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Dwarf lily Romance blooms even in the Shetlands
A NEW dwarf perfumed oriental lily will succeed in any part of the UK – and maybe even Norway, according to Thompson & Morgan.
Lily Romance, in the company's Spring Catalogue, was a top performer in trials from dry East Anglia and the wet Welsh valleys in the west, up to the most northerly point of the UK.
The lilies received a further accolade when cut stems were used in the winning floral entry to the Unst Show, an annual flower and produce event held on the UK’s most northerly isle.
Writer and photographer Helen Harrison donated the stems to her neighbour for the competition.
She said: “No part of Shetland is more than a couple of miles from the sea and the salt laden winds are usually major inhibitors to plant growth, but not so with these lilies.”
Romance's stems are short, yet still long enough at 40cm (16”) for cutting, with seven blooms per stem in the first year and more each year as the bulbs develop.
The Lily Romance Collection are available in the Thompson & Morgan 2016 Spring Catalogue at £12.99 for six 13/14cm mixed colour bulbs or £19.99 for 12.
Picture; Thompson & Morgan
Tomato Marianna's Peace and sweet pea Manucata worth £3.90
THE Plant World Seeds offers have always been really popular - now there's two new free seed packets with my exclusive voucher code.
Plant World Seeds will send you a packet of tomato Marianna's Peace (worth £1.95) and sweet pea Matucana (£1.95) - if you place any order on its website, together worth £3.90.
To claim your seeds, when you get to the payment stage, fill in the promotion code box with SUND8, then the two packets will be automatically added to your order free of charge. To browse the catalogue, packed with rare and unusual varieties, log on to www.plant-world-seeds.com.
MARIANNA'S Peace is a Czech beefsteak variety with a great tangy Brandywine-like taste and has a cordon/intermediate growing habit. The dense, luscious, creamy flesh has a complex, rich sugary flavour with good sweet/acid balance.
The variety comes with a great history. Marianna's family were farmers from Bohemia, Czechoslovakia. At the end of the Second World War, the Russians came to her school and loaded the 17-year-old Marianna and her schoolmates into a truck to be taken to Siberia.
During the journey, Marianna escaped by jumping from the moving vehicle.
As she crossed the Czech border, she was shot in the leg but continued on to Bavaria.
She lost all contact with her family for the next 10 years but with the aid of The Red Cross, she found them in 1955.
The name, Marianna's Peace, and some tomato seeds, were gifts from her father before he died.
The family wasn't able to provide any history of the tomato's breeding or origin, only that the seeds reached back to the early 1900s.
Picture; Plant World Seeds
SWEET pea Matucana is a famous old heirloom variety with striking, very strongly scented, bi-coloured flowers.
It probably originated in Peru, and is often confused with the Cupani sweet pea, as it looks very similar.
It is best grown alone as its gorgeous, velvety, deep colours, which appear until late in the season, cannot compete with some of the bright modern forms.
Picture; Plant World Seeds
FREE SEEDS
RHS announces fifth garden in Salford, Greater Manchester
THE Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) has announced its is opening a fifth garden at Worsley New Hall in Salford, Greater Manchester.
The site forms part of the 3rd Duke of Bridgewater’s estate and will be called RHS Garden Bridgewater.
The 156-acre garden will be created by bringing back to life the lost historic grounds of the magnificent Victorian estate.
Highlights will include the restoration of the 10-acre walled kitchen garden, one of the largest in the UK.
The RHS will also build a new learning centre for schools.
RHS Director General, Sue Biggs, said: “We always thought it would take us a long time to find the ideal site for our fifth garden, but with its beautiful landscapes, good public transport links and outstanding location, Worsley New Hall was an opportunity we couldn’t miss."
The new garden is planned to open in 2019 as part of a wider 10-year investment programme.
Keep updated with developments at RHS Garden Bridgewater through The Garden magazine and via the new Twitter account, @RHSBridgewater.
Picture; RHS
WINNER!
