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A Taste For The Tropics: Creating A Jungle Garden!
If summer holidays to far-off places feel out of reach right now, maybe it's time to plan for a holiday at home? Creating a tropical feel on your suburban patio isn't as far-fetched as it might sound. There are plenty of exotic beauties that will flourish in our cooler climate, but still create…
Plug plants – which size is best for you?
Plug plants – which size is best for you?It’s all-go in the garden now that the sun has finally decided to make an appearance, but knowing which plug plants to buy can be a bit confusing. They all need different levels of care and, if you’re not sure what you’re buying, you…
Perfect for pollinators
Give your garden a pollinator friendly makeoverImage: Dogwooddays Planting for pollinating insects has never been more important. As insect populations decline across the world, we need to find ways to help these essential invertebrates, for our future as well as theirs. Gardeners can play a vital…
The 10 Best Plants for April
Chaenomeles x superba 'Pink Lady' Image: Canva April is an exciting time and there is plenty to do in borders:As perennials emerge, look out for losses and gaps and plan how you are going to fill them. Get new perennials in as soon as you can and sow drifts of hardy annuals into warm soil. Hoick…
Top 10 perennial plants
Top 10 Perennial PlantsPerennial flowers add colour and seasonal interest to the garden from April to November, often attracting bees and butterflies to their blooms, and making great cut flowers too. They are incredibly versatile and can be used as fillers between shrubs, planted as groundcover…
Winter hanging baskets - planting ideas
Red berries look glorious against a variegated silver leaf for the winter seasonImage: dogwooddays Once the last of summer's flowers have faded, it's tempting to discard the plants, store the baskets behind the shed, and give up until spring. But that would be to miss out on the colour, texture and…
Plants for a small garden – by our customer Amanda
We moved to our house in September 2003 and decided to dig up our front garden to allow parking for three cars. It’s made it very low maintenance because although I love lawns they do tend to look parched in hot weather, and being on a water meter I didn’t want to use excessive amounts…
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…
Flowers You Should Avoid Planting Near One Another
There's certainly an art to orchestrating your garden. Learning about which flowering plants work well together or which are incompatible due to their unique growth conditions is the key to creating gorgeous and harmonious combinations in your yard. Below are several examples of flowers you should…
Richard Mulcahy
Guest blogger Richard Mulcahy has a shady plot in Co. Antrim and writes here about his allotment and growing early rhubarb.Shady plotsIn the winter months, I get a chance to think and reflect upon my plot. Leaning on the allotment fence today, I thought back two years to when I first got the…
Tulip bulbs – Never too late for Tulips!
Some garden centres will try and sell you tulip bulbs in August, because they soon want to make space for the (too early) sales of Christmas decorations. That’s way too early for tulips though! You should reserve your bulbs by mail order, to ensure later delivery, to coincide with the best…
Best Drought-Resistant Plants
Drought-resistant planting at RHS Garden Harlow Carr. Image: Olivia Drake Spring and summer droughts are becoming increasingly common across many parts of the UK. With temperatures rising and rainfall becoming less consistent, drought-resistant plants have never been more important to gardeners. A…
Houseplant Lighting Guide
Image: Shutterstock Houseplants function as living décor, making your home look beautiful. They also introduce nature into sterile indoor environments, injecting mood-boosting natural greenery. Finding creative ways to display your plants is the fun part, but before you do that, it is essential to…
Amaryllis – flamboyant and never understated
Commonly known as amaryllis, hippeastrum bulbs are hugely popular gifts for Christmas. There really is no question as to why increasing numbers are choosing the amaryllis as a Christmas gift, as their magnificent and showy blooms flower year after year, making fantastic houseplants.Growing…
Making a start on your plot
So you’re now the proud tenant of your new plot. You look, you scratch your head, you stand and survey. The fact of the matter is, there is only one way to get a plot up and running and that’s hard work. I started with cutting through the bramble jungle, once cut down to ground level…
Top 10 plug plants
Plug plants are a convenient and easy way to fill your garden with colour. Although seeds are cheaper to buy, there is often a lot of work involved, from germination to pricking out tiny seedlings. Cuttings also pose the same problem, requiring nurturing undercover for some time and with varying…
Garlic masterclass: best expert content
Carcassonne Wight is one of the most successful garlic varieties for overwinteringImage: Garlic 'Carcassonne Wight' from Thompson & MorganIf you love the taste of garlic and want to try growing your own garlic sets from scratch, here's where you'll find some of the best advice. These YouTubers…
Windowsill Gardening
I have been gardening since I was knee high to my Grandad, he taught me as much about gardening when I was a nipper as I learnt at school about reading and writing! My father is also a keen gardener and so I have had a very well rounded gardening education. I have been working as a self employed…
Scent-sational Spring Flowers!
