Our Spring 2021 Top 10 Preview!

Thompson & Morgan Lead the Way this Season with their Spring 2021 Top 10 Preview!

Thompson & Morgan introduce their top 10 new varieties which represent the best of the best this spring. Here you will find exciting World and UK Exclusives, stunning breakthroughs in breeding developed under T&M’s own breeding programme, as well as award winning varieties, much improved customer favourites and those stand out varieties set to be this season’s must have plants for this year’s spring garden.

Thompson & Morgan’s Spring 2021 Top 10 Preview

Petunia ‘Mystical Midnight Gold’

Introducing UK Exclusive Petunia ‘Mystical Midnight Gold’ a breeding breakthrough and first of its kind, providing unique summer colour and perfect for UK growing!

Unique summer colour
This striking petunia features brand new and unique coloured blooms in shades of creamy yellow with contrasting, rich dark black centres, producing a profusion of flowers to provide fabulous summer displays, a standout hanging basket or container feature perfect for adding drama to the patio.

Perfect for UK growing
Unlike a lot of larger petunia varieties which can be left looking a little bedraggled after a heavy downpour, the petite blooms of ‘Mystical Midnight Gold’ stand it in good stead when the rain comes in making it perfect for UK growing! This versatile variety is happy growing in sun or part shade and brings a profusion of flowers from June to September providing four months of summer long colour for borders, baskets and patio pots.

Geranium ‘Tall, Dark & Handsome Hot Pink’

Thompson & Morgan lead the way with this next World Exclusive and it certainly lives up to its name being tall, dark and very handsome!

Geraniums come of age with new Geranium ‘Tall, Dark & Handsome Hot Pink’ as it climbs to the top to take its place in T & M’s top ten preview. A result of over ten years of breeding by Thompson & Morgan’s own breeding programme sees this new geranium is growing up!

Geraniums are an ever-popular favourite in the summer garden and a consistent bestseller for T&M, so they wanted to bring a Geranium with a point of difference to the market. Having been bred to grow up with a narrow, upright columnar habit makes it perfectly suited to grow up a Tower Pot – three plants in a tower will provide an impressive climbing display on the patio. Featuring stunning hot pink blooms and chocolate coloured foliage it’s sure to stand out in the crowd! Producing flowers from June to October and perfect grown in a pot in both sun and part shade.

Sunflower ‘Sunbelieveable™ Golden Girl’

Another World Exclusive sees brand new Sunflower ‘Sunbelieveable™ Golden Girl’ land a top ten spot in the spring preview and seeing is believing, so see for yourself!

Another triumph of T&M’s own breeding programme which follows on from the success of customer favourite ‘Brown Eyed Girl’, which achieved third in 2018’s RHS Chelsea Flower Show Plant of the Year competition.

A real ‘Golden Girl’ with every plant producing over a staggering 1,000 blooms in each growing season! Rightly so T&M are delighted to have introduced this prolific sunflower this season. A super producing hybrid producing flowers from June to November bringing months of sunshine colour to the summer garden. Being low maintenance makes it easy to grow it will bask in full sun in borders and pots and will even forgive a forgotten watering.

Sweet Pea ‘Three Times As Sweet’

Introducing Sweet Pea ‘Three Times As Sweet’ this high flier will fill both garden and home with its triple colour combination and delectable scent!

T&M introduces a further World Exclusive, with ten years of breeding this sweet pea really delivers on every front! A truly beautifully scented sweet pea and the World’s first, a cultivated modern grandiflora tricolour stripe boasts with three colours on one bloom! These fragrant frillies are perfect to grow in full sun in borders and pots throughout the garden and will cover walls or fences with ease, whilst providing a wonderfully scented cut flower for the vase too.

Peter Freeman, Thompson & Morgan’s Product Development Manager, said:
‘I grew ‘Three Times As Sweet’ in my garden this year and was blown away by not only it’s performance but the blooms were the most stunning of any sweet pea I’ve ever grown.’

