In This Issue
Anxious times for suppliers and retailers waiting for more news of Scotts-Solus deal
Kelkay launches £1.5 million Borderstone stock sale
Garden centre product sales show signs of growth
Husband-and-wife actors become joint patrons of Greenfingers
£2,000 raised for the Rosy Cheeks Appeal at successful Europlants Open Days
Water features offer linked sales opportunities from Deco-Pak
Mr Fothergill's goes greener as solar panels cut energy costs
Gardman develops premium wild bird care brand
Huntingdon G&L staff fear restructure of centre will result in job losses
Town & Country wellies rated alongside Hunter and Chameau
Pansies and violas are the HTA’s Plant of the Month for March
NGGV poppy seed giveaway and limited edition voucher
Cultivating business solutions together – Classiflora-Zelari 2014 Open Days
John Athwal joins the charity "CEO Sleepout"
Top 50 garden product sales on a par with past two years
Garden King Newhall to benefit from Bradley closure
Veg-2-Gro sales still lagging behind last year
Weekend dedicated to the world of chillies
Growing media flies through the tills
Holland and tulips are the theme of Keukenhof
New technology helps garden centres make and save money
Get involved in Garden Re-Leaf Day with 'Loose Change'
There's still time to have Jude Law, David Tennant and other stars presenting the Garden Re-Leaf Day quiz for 2014 in your garden centre
Bestsellers Top 50 charts every week
Send us your news and great ideas

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

 


Pansies and violas are the HTA’s Plant of the Month for March



March is the perfect time for a garden spring clean after the winter, re-invigorating and livening up existing flower beds, borders and containers.  This makes pansies and violas the ideal choice for the HTA’s Plant of the Month for March.

Pansies are the perfect spring plants - along with primulas, forget-me-nots and wallflowers and are perfect contenders for patio pots, hanging baskets and window boxes, ideal and easy to plant under the HTA’s It Starts with a Pot campaign. 

Pansies and violas are two of the most popular bedding plants and are great for filling the gaps in borders once you have cleared away bedraggled or dead plants.  Their names are often used interchangeably. Plants considered to be pansies have four petals pointing upwards, and only one pointing down. Violets have three petals pointing up and two pointing down.

Pansies and violas are two of the easiest instant colour plants for this time of year and are much loved by broadcaster and gardener, Esther Rantzen CBE, the celebrity champion for the month. 

“I love pansies for their soft colours, all the shades of blues, purples and gold’s” she says, “and for their faces, turned down, as if in contemplation, as Ophelia said, ‘There’s pansies, that’s for thoughts’ – and indeed the name comes from the French word, pensee, to think. 

"They look fragile, but in fact they are tough, they can survive anything except the burning summer heat, and they seed themselves and return, year after year. And outside the garden wall their little wild cousins, the violets, send out their fragrance to reassure us that spring is on its way.”

Popular varieties recommended by the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) AGM include:

  • Viola Aspasia
  • Viola Beshlie
  • Viola Clementina
  • Viola Cornuta
  • Viola Cornuta Alba
  • Viola Cucullata
  • Viola Huntercombe Purple

Nominated and agreed upon by British growers and retailers, the HTA’s Plant of the Month campaign highlights the plants that are widely available and looking especially good each month.

For more details, please visit www.the-hta.org.uk/plantofthemonth

Plant of the Month point of sale materials can be purchased through HTA partners Hortipak and Floramedia.

Special thanks to Burston Nurseries for supplying the pansies, violas and pot for the photoshoot with Esther Rantzen.

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