As I stepped into my garden earlier this week, I was captured by a breath-taking fragrance. I went in search of its source - and there on the other side of the fence was a magnificent Sarcococca! I love this reliable evergreen shrub. It has an intense (but not overpowering) perfume. Better still,…
Gardening Tips – Tower Pots
Our decorative pot and support frame is specially designed to train plants into pillars of colour. It can be used as a half frame, for supporting plants to use as cut flowers, or as full frame for showy climbers such as Clematis. The Tower Pot is so versatile! Here are our gardening tips to get you…
Drought tolerant plants
Drought tolerant plants look good and are low maintenanceImage: Peter Betts There are lots of good reasons to grow drought tolerant plants. During hot summers the need for frequent watering is time consuming. Not to mention costly to the environment and your pocket too, should rainfall in your area…
Hyacinths masterclass: best expert content
Hyacinths create fabulous colour displays with powerful scentImage: Hyacinth 'T&M Mix' from Thompson & MorganIf you want to force hyacinth bulbs indoors to enjoy their flower, scent and colour over the winter, here's a selection of expert advice from our favourite bloggers, YouTubers and…
Much to do before festive break
December 2013Well I can’t believe that the festive season is nearly here but there are still a few jobs to do in the garden before the end of the year, weather permitting.I have tidied the shrubs and perennial borders, old perennial stalk pruned back and, where required, shrubs pruned to…
Top 10 Houseplants : The Best of the Bunch and How to Grow Them
Image: Shutterstock From Monkey Leaves to Mother-in-Law's Tongue, houseplants offer a dazzling variety of leaf shapes, forms, and colours. And from bright, warm window sills, to cool humid bathrooms, they each have their own preferences for where and how they like to live. In case you are feeling…
Our top 10 Christmas plant gifts
Christmas shopping can be stressful, so we’ve put together a list of our top 10 best-selling Christmas plant gifts for you! Whether you’re looking for presents for Mum, Christmas flowers, hyacinths or indoor bulbs for Christmas, you’ll find a range of great gardening Christmas…
Top gardening trends
2014 is all about big planting schemes, perennials doubling up as annuals and falling in love with shrubs again. Here are our top gardening trends…Begonia ‘Lotto Mixed’BIG plantingLots of gardeners are starting to get wise with their planting schemes and choosing plants that give…
Tree lily – the perfect performers for time-strapped gardeners
What a difference two years can make! Back in spring 2012, I planted five Tree Lily ‘Pink Explosion’ bulbs deep into a large, glazed patio pot filled with a 50/50 mix of multi-purpose and loam-based compost. I then stood back expecting big things.Big things I got! Come mid-summer, thick…
Onions masterclass: best expert content
Homegrown onions ready for storageImage: Onion sets 'Troy' (Autumn planting) from Thompson & MorganFor the best independent advice on growing onions, we've found a selection of expert articles, videos and Instagram posts to help you raise a bumper crop. Whether you prefer to plant onion sets in…
Enjoy December’s garden
After a long year tending to our garden, December is the time for us to put our feet up with a spring catalogue and enjoy the winter’s tracery. During colder days we can sit back with a hot chocolate in hand, topped with toasty marshmallows and admire the lingering frost on summers faded…
New autumn plant, bulb and shrub range now online
Thompson & Morgan’s new autumn plant range is now online!Now that summer is well and truly on its way and plants are putting on some decent growth at last, it’s a good time to start thinking about next season.Our autumn plant, bulb and shrub range is now online and is the perfect…
Gardening news – autumn planting, bees and butterflies
Autumn planting is the big topic in this week’s gardening news!Autumn is the best time to plant many bulbs including tulipsPlan it, plant it this autumnThe ‘Plan it, plant it this autumn’ campaign run by the Horticultural Trade Association is now in its second year. The campaign…
How to store vegetables
Which vegetables will store and how long will they keep? This is an annual dilemma faced by many gardeners. Often the need for storage is caused by gardeners being too generous in their sowings and planting and creating their own ‘gluts’ and ‘surpluses’. Why plant 200 onion…
Under the Weather
‘Under the Weather’As I sit here at noon on a Wednesday, my home has been enveloped by a huge dark cloud once again and the rain is misting out the houses across the street. It is utterly miserable and I am going to have to turn the daylight stimulation bulb on any minute before I give…
New Christmas gifts range now online
Our new Christmas gifts range is now online!Rose ‘Infinity’We’ve given our Christmas gifts website a revamp and now you’ll find a wide range of gifts at www.thompson-morgan.com/gifts-for-christmasEach gift is beautifully presented and packed by hand to arrive fresh and…
The difference between onions and shallots
Shallots are an underappreciated cousin of the onionImage: Shallot 'Griselle' from Thompson & Morgan. If you normally grow onions, have you considered planting shallots alongside them? These oval alliums offer a unique flavour profile, prized in French and Asian cuisine. Here we explain the…
How to improve clay or sandy soils with leafmould
How to improve clay or sandy soils with leafmouldLeafmould is the black gold of gardening. Ten or more years back, I worked in nursery on a rare hill on the Suffolk Essex border. We are talking small scale, husband and wife team, working all hours of day and days of year. The only time off was to…
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