Friend of the Honey Bee Family Pack winner
TO celebrate National Honey Week, we have a winner of the Friends of the Honey Bee Family Pack from the British Bee Keepers' Association (BBKA).
Congratulations to Ruth Nicholls @UtBut, whose winning entry was drawn from the hat.
For more information, log on to http://www.bbka.org.uk/shop/product/friends-of-the-honey-bee/
Exclusive semi-cactus dahlia launched a year early
A NEW semi-cactus dahlia's launch has been brought forward a year, as it performed so well on 2015's trial grounds.
Woolmans exclusively supplies Miss Sophie, offered as part of the three-variety Blushing Cloud Collection, which includes the soft lavender and purple Seduction and creamy white Eveline, both decorative types. The collection includes one tuber of each and costs £9.95.
Miss Sophie was one of the first dahlias to bloom, still producing almost flawless, medium-sized blooms into November. The pale pink heads soften towards the middle, eventually turning to creamy white.
It has a neat compact habit, reaching 90cm (3ft), with many long-stemmed blooms, which last well as cut flowers.
To request a copy of the Woolmans Chrysanthemum and Ornamental Plant Catalogue 2016, go online at www.woolmans.com, telephone 0845 658 9137 or write to Woolmans, Western Avenue, Matrix Park, Chorley PR7 7NB.
Picture; Woolmans
Exclusive scented cascading begonia from Woolmans
A NEW cascading begonia, with a rose-like scent, is being launched exclusively by Woolmans.
Bred in Cambridgeshire by Kerley & Co, Sweet Coral Cascade produces vigorous, lengthy (40cm/16in) trails of double-flowered, salmon-pink blooms, perfect for hanging baskets, window boxes and patio pots.
It was given its name following a competition among staff at Woolmans.
"Sweet Coral Cascade is really free-flowering, but for me its extra-special quality is the strong, rich, rose-like fragrance", said Laura Oakes of Woolmans.
"It also has lovely, glossy foliage to set off the flowers, which are disease-resistant and tolerant of poor weather, so it is a great all-rounder and blooms from June right through to autumn frosts."
A pack of five jumbo plugs costs £12.95 (plus p&p) for despatch in April. When flowering finishes in autumn, the tubers may be saved and stored dry and frost-free before starting them into growth the following spring.
To request a copy of the Woolmans Chrysanthemum and Ornamental Plant Catalogue 2016, go online at www.woolmans.com, telephone 0845 658 9137 or write to Woolmans, Western Avenue, Matrix Park, Chorley PR7 7NB.
Picture; Woolmans
£30k greenhouse from Chelsea garden donated to charity
A GREENHOUSE worth £30,000, and the centrepiece of one of RHS Chelsea's Main Avenue show gardens has been donated to a hospital garden.
Designed by James Alexander-Sinclair, the second Horatio's Garden will open this year at the Queen Elizabeth National Spinal Injuries Unit in Glasgow.
Horatio’s Garden is a charity that creates and cares for gardens in NHS spinal injury centres. It is named in honour of Horatio Chapple, who died aged 17 when his camp was attacked by a polar bear while on expedition in Svalbard in 2011.
He wanted to be a doctor and volunteered at the spinal centre in Salisbury. It was Horatio’s idea to create a garden and his research has shaped the designs and the charity’s aims.
Hartley Botanic MD Johnny Mobasher said: “Since the beginning, Horatio’s Garden has always been a charity close to my heart and in line with my hopes for continuity of some elements of our Chelsea Garden, I’m truly delighted to announce that Opus, our state-of-the-art Hartley Botanic Glasshouse will find a new home at the second Horatio’s Garden.”
James said: “We are super thrilled that Hartley Botanic has agreed to donate its Chelsea greenhouse to Horatio’s Garden Scotland. It will not only add to the general loveliness of the garden but will also be a great asset to the rehabilitation and health of the patients.”
The first Horatio’s Garden, designed by Cleve West, opened in 2012 at the Duke of Cornwall Spinal Treatment at Salisbury Hospital.