Geum ‘Samba Sunset’

World Exclusives keep coming from T&M with the introduction of Geum ‘Samba Sunset’ with its supreme, super-sized flowers!

The breeding here brings further improvement on a much love gardener’s favourite ‘Samba Sunset’ with its giant double blooms spanning 7-8cm – double the size of other varieties!
This hardy perennial has a long flowering period from June through to August, growing in sun or part shade it’s a standout new variety for both garden borders and pots on the patio.

Other highlights from T&M‘s Top Ten Preview

Monarda ‘Electric Neon Pink’

Monarda ‘Electric Neon Pink’ its nectar rich bright blooms will have pollinating insects flocking as well as those looking for pops of colour for their summer garden.

Its Intense pink blooms produce a two-tone effect because of their sheer brightness, it’s no surprise bees and butterflies find it totally irresistible and if that wasn’t enough it packs a mint scented foliage too! This hardy perennial is happy in sun or part shade, filling the garden borders and pots with its brilliant blooms from July through to September.

Petunia Frills & Spills ‘Darcey Rosa’

Further introductions include Petunia Frills & Spills ‘Darcey Rosa’ yet another brand-new summer sensation from T&M!

This new addition to the incredibly popular Frills & Spills range is sure to be hit in the summer garden being colourful and easy to grow. ‘Darcey Rosa’ is the very first double petunia with a unique picotee edge – its purple-pink blooms are edged with a contrasting green and pop against its vibrant foliage. Having been bred for the British climate makes its resilient flowers completely weather tolerant!

Grow this striking Petunia in full sun – it’s easy to grow and makes a gorgeous addition perfect for growing in window boxes, baskets or pots.

World Exclusive – Camellia ‘1001 Summer Nights’ Jasmine

World Exclusives keep coming! Camellia ‘1001 Summer Nights’ Jasmine opens the door to the never seen before, this camelia puts on quite a show to provide a midsummer day’s dream garden!

With Camellias normally limited to the spring months for flowering this introduction sees this ground-breaking new summer flowering variety from T&M blowing those typical expectations clean out the window!

A breath-taking breakthrough in Camellia breeding!

This handsome evergreen is a real breeding breakthrough! Bred in China by Mr. Gao Jiyin, who has worked with camellia for over 50 years, with his colleagues Mr. Zhao Qiangmin and Mr. Liu Xinkai.

Unlike most Camellias, which flower in spring, this extraordinary new variety is at its best in the middle of summer! The ruffled, rosette blooms are borne continuously from May to October, bringing an exotic feel to the garden. Camellia ‘1001 Summer Nights’ Jasmine is neat and compact, making it ideal for planting in patio containers. Thriving in sun or part-shade, it makes a useful shrub for providing year-round interest and colour in the garden.

Peter Freeman, Thompson & Morgan’s Product Development Manager, said: ‘I was really taken aback by this breakthrough; plants were covered in flower right through the summer!’

Further highlights include…

Cortaderia ‘Tiny Pampa’ the World’s first dwarf pampas grass growing to just 60cm tall!

This newcomer is perfect in a border for anyone with a smaller garden or for those looking to create a feathery feature it’s perfect in a container on the patio placed in full sun. Producing an abundance of flowers even as a young plant makes this a textural winner for the summer garden.

The new Sedum Sunsparkler ‘Dream Dazzler’ is full of surprises – this season’s colour changing and drought resistant variety!

This brilliant sedum has a surprise in store – featuring different coloured foliage depending on its position in the garden!

Its succulent leaves form a dense low cushion of vibrant colour. Rich tones of dark purple with bright pink edges when in the sun, or blue green with white edges when positioned in the shade. With the addition of pink flowers in the summer months makes it a must have new variety for this season. Both disease resistant and hardy to -30oC this sedum will thrive in dry conditions basking in full sun and perfect for both borders and rockeries whilst attracting pollinating insects into the garden.

All varieties featured above will be available in our Spring 2021 Catalogue, and available to buy online from late December.