Taken from Lynne’s weekly column ‘Green Scene’ for the Western Mail. 3rd December 2016
The Fuchsia is Bright!
When Paul Hansord, horticultural director of Thompson & Morgan, saw Petunia ‘Night Sky’ last year, he immediately tipped it for success and featured it on the front cover of T&M’s spring catalogue. Sales of the spectacularly different petunia, which was a world first in flower patterning, exceeded all expectations with over 175,000 plants despatched last season. Retailers commented that they could have sold many, many more plants than stock levels allowed.
This year a fabulous new fuchsia is gracing the cover of Thompson & Morgan’s spring 2017 catalogue, and forecasts suggest that it will be the mail order specialist’s best seller for next season. Paul said: “I’m so convinced of the performance and flower power of Fuchsia ‘Icing Sugar’ that I’ll give our customers double their money back if they don’t believe that this is the best fuchsia they’ve ever grown!”
How’s That for a Promise?
Paul’s confidence in Fuchsia ‘Icing Sugar’ is understandable. With its stunning frosted purple and cerise blooms and its compact habit, it is perfect for large patio pots and eye-catching border planting. Thousands of blooms are produced over the summer on a tidy cushion of dense foliage giving gardeners a great value, full season of colour. What also makes this fuchsia so special is that the rich, true fuchsia-pink sepals unfurl to reveal an unusual two-tone, twisting central corolla that has an intriguing frosted sheen to it.
Petunias and fuchsias are top of the UK’s list of favourite bedding and container plants and consistently come first in consumer surveys. Petunia ‘Night Sky’ also remains on their best seller list Unlike the markings of other varieties, which can be inconsistent, the speckled stars of ‘Night Sky’ are consistent across all the blooms with every flower offering a different astral constellation. When Petunia ‘Night Sky’ was first introduced, some gardeners speculated that the images of had been digitally ‘enhanced’ until they grew the plants and saw the stunning markings for themselves.
Find out more at www.thompson-morgan.com.
Fuchsia Predictions
And if fuchsia is one of your favourite plants then according to my ‘tongue-in-cheek’ observations of people’s personality traits based on their favourite plants that indicates that you are, ‘single minded and quite driven. You find gardening a great way to relax and prefer your own company to crowds. You have occasionally feigned ill health to get out of social events. Attention to details is essential for you and you probably suffered from mouth ulcers as a child’.
You can find out more about what your favourite plant choice reveals about your personality in Personali-trees available from Amazon. It’ll make a great stocking filler and give all gardener’s a good laugh during the festive gatherings.
Get Up and Glow
This week’s Christmas present idea will brighten any gardener’s day.
Burgon & Ball have come up with a great range of hand tools for those gardener’s who are losing theirs! The new FloraBrite collection was developed in response to requests for bright and ‘unlosable’ tools and are available in fluorescent yellow and fluorescent pink with reflective highlights that glow under torchlight. It’s a clever concept.
Choose from trowels, forks, and a selection of secateurs and snips, all with the coveted RHS endorsement or treat yourself or a forgetful gardener to the set.
Comfortable FloraBrite stretch-fit gardening gloves are also available, featuring tough nitrile-coated fingers and palm for added grip and protection. And as a gardener who is always asking the boys, “Anyone seen my gloves?”, they will be on my Christmas list.
The gardening gloves are priced at £4.95, while the hand tools start at £9.95. Available from garden centres and www.burgonandball.com.
Christmas Seed Heads
We are still busy putting various gardens to bed for the winter (although I am more and more insistent that some herbaceous stuff is left to provide suitable winter habitats for wildlife) and I always squirrel some of the dried seedheads and berries away as they are great for festive wreaths, garlands and indoor decorations.
The seed heads of hypericum, teasel heads, globe thistles and even the more robust skeletons of hogweed (not the giant one obviously) become fabulously festive with or without the help of a couple of tins of spray paint. So before you condemn your spent herbaceous growth to the compost heap or bonfire, consider whether or not it is suitable for a bit of festive recycling.
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