Joe Swift is designing the third garden at The National Spinal Injuries Centre at Stoke Mandeville Hospital and fundraising has just started.
The charity is working with The London Spinal Cord Injury Centre at the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital Stanmore, The Princess Royal Spinal Injuries Centre at Sheffield and The Golden Jubilee Spinal Injuries Centre at Middlesbrough and aims to bring Horatio’s Gardens to all the UK’s 11 regional specialist spinal centres.
For information, to make a donation or to find out about volunteering, visit www.horatiosgarden.org.uk. For more about Hartley Botanic, log on to www.hartley-botanic.co.uk.
Picture; Hartley Botanic
BE the envy of your allotment with this handy Round Gardeners Tool Bag from Greenhouse Sensation.
It's cleverly designed with big outside pockets to store your hand tools and a central hold-all to carry garden waste, seeds, plant pots or even a standard bucket.
Made to last from heavyweight, durable canvas, it includes a practical adjustable carry handle. Dimensions: 28cm diameter x H26cm, RRP £9.99.
The winner of the tool bag competition is Cheryl Moulton, of Crewe, @missingmarbles1 - congratulations!
To find out more about Greenhouse Sensations products, visit www.greenhousesensation.co.uk.
Picture; Greenhouse Sensation
WE HAVE A WINNER!
Cool and compact tool bag from Greenhouse Sensation
FIRST out of the blocks with autumn 2016 catalogue highlights is Thompson & Morgan - here's their top 10:
1. Clematis Picotee Kiss, £13.99 (1 x 7cm potted plant): Pink picotee-edged blooms, each up to 15cm (6in). First flush of blooms through May-June, then again July-September. Pruning
group 2. Height: 2-3m (6.5-10ft).
2. Stenocarpus sinuata, £12.99 (1 x 12.5cm potted plant): Australia’s Firewheel tree is surprisingly adaptable to UK conditions. Many gardeners report getting this unusual exotic through our winters, but best moved to a frost-free location over winter. Thrives in full sun.
Height: 2-2.5m (6.5-8ft).
3. Trachelospermum asiaticum Variegatum, £12.99 (1 x 7cm potted plant): Asiatic Jasmine with variegated foliage, becoming tinged with crimson in autumn, staying on the plant as it's evergreen. Very fragrant. Height: 3m (10ft).
4. Cornus Royal Red, £19.99 (1 x 2 litre potted plant): New red-flowering dogwood producing blushing ‘bracts’ around simple, nectar-laden blooms, great for butterflies. Height: 1.2-1.8m (6.5-8ft).
5. Viola Bunny’s Ears, £13.99 (36 plugs): Classic pansy face beneath unusually long ‘rabbit ear’ top petals. Height: 20cm (8in).
6. Clematis Taiga, £14.99 (1 x 7cm potted plant): Double blooms right through summer over rich green foliage. Suitable for patio containers. Pruning group 3. Height 2m (6.5ft).
7. Viola Plums & Peaches, £12.99 (36 plugs): Spring violas that carry on through summer if given shade. Height 20cm (8in).
8. Star Jasmine Pink Showers: £12.99 (1 x 7cm potted plant): The first pink Trachelospermum for UK gardeners. This evergreen climber has candy-pink star-shaped flowers with a rich perfume. Thrives in sun/partial shade. Limited stocks. Height: 3m (6.5-8ft).
9. Narcissus Butterfingers, £8.99 (10 bulbs): Large butter-yellow trumpets surrounded by creamy-white petals, tall sturdy stems and good fragrance. Bulb size 12/14. Height: 45cm (18in).
10. Camellia Night Rider, £24.99 (1 x 2 litre potted plant): Compact form offering some of the darkest blooms in the genus. Velvety, cup-shaped, maroon flowers smother the glossy, evergreen foliage from February to April. Limited stock. Height: 1.2m (4ft).
From top: Clematis Taiga; Firewheel tree; Viola Bunny's Ears; Camellia Night Rider. All pictures; Thompson & Morgan
Top 10 new autumn catalogue plants for Thompson & Morgan
