Ipswich plant firm Thompson & Morgan wins Plant of the Year at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show

Ipswich plant and seed specialists Thompson & Morgan took first and third places in Plant of the Year at the RHS Chelsea Flower show.

Its entry Hydrangea hybrid Runaway Bride - Snow White received the accoldade plant of the year.

And in third place was Thompson & Morgan’s homebred entry, a sunflower, Sunbelievable Brown Eyed Girl, which took eight years of breeding at the trial gardens just outside Ipswich.

The firm had five plants, of seven submitted, selected in the Top Twenty.

Paul Masters, head of horticulture at Thompson & Morgan, comments this afternoon from RHS Chelsea Flower Show:

“We’re completely over the moon to have taken first and third places in this year’s RHS Chelsea Plant of the Year. Runaway Bride® ‘Snow White’ is a truly spectacular plant - I’ve never seen so many flowers on a hydrangea! To see six blooms on each branch is unheard of. It really is incredible!”

On SunBelievable™ ‘Brown Eyed Girl’, bred by Thompson & Morgan’s in-house breeding team, head plant breeder, Charles Valin, said: “I’m incredibly pleased to hear that SunBelievable™ ’Brown Eyed Girl’ has been awarded a place in the top three Plant of the Year at RHS Chelsea. I set out to breed a new hybrid that wouldn’t waste time setting seed and would put all its energy into flowering. In creating this amazing new sunflower, I’ve crossed the very best with the very best to really boost its flower power. It’s a huge honour to have our hard work recognised by such a prestigious body.”

“Hydrangea hybrid Runaway Bride® ‘Snow White’ is completely unique in that it flowers not only from its terminal buds as with traditional hydrangeas, but also from virtually all the lateral stem buds. Flowering from late spring/early summer well into autumn, Hydrangea hybrid Runaway Bride® ‘Snow White’ produces a profusion of lacecap white flowers flushed with pale pink - often 6 along each branch - on graceful, trailing stems.”

www.thompson-morgan.com