I've never understood the attraction that begonias have for some people. Mama for example loves them. That's my Mum by the way - and the last time I went down to Somerset we went looking for the right ones at a huge garden centre in Somerset. We didn't find them, and I can't say I was bothered . Begonias...no, I don't think so. Mind you, I'd never thought of eating one either , until two weeks ago, that is.
I was near Ipswich at Jimmy's Farm in Suffolk where Thompson and Morgan have their own trial ground, and a number of us were being shown around the flowers, fruit and vegetables , before sitting down to a delicious lunch.That's when I bit into a begonia which decorated the rather lovely apricot pudding.
The begonia leaves tasted of citrus surprisingly, a delicate flavour, and even more surprisingly I was impressed with the most vivid begonia collection I've ever seen. Mama would have been in her element oohing and aaahing, especially at the Evi Bright Pink begonia. .
It's amazing what has been done in the trial ground which is on a hill and had previously been left to grass. In a season, that empty space is now a glorious technicolour display of lots of new varieties of plants. Yes, I know it's a cliche but glorious...is apt and technicolour, well when there's pots of blue, pinks purples,yellows, oranges, reds, magentas massed together, ....it's quite an overwhelming sight.
Michael Perry, aka @thegardening_greek on twitter, or the gorgeous greek as he's also been described, was our irrepressible host around the displays.
Now this plant hunter is not short of word or two but there again he had a lot to talk about and so many new exclusive plants to introduce.
In the midst of all the riotous, in your face colour, it was lovely to see a huge mound of Cosmos Cupcake.....the cool grey green foliage and the simple beauty of the flowers made an attractive sight.
But the flower I lost my heart to that afternoon was a Scabiosa Kudos.
The delicate symmetry, the shade, just called out to me, and there's up to thirty blooms per plant. If I hadn't been on my best behaviour, the whole pot of them would suddenly have mysteriously found its way into my car and would have come back up the A 14 with me. Mind you it was very hard to resist the temptation to get my spade out of the boot of my car (doesn't everyone carry one?) and dig up major parts of the planting scheme to take home.
But by now it was time for Colin Randel,the Vegetable Development Manager to introduce some new vegetable varieties to us...
My eyes honed in immediately on the peas. I'd not grown enough this year, and the terrain peas which Colin was handing out for us to taste were delicious and sweet. Lots of peas in each pod too.If you like Hurst Green Shaft then you'll like these even more. I did when I was told there's more resistance to pea beetle, and the fact that you can grow them later than many other peas. Apparently in Colin's growing trial with Terrain last year, he sowed a last batch on 4th August and they were still cropping in mid November, when there was a very hard frost.
"Go on" he urged," give them a go"...so I have done , and that's why I was on my hand on and knees on my allotment the following evening, bottom in the air, sowing the peas when I was surprised by one of the other allotmenteers. But I digress......and I will let you know how my late pea sowing trial goes. Next year though I'm going to be trying another of Colin's new varieties of sugar snaps called New Horizon, with a good flavour and a satisfying crunch.
We also tasted some new varieties of tomatoes...... I might give them a whirl but for me, well my heart still belongs to Thompson and Morgan's Sweet Aperitif, which is my favourite cherry tomato of all time....bursting with flavour, an easy grower and quite prolific.
Kale of course is one of the veggies that has come in from the cold and is now an oh so fashionable superfood. I love it as it's so reliable, so I was pleased to see and taste the new variety Midnight Sun, which be eaten raw or steamed. A plus point is that within sixty to seventy days, you can be eating it as a baby salad.
And then Colin came up with a surprise.....
Now you wouldn't normally put the following two words together would you? Wasabi and rocket....both hot little numbers....so who thought of combining the two? Does the combination work? Well yes, it's very tasty, makes an attractive clump in a pot or in the ground, but I would use it sparingly in a microsalad, with peashoots, or a sweet beetroot leaves.
A final surprise for me was this
I'd never seen one...and didn't realise that the berries were edible. Now this is what I call a multi tasking plant. It looks beautiful, like all fuschias , but the berries taste a bit like kiwi fruits. These plants can be grown in tubs on the patio and in the fruit garden. Last year, there was one plant of this variety, now there's 400,000....amazing.
I had such an interesting day seeing many of the new varieties of flowers, fruit and vegetables which will be featured in the 2016 catalogue.
There was almost a sensory overload, so many visual delights, tasty treats to eat and scents to inhale. I came away with so many new ideas of what can be achieved, and the sounds of so many fascinating conversations with both the experts at Thompson and Morgan -, the enthusiastic and knowledgeable Paul Hansord, Michael Perry and Colin Randel and the garden writers who were my companions for the day.
