos ‘Cupcakes’ last season, and we’re expecting big things from ‘Xanthos’ in 2016. Yellow is a much sought after colour in the genus. With all eyes on these easy to grow summer performers thanks to the Fleuroselect campaign, we hope to see even more gardeners adding Cosmos to their schemes in 2016.”
Comsos ‘Xanthos’ seed is available from Thompson & Morgan at £2.49 for 30 seeds or £11.99 for 25 plug plants and £16.99 for 50 plug plants
Other popular varieties from the Thompson & Morgan range include ‘Sweet Sixteen’, ‘All Sorts Mixed’, ‘Brightness Mixed’ and the all new ‘Rubenza’ – an unusual type admired for its colour changing petals . Flowers start of a rich ruby-red turning to a traditional rose shade as they mature. With a mass of flowers all at different stages, the overall effect is stunning. (£2.99 for 60 seeds).
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.
My name is Amanda and I live in Pembrokeshire with my fiancé and our garden is approximately 116 meters square. I want to share with you my love for gardening and the reasons behind it, from the good to the bad and ugly. I want to do this for my own personal pleasure. If you would like to take the journey with me then please read my blogs and share with me your gardening stories.
Busy gardeners looking for easy solutions boost Garden Ready plant sales for mail order giant
Sales of Thompson & Morgan Garden Ready plug plants have nearly tripled in the past season as gardeners look for time saving products alongside value for money. It seems gardeners still want the financial benefits of buying young plants instead of mature plants, but without the hassle of potting up and growing on before planting out.
T&M vs Competitiors Garden Ready
The mail order seed and plant specialist supplied more than 4 million Garden Ready bedding plants to UK gardeners in 2015. When asked if they would be buying them again in a satisfaction survey powered by Typeform, 96 per cent said they would be back for more in spring 2016, giving the concept a 5 star rating for quality on arrival and performance in the garden.
The new plant sizing bridges the gap between traditional small mail order plug plants and larger retail pack bedding. Small enough to be produced and mailed as plug plants but big enough to rival and exceed pack plant performance, Garden Ready plants represent the perfect balance between convenience and value for money.
Thompson & Morgan Horticultural Director, Paul Hansord, says the over-sized Garden Ready plants bring many benefits in comparison to smaller plugs and larger pack plants: “Our Garden Ready bedding plants are selected and grown to give our customers the best possible performance in the garden, we send them direct from the nursery at the perfect time for planting, usually before blooms form, for quicker establishment, better root growth and flowering, and a longer, stronger display.”
Garden-Ready-Plant
Unlike smaller plug plant offerings sent early in the season, which remain popular with Thompson & Morgan customers who prefer a more hands on approach to their gardening, the Garden Ready plants are despatched from May onwards, already hardened off for immediate planting – just watch out for late frosts.
Launching the concept in 2014, the mail order specialist supplied 1.5million Garden Ready Plants to customers in the first year. That figure nearly trebled in 2015, with 4,020,000 plants sent out during the busy spring and autumn despatch windows. Expecting strong demand to continue in 2016, Thompson & Morgan is putting more varieties into Garden Ready production with 44 bestselling seasonal bedding varieties now in the range.
Petunia’ Easy Wave’
Despite 94 per cent of customers rating garden ready as value for money, Thompson & Morgan is seeking to make these premium plugs even more economical in 2016 with a range of multi-buy deals. One 30-plant pack retails at £14.99 but three packs can be had for just £35. Customers buying three packs will also receive a £5 voucher for their next Thompson & Morgan purchase. Catering for gardeners working on bigger plots, bumper 120- and 360-plant collections have also been developed, which will take prices down to just 27p per plant for the 2016 season.
Gardeners can take part in Thompson & Morgan’s next big survey for a chance to win a 30 pack of Garden Ready plants, 2 x Easy Fill Hanging Baskets and 25 litres of incredicompost, together worth £45. Five lucky winners will be selected at random from entries received before 31 March 2016.
Visit www.thompson-morgan.com/hanging-basket-survey to take part
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.
Petunia Hanging Basket
I love petunias, they are so bright and colourful and make beautiful displays in hanging baskets and containers. I use mainly baskets and containers in my garden which are displayed on my decking at the front of my house during the summer.
I started gardening 65 years ago on my Dad’s allotment and now live in Bournemouth, where spend a lot of time gardening since retiring. In 2012 I won the Gold Award for Bournemouth in Bloom Container Garden. I am a member of Thompson & Morgan’s customer trial panel.
Growing Petunias will provide sunny positions in your garden with months of colour. They are one of the easiest summer bedding plants to grow; with a few tips they will look stunning in your sunny seasonal displays!
Petunias are easy to grow from both seeds and plugs. However, plugs will provide an established plant in a much shorter time. If growing from seed, sow around 10 weeks before you want to get them outside. Petunias can be planted into your chosen container as soon as we say goodbye to the spring frosts.
With many weather resistant varieties now available, they are much more tolerable to rain. In addition to this, breeding of new varieties has developed climbing petunias such as our own Petunia ‘Purple Rocket’. This exclusive double flowering Petunia grows rapidly and produces a tower of purple once established on a frame.
Petunia ‘Purple Rocket’
Petunias love the sun so place in a bright place in the garden and the plants will flourish.
If planting in containers, mix in a fertiliser such as Incredibloom into the compost when planting. The high potassium content will boost the plants nutrients and ensure prolific flowering throughout the season.
In order to help the plants last throughout the season, deadheading is vital. Petunias produce so many flowers, that the seed will naturally follow. As the plant is putting all energy into producing seed, it doesn’t make so many new flowers. In order to keep the plants in top condition, removing the faded flowers will help the plant make new buds and keep it to a good shape before it gets too leggy. Some varieties will benefit from pinching early to keep a nice bushy shape to the plant, particularly in baskets or pouches. Ensure the flower is pinched back close to the stem, removing the whole part of the flower. If only the petal is removed the plant will continue to produce seed.
Petunia ‘Stars In Their Eyes’
It is also important to not let the plants dry out, as this will slow growth. Keep the container moist at all times, however keep the balance and don’t let the plants ‘sit’ too wet. When watering, try to avoid getting the petals wet as this will prolong the life of the flowers.
Keep an eye out for pests and diseases on your plants. Aphids camouflage very well onto the colour of petunia leaves! If you can take action as soon as you see them as they distort the new buds. Later in the season, powdery mildew can sometimes become a problem with the British weather. If you have any bicarbonate of soda in your baking cupboard, mix a solution of 10gm of bicarbonate of soda per litre of water and spray onto the affected area.
Assistant Nursery & Site Manager