Garden Products, Horticultural Companies and supplies

PRODUCT REVIEWS 2012

New edition of Tropical Plants; by John Mason

Growing your own plants is a highly rewarding activity for gardeners of every age and ability. Propagation from seed is affordable providing new plants, produce and colour year round for the garden. Sankey Garden Products offers a wide range of propagation equipment. Below is a selection of propagation equipment.

New to propagation Sankey’s Grostart Propagator is the perfect product for those who have limited space and might be wanting to try out propagation for the first time. The Grostart Propagator is an unheated propagator and is available in three sizes – small, midi and maxi. The small Grostart measures 21cm and costs RSP £3.49. The maxi Grostart measures 52cm has at RSP £18.49.

Premium Deep Root Propagator
The Premium Deep Root Propagator is the first of its kind on the market, letting plants go to straight to the bed. There’s no need to prick out and pot on as plants will be well established. The extra deep tray of 14cm is ideal for raising deep-rooted plants such tomatoes and sweet peas. It's also perfect for starting off winter vegetables and plants with fast growing roots such as beans and beetroots.
The high top cover allows plants to be grown until they're strong enough to plant out. The tray has two handles for easy lifting when plants are ready to be transplanted. The Premium Deep Root Propagator comes with two free seed trays, baby watering can and four 9cm pots. It is available in stores from January 2011. The Premium Deep Root Propagator has a RSP of £21.49.

Windowsill propagation
The Grostart Windowsill Propagator is perfect for small plants, vegetables, bedding plants or growing herbs such as lemon balm, parsley and thyme indoors. The Grostart Windowsill reduces the waste that comes from buying bagged fresh herbs or settling for the taste of dried herbs - all without the need for a garden. Made from strong but lightweight polypropylene material and designed to fit on a windowsill, greenhouse shelf or other compact space, this unheated propagating kit includes a windowsill tray, three 22cm seed trays and three 22cm ventilated propagator covers to keep your delicate plants protected from the harsh elements.
The Grostart Windowsill propagator has an RSP of £14.49.Like all of Sankey’s products, its range of propagators are designed to be used over and over again. In line with its ethical stance, Sankey uses recycled and recyclable materials whereever possible. More information can be found on Sankey’s website www.sankeygrowyourown.co.uk.

About Sankey
Since 1855 Sankey has been growing with gardeners, initially manufacturing clay pots and saucers, hand made in the Nottingham factory where Sankey is still based. Today, Sankey has built a tremendous depth of products which can grow with the gardener as their passion and knowledge about their garden grows. Just as it innovated over 156 years ago, Sankey continues to be at the forefront, using latest material technology and production techniques to create products that are stylish, durable and contribute to sustainable living. The company uses recycled materials wherever possible. All products, aside from electric propagators, fully recyclable. All Sankey manufacturing sites in the UK are certificated by BSI to the Environmental Management System – ISO 14001:2004 and the Quality Management System – ISO 9001:2008. Finally, because Sankey is British, most of the products don’t have to travel thousands of miles and so minimises Sankey’s carbon footprint.Want to learn how to grow healthy tropical and sub-tropical plants? Many of the plants in this ebook can also be grown successfully in mild temperate climates as indoor plants, greenhouse plants, or in protected warmer parts of a garden. SANKEY PROPAGATORS
Propagate your own plants

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NEW BOOK

‘Landscaping Solutions For Small Spaces’ by Ann-Marie Powell has been published in the USA by ‘Creative Homeowner’ and is now available to purchase in the UK via amazon.co.uk priced £8.57. The book features 10 of Ann-Marie Powell’s designs, summarising a range of garden styles suitable for small spaces. These include - Urban, Edible, Romantic, English, Sun, Low-maintenance, Rustic, Night, Terraced, and Minimalist. A comprehensive chapter, dedicated to each style, includes a full sized, easy to read, and very detailed diagram of the garden, accompanied by an additional full-page blueprint-style planting guide. Each of the gardens is illustrated by the sumptuous photography of award-winning photographer, Rachel Warne. Canadian Garden Designer and book reviewer Allan Becker says this about the book:

“One feature of the book that truly impressed me is the fact that no construction or planting detail, no matter how minute, is omitted or left to chance. In each chapter, the author includes a list of hardscape materials, a plant-shopping list, and a reminder of miscellaneous garden accessories that are required, such as eye screws for window boxes, wood screws, fence clips, and dumpsters for construction waste.”