I was near Ipswich at Jimmy's Farm in Suffolk where Thompson and Morgan have their own trial ground, and a number of us were being shown around the flowers, fruit and vegetables , before sitting down to a delicious lunch.That's when I bit into a begonia which decorated the rather lovely apricot pudding.
The begonia leaves tasted of citrus surprisingly, a delicate flavour, and even more surprisingly I was impressed with the most vivid begonia collection I've ever seen. Mama would have been in her element oohing and aaahing, especially at the Evi Bright Pink begonia. .
It's amazing what has been done in the trial ground which is on a hill and had previously been left to grass. In a season, that empty space is now a glorious technicolour display of lots of new varieties of plants. Yes, I know it's a cliche but glorious...is apt and technicolour, well when there's pots of blue, pinks purples,yellows, oranges, reds, magentas massed together, ....it's quite an overwhelming sight.
Michael Perry, aka @thegardening_greek on twitter, or the gorgeous greek as he's also been described, was our irrepressible host around the displays.
Now this plant hunter is not short of word or two but there again he had a lot to talk about and so many new exclusive plants to introduce.
In the midst of all the riotous, in your face colour, it was lovely to see a huge mound of Cosmos Cupcake.....the cool grey green foliage and the simple beauty of the flowers made an attractive sight.
But the flower I lost my heart to that afternoon was a Scabiosa Kudos.
The delicate symmetry, the shade, just called out to me, and there's up to thirty blooms per plant. If I hadn't been on my best behaviour, the whole pot of them would suddenly have mysteriously found its way into my car and would have come back up the A 14 with me. Mind you it was very hard to resist the temptation to get my spade out of the boot of my car (doesn't everyone carry one?) and dig up major parts of the planting scheme to take home.
But by now it was time for Colin Randel,the Vegetable Development Manager to introduce some new vegetable varieties to us...
My eyes honed in immediately on the peas. I'd not grown enough this year, and the terrain peas which Colin was handing out for us to taste were delicious and sweet. Lots of peas in each pod too.If you like Hurst Green Shaft then you'll like these even more. I did when I was told there's more resistance to pea beetle, and the fact that you can grow them later than many other peas. Apparently in Colin's growing trial with Terrain last year, he sowed a last batch on 4th August and they were still cropping in mid November, when there was a very hard frost.
"Go on" he urged," give them a go"...so I have done , and that's why I was on my hand on and knees on my allotment the following evening, bottom in the air, sowing the peas when I was surprised by one of the other allotmenteers. But I digress......and I will let you know how my late pea sowing trial goes. Next year though I'm going to be trying another of Colin's new varieties of sugar snaps called New Horizon, with a good flavour and a satisfying crunch.
We also tasted some new varieties of tomatoes...... I might give them a whirl but for me, well my heart still belongs to Thompson and Morgan's Sweet Aperitif, which is my favourite cherry tomato of all time....bursting with flavour, an easy grower and quite prolific.
Kale of course is one of the veggies that has come in from the cold and is now an oh so fashionable superfood. I love it as it's so reliable, so I was pleased to see and taste the new variety Midnight Sun, which be eaten raw or steamed. A plus point is that within sixty to seventy days, you can be eating it as a baby salad.
And then Colin came up with a surprise.....
Now you wouldn't normally put the following two words together would you? Wasabi and rocket....both hot little numbers....so who thought of combining the two? Does the combination work? Well yes, it's very tasty, makes an attractive clump in a pot or in the ground, but I would use it sparingly in a microsalad, with peashoots, or a sweet beetroot leaves.
A final surprise for me was this
I'd never seen one...and didn't realise that the berries were edible. Now this is what I call a multi tasking plant. It looks beautiful, like all fuschias , but the berries taste a bit like kiwi fruits. These plants can be grown in tubs on the patio and in the fruit garden. Last year, there was one plant of this variety, now there's 400,000....amazing.
I had such an interesting day seeing many of the new varieties of flowers, fruit and vegetables which will be featured in the 2016 catalogue.
There was almost a sensory overload, so many visual delights, tasty treats to eat and scents to inhale. I came away with so many new ideas of what can be achieved, and the sounds of so many fascinating conversations with both the experts at Thompson and Morgan -, the enthusiastic and knowledgeable Paul Hansord, Michael Perry and Colin Randel and the garden writers who were my companions for the day.
