Royal Approval for Lancashire Gardening Company

Lancashire based Greenhouse Sensation have received the royal seal of approval for their gardening products just weeks after securing distribution in Europe and winning a product award.

The Greenhouse Sensation team exhibited at The Edible Garden Show on 28^th – 30^th March and their stand was chosen for a visit by Camilla Parker-Bowles, Duchess of Cornwall. Camilla said that she wanted to buy one of the company’s self-watering Chilligrow chilli planters for her son, food writer and restaurant critic Tom Parker-Bowles because he loves chillies but forgets to water them.

Greenhouse Sensation’s Chilligrow keeps chillies perfectly fed and watered for several days at a time without ever sitting the roots in water, so when Tom returns from trips reviewing restaurants his chillies won’t be wilting with thirst.

The Royal meeting came after an exciting few weeks for Greenhouse Sensation as they also secured distribution with retailers in Denmark and Germany, and gardening magazine ‘Grow Your Own’ named the company’s Nutrigrowthe best feed for veg plants.

Greenhouse Sensation is a small company with big ambitions. Revenue has grown by almost 50% over the past 12months. The company has a larger Facebook community than any of its competitors and is renowned in the gardening community for its outstanding levels of service. A quick look at the 1,500+ reviews on Greenhouse Sensation’s website and Facebook page shows that this is a company that generates a passionate loyalty amongst its customers.

Commercial Director Emma Lowther –Wright said that the secret behind the growth is a team committed to delighting customers with superb quality products and friendly, knowledgeable service. She explained: “Our aim to delight customers informs everything we do from developing product concepts and designing website pages to selecting the right courier.”

The company designs and makes its planters, propagators and irrigation kits in Skelmersdale and also sells a wider range of gardening equipment and gifts on its website. It has become one of the most popular websites for people searching for gardening gifts.

Veg Plotting: GBMD Butterflies Are...

Veg Plotting: GBMD Butterflies Are...: The recent warm weather has awoken the hibernating butterflies from their slumbers and it's been great to see them a-fluttering by ...

Attract them to your garden with butterfly habitats 
http://www.greenhousesensation.co.uk/garden-wildlife/butterflies-and-bees/

Mr Tomato King: Slug Beer Traps

Great tips re. slugs Mr Tomato King: Slug Beer Traps: Well it didn't take long for the slugs to find my newly planted courgette and eat the head off, hopefully a shoot will grow so I should...

We also love our organic slug pellets http://www.greenhousesensation.co.uk/pest-control-5/slug-pellets.html

seedtoseeds: Two weeks to go.

seedtoseeds: Two weeks to go.: No its not Christmas, the date I have in mind is December 14th, the day I try to sow my hot cap chinense chilli peppers. Why? you ask, wel...

Propagate plants from cuttings

Gardeners can save a small fortune by growing from cuttings, and a new propagator promises to make the process really easy.

Few gardeners grow from cuttings because getting the watering right can be tricky resulting in many of the cuttings dying-off. That’s a shame because growing from cuttings is a great way to have a bloom-filled garden year after year on a tiny budget, for example every chrysanthemum plant will produce approximately 10 more plants!

To overcome the challenge of keeping cuttings properly watered Greenhouse Sensation developed the Hydropod cuttings propagator. This clever propagator sprays a mist around the cuttings which lowers the leaf temperature, creates a humid atmosphere and reduces the amount of water lost from the leaves, therefore preventing cuttings from drying out without water-logging the stems.  

Many popular plants lend themselves to growing from cuttings including fuchsias, chrysanthemums, geraniums, delphinium, dahlias, hydrangeas and acers. The added bonus is that many plants, including chrysanthemums have more impressive floral displays in their first year, so it makes sense to have new plants grown from cuttings each year.

The Hydropod cuttings propagator has a 7 day reservoir so there’s no need to keep an eye on the water levels every day, meaning gardeners can go on holiday and not worry about their cuttings.

The Hydropod has been designed by Greenhouse Sensation, the team behind the award-winning Vitopod Propagator and is made in England.

It's all about the tomatoes

In our opinion  anyone who doesn't like tomatoes just hasn't found the one for them, it's a bit like our view on Champagne.

Paul's favourite is the Striped Cavern, which hasn't ripened yet. This is a hollow tomato (?!) for stuffing, John M is distinctly unimpressed with the concept. Faye loves the sweetness of the Sungold, Natasha is a big fan of the beefsteaks stuffed with mince and Emma's favourite is the San Marzano (as eulogised about on the Blog eearlier this year).

The tomatoes in our visitor greenhouse are grown hydroponocally (without soil). The harvests are much bigger and everything fruits much sooner, so we always have plenty to share