This is a very impressive manual. Of late, publishers have been tapping into the talents of skilled and creative professionals, so that projects available to do-it-yourselfers are moving away from run-of-the-mill to become extraordinary. Although Ms. Powell's book is intended as a mass-market publication, it is, in fact, an example of landscape mentoring at its best.”

About the Author
Ann-Marie Powell is an award-winning garden designer, television presenter and writer. In addition to running her own garden design business, she contributes to numerous newspapers and magazines and has written two books, Hard Landscaping for the Garden (David & Charles PLC, 2003) and Urban Gardens (Cassell, 2005).
She is an RHS Chelsea Gold and Silver Medalist.
For further information, contact Lorna McKechnie (lorna@ann-mariepowell.com) or Ann-Marie Powell (ann-marie@ann-mariepowell.com) or call T: 01730 825 650 M: 07958 665254.

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Cayeux Iris returns to Chelsea with several new varieties.

French family nursery Cayeux Iris is returning to RHS Chelsea Flower Show in May, after a year's break, during which Richard Cayeux (pictured) won top prizes at Moscow, Munich and Florence competitions for his recent bearded iris hybrids. He hopes to bring up to 6 new varieties to Chelseathis year, 3 of which are pictured below and the rest can be seen on the Home Page of our website www.iris-cayeux.com . They are available as part of new 2012 collection from mid March.

It takes from 7 to 20 years to create a new iris hybrid. Over 130 varieties in the 2012 collection have been created by the Cayeux family, who have been hybridising rises to great acclaim since 1892. Richard was recently awarded the Warburton Medal by the American Iris Society for his contribution to the genus Iris.

As before, the Cayeux Iris stand will exhibit a stunning selection of the best of Cayeux, arranged in five circular swathes of colour for a really dramatic effect: blues, blacks and purples, reds and pinks, oranges and yellows, and whites and lavenders.

High definition photos, a full press release and more information are available from Anne Williams. Richard will be at Chelsea from Sunday afternoon 20 May to Tuesday afternoon 22. See our Chelsea page on www.iris-cayeux.com for more details.

The Cayeux nursery is open to the public 9 May to 2 June, more details on the Calendar page of our website www.iris-cayeux.com . Journalists are requested to contact us in advance if possible so we can be sure to welcome you personally.Cayeux Iris returns to Chelsea with several new varieties.

French family nursery Cayeux Iris is returning to RHS Chelsea Flower Show in May, after a year's break, during which Richard Cayeux won top prizes at Moscow, Munich and Florence competitions for his recent bearded iris hybrids. He hopes to bring up to 6 new varieties to Chelseathis year, 3 of which are pictured below and the rest can be seen on the Home Page of our website www.iris-cayeux.com . They are available as part of new 2012 collection from mid March.

The Cayeux nursery is open to the public 9 May to 2 June, more details on the Calendar page of our website www.iris-cayeux.com . Journalists are requested to contact us in advance if possible so we can be sure to welcome you personally.

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New Herb E-book by John Mason

Nine chapters in this book cover Introduction to herbs, cultivation, propagation, pest and disease management, landscaping and use of herbs as well as an illustrated "a-z" presenting photos and brief descriptions of dozens of different herbs.

Available at www.acsebook.com

More from ACS

Getting Work in Horticulture

Bulbs

Commercial Hydroponics

Farm Management

Starting a Nursery or Herb Farm

Horticulture I

Aquaponics