The3Growbags at the Garden Press Event

Nothing gets the Growbags’ juices flowing like an early preview of all the new horticultural innovations coming our way this year.

So an invitation to the annual Garden Press Event even flushed Caroline out of her Highland hideaway and down to Islington this week (although she nearly got sent straight back to Scotland when she managed to grab the final free lunch voucher after surreptitiously squirming in front of her two older sisters in the queue).

Here are the things that caught our attention, with links to where you can find out more about them at the bottom of the blog.

On the all-important ‘new plants’ front, our respective top choices managed to reflect our personal interests to a tee. I was thrilled to discover a new seed company Stocks & Green who are supplying a curated range of seeds based on their founders’ (Iben and Trevor) years of experience in managing and photographing garden plants, including many rare and desirable species and true-from-seed cultivars.

Elaine went weak at the knees at the Guernsey Clematis stand who had managed to get their three new introductions in full flower for the event. And I have to say that I learnt more about how to grow clematis well in a 5-minute chat with their wonderful sales manager Andy Jeanes than in the whole of my previous 40 years of gardening. I’m not just saying that because he was kind enough to give each of us a ‘Bridgewater’ to take home at the end of the event – (and yes Caroline did manage to get hers home in her carry-on hand luggage – quite an achievement when you see the size of it in our featured photo at the top of the blog)

Meanwhile Caroline, as you might have guessed, was entranced by a new multi-coloured dwarf euphorbia ‘Little Treasure’ , which will no doubt be installed under her ‘Magic Roundabout’ sunflowers.

On the gardening logistics front we were all three impressed by the ease in which you can receive a range of high-quality peat-free composts in the post from Southern Trident. These coir based products can be dehydrated and compressed into small light packages for distribution, which must surely be better for the planet in terms of transportation and our collective backs in terms of handling. You simply put the dehydrated compost in a wheelbarrow when it arrives and add 12 gallons of water. After a couple of hours you have a lovely supply of award-winning peat-free compost. Brilliant.

Copper and Green promised that giant copper bands around your pots was the way forward to tackle the current epidemic of molluscs.

Elsewhere Burgon & Ball had masses of attractive and sustainable new products, many of which we plan to stock in our on-line shop.

For the second year running The Dipping Tank Company were voted the company showcasing the best new products, having expanded their range to include a ‘Slow the Flow’ rain planter.

Organised by Garden Industry Manufacturer’s Association (GIMA) and the Horticultural Trades Association (HTA), this event aims to give those involved in garden media, including bloggers like us, the heads up on new trends and products. It has the added attraction of networking and chinwagging with others who talk and write about horticulture. It definitely ticked all those boxes for us so thank you to both these organisations and to the Garden Media Guild (GMG) who facilitated our invitations.

Caroline has put together this little video of our lovely day.

The links to the products that particularly caught our eye are below.

• The quality of photography on Stocks&Green seed company website makes me feel that a browse through their site should be available on prescription from the NHS.
• You won’t find those three new clematis on the Guernsey Clematis website just yet as they’re being launched at Chelsea Flower Show this summer.
• Here are the details of that colourful little euphorbia ‘Little Treasure’ that Caroline fell in love with.
• You’ll find details of the impressive compressed compost on the Southern Trident website.
• If you think that heavy duty copper rings are the way forward to stopping slugs laying waste to your pot displays you’ll find them on the Copper and Green website.
• There seems to be no stopping The Dipping Tank Company in being the stylish leader in the field of recycling rainwater in your garden.

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