MR FOTHERGILL’S NEW CATALOGUE IS FULL OF AUTUMN INSPIRATION

At 48 pages the new full-colour Autumn Inspiration Plant Catalogue 2010 from Mr Fothergill’s Direct is the mail order company’s largest ever such offering and features a host of new ornamental and kitchen garden plants which are set to appeal to the most discerning of gardeners.  Featured on the front cover is the temptingly priced brand new Pansy Fizzy Raspberry F1.  This superb, richly coloured blend produces masses of bright, ruffled, frilly blooms from autumn through to spring and looks equally good in containers or bedding schemes.  A pack of 150 miniplugs of Pansy Fizzy Raspberry F1 costs just £5.00.

Equally remarkable is another brand new Pansy – Plentifall, the first truly trailing strain to be seed-raised.  The trailing plants ‘break’ naturally and require no pinching back to develop their gently cascading habit.  A ‘must’ in hanging baskets and window boxes, Plentifall is very free-flowering and the lightly scented heads are produced in a wide array of beautiful colours.  A pack of 44 plugs of Pansy Plentifall costs £14.95, plus 22 extra free, while two packs (88 plugs plus 44 free) are offered for £24.90, saving £5.00.

Primroses are another feature of the spring garden, and few are as eye-catching as the brand new variety Alaska Peach from Mr Fothergill’s Direct.  The large, warm peach coloured flowers have a contrasting bright red central disc.  These strong little plants are perfect for bringing much needed cheer to gardens or containers at a grey time of year.  Primrose Alaska Peach is offered at £12.95 for 44 plugs, plus 22 extra free, while anyone buying two packs, plus 44 free, saves £3.00 at £22.90.

Adventurous gardeners can ring the changes by growing Stock Hot Cakes Mixed, the first selectable autumn flowering variety.  This double flowering mixture produces well branched plants with a neat compact habit, plus the bonus of that traditional stock fragrance.  Hot Cakes Mixed is perfect for taking over from summer flowers to provide an extra burst of colour and scent lasting well into autumn.  A pack of 44 plugs costs £10.95, plus 22 extra free, while two packs cost £18.90 with 44 free, saving £3.00.

Few foliage plants can match heucheras for impact and a collection of five brand new varieties is sure to attract attention.  Choose the rose pink through to blackberry shades of Berry Smoothie, the golden coloured leaves of Electra, blackcurrant Midnight Bayou, wine-red Fire Chief or the soft peach of Southern Comfort at £7.95 for three young plants or take a five plant collection (one of each) for £12.95, with a double collection priced at only £21.90.                                              

The flamboyance of Oriental poppies is countered by their short flowering season, but Mr Fothergill’s Super Poppies flower not only in early summer, but will bloom again as summer progresses.  Worthy of a place in any border, five distinctly different, large flowered, strong stemmed new varieties are offered at £9.95 for three bare-roots.

Plantsmen and women seeking something rather rare and choice will appreciate both Delphinium La Boheme and Geranium pratense Double Jewel.  La Boheme has rosettes of double-like, blue flowers with frilled white centres and edged in paler blue which are borne in profusion on 30in/75cm high plants from midsummer to early autumn.   Three potted plants are priced at £15.95, but save £3.00 when buying two packs for £28.90.  Geranium Double Jewel has star-shaped, double white heads, each with a contrasting central purple splash.  Neat and compact at just 10in/25cm tall, Double Jewel is as good in containers as it is in the open.  Three potted plants cost £14.95, while six cost just £24.90.

One of the traditional values which the family-owned and –run company espouses is value for money and this is reflected in its range of keenly priced perennials and shrubs.  Fifteen popular perennials are offered at £5.95 for five young plants or £11.90 for 10 plus a further five free of charge.  The range includes Digitalis (Foxglove) Camelot Mixed F1, Primula viallii, Lewisia Sunset Strain and Echinacea purpurea – an ideal way of providing masses of border colour for little outlay.  Equally as tempting is a selection of 10 well-loved shrubs which are priced at £6.95 for three young plants.  Customers can order the super-value mixed collection, one plant of each, 10 in all, for just £17.95.

Among a small, carefully selected range of tulips in the catalogue are three new beauties in Dancing Show, Florosa and Exotic Emperor.  Dancing Show has canary yellow heads with green ‘flames’ on the outer petals, Florosa is pink and white, again flamed green, while Exotic Emperor has double white blooms complemented by green and creamy yellow streaks.

Mr Fothergill’s Direct is also offering a range of hedging plants for the first time.  Whether looking to create a formal or mixed hedge, the company’s choice of mainly native species such as sloe (blackthorn), beech, sweet briar and hornbeam will give the very best results and help to attract and provide shelter for a range of wildlife.  All are supplied as two year old, bare-rooted plants.  A Conservation and Edible Collection comprising 10 each of hawthorn, blackthorn and hazel and five plants each of sweet briar and dog rose is offered at £54.75 – a saving of £15.00 on catalogue prices.

Kitchen gardeners also have a wide array from which to choose in the catalogue.  Mr Fothergill’s Direct particularly recommends the brand new Strawberry Elegance, which really impressed plant manager Tom Stimpson when he tasted it on trial grounds last summer.  “It was difficult to stop eating Elegance because the berries were so sweet and tasty!”, admits Tom. “It simply stood out from other varieties”.  Elegance’s uniform, firm fruits can be picked and enjoyed from mid June through to the end of July.  Twelve plants are priced at £9.95.

Another outstanding new soft fruit is Raspberry Polka.  The large, juicy berries have a mouth-wateringly sweet flavour and are capable of producing up to 2.5kg of fruit per cane.  Primocane Polka bears its fruits from July through to October, while the canes have the added advantages of being virtually spine-free and having good resistance to disease.  Six canes of Raspberry Polka cost £12.95, but save £4 when buying a dozen for £21.90.

The Autumn Inspiration Plant Catalogue 2010 also offers an excellent range of tree fruit, a first rate selection of vegetable plants delivered at just the right time for growing on and producing winter and spring crops, plus autumn-planting onion sets, shallots and garlic and late cropping potatoes to give ‘out-of-season’ crops of delicious new potatoes through autumn and up to Christmas.

Place an order from the catalogue worth more than £25.00 and claim 25 bulbs of Narcissus Tête-à-Tête for just £2.49, a saving of £2.46 on list price.  Anyone who orders plants worth more than £35.00 is offered one plant each of Japanese Anemones Whirlwind, Pamina and Queen Charlotte for only £4.95, a saving of £5.00.