In This Issue
Announcement on sale of Solus due next week
Gardman save the day as garden centre is let down on Chapelwood delivery
Confident mood at SOLEX suggests garden centres are looking positively at summer sales
Board changes at William Sinclair as chairman steps down
Mary Berry named as RHS Ambassador and will champion Grow Your Own
Work underway on 44th Greenfingers Garden at Little Havens Hospice in Essex
Groves of Bridport are voted The Greatest Garden Centre Team
GTN publisher Pat Flynn stands down
‘The internet has cut off our children’s greenfingers’ says Domoney
Encouraging grandparents to share their gardening legacy
Medals haul for HTA members at Hampton Court
Australian garden grabs top award at RHS Hampton Court
If catering and food are your growth areas our new Food Xtra will help you
Top Gear drives into Hilltop Garden Centre
Planteria Manager
Buying Assistant
Sales Representative
Weeds and slugs help to boost garden product sales
Vitax's Weedfree range revitalises gardens
Planning success at Rushden Lakes in Northants
Veg seeds make Bestsellers chart return
Expansion continues at Bosmere
Top soil and bark sell well
Strong RHS Hampton Court show for APL members
Sweet peas worth £50 per stem
G7Swan increase their garden centre EPoS market
Bestsellers Top 50 charts every week
Buy your subscription to GTN Bestsellers
Situations Vacant
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Oxfordshire, up to £25,000 per annum
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South Coast, up to £22,000 per anumm
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South East, £30,000 per annum
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Contact us with your news.  Email neil.pope@tgcmc.co.uk, or trevor.pfeiffer@tgcmc.co.uk or call the GTN News team on 01733 775700

 


Sweet peas worth £50 per stem



A bunch of 10 sweet pea stems were valued at £50 each in a national competition held at Capel Manor College, Enfield, north London on Saturday...  

Keith Thompson of Guilden Morden, Hertfordshire, secured the £500 first prize in Mr Fothergill's national sweet pea competition, which attracted entries from as far afield as Ross-shire, Co Tyrone and Cornwall.

The winner originally grew sweet peas as a schoolboy, presenting his mother with the first bunch he ever cut.  He took up the hobby again 15 years ago. 

This year he has grown 18 varieties in his garden, where he nets the plants to protect against pollen beetles. He pinches off the tendrils and side shoots to encourage large blooms and long stems.  Keith lists Mr Fothergill's Gwendoline and Alan Titchmarsh as his two favourite varieties.   

He puts his success down to the incorporation of plenty of farmyard manure into his soil and the addition of blood, fish and bone fertiliser just prior to setting out his young plants, after which he waters them regularly, but does not feed them again.

While Keith won the class for entries submitted in person on the day, there was also a £500 first prize for the best postal entry, which was won by Margaret Smith of Burton on Trent, Staffordshire.  Mr Fothergill's Pim Dickson, who devised the postal method using a two-litre plastic soft drinks bottle to ensure safe transit of blooms, said he was really pleased at the good condition in which they all arrived.  "Not one of the 34 postal entries was damaged," he commented.

There were similar on-the-day and postal categories for schools, which were won by Priory Junior School, Bicknacre, Chelmsford and All Saints Primary School, Youlgrave, Derbyshire respectively.  Each received a first prize of £500.

The judges for the competition were John Fothergill of Mr Fothergill's, gardening writer Peter Seabrook MBEand Stephen Dowbiggin OBE, principal of Capel Manor College.  Entries were judged on their overall appeal.

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