From seed to spuds: gardeners get planting to celebrate Royal Wedding

GROWERS AND seed suppliers are gearing up to help gardeners celebrate the wedding of Prince William to Catherine Middleton.

Suffolk-based seed firm Johnsons has released a limited-edition pack of Oriental Poppy ‘Royal Wedding’.

Retailing at £2.75 for 200 seeds, ‘Royal Wedding’ has large semi-double blooms with deep-purple centres. A hardy perennial, plants grow to 30in (75cm) and flower from May onwards.

Johnsons’ Leila Russell said: “The crisp, white satin blooms will add a touch of real elegance to all gardens for many years to come.”

Special displays of poppy ‘Royal Wedding’ are being installed at garden centres while seed can be bought from 8 johnsons-seeds.com.

In a separate move, online garden centre Gardening Express (8 gardeningexpress.co.uk) has launched a patriotic spud collection to mark the Royal Wedding.

The limited range of red, white and blue potatoes comprise three varieties: ‘Highland Burgundy Red,’ ‘British Queen’ and ‘Salad Blue’.

A bag of 12 seed potatoes (four of each variety) and costs £5.99. They can be planted until the end of April and will be ready for harvesting from late-June.

Gardening Express’s Chris Bonnett joked: “I’m sure they’ve got the catering sorted, but if they’d like to tuck into home-grown veg, William and Kate are welcome to a sample!”

Article supplied by Amateur Gardening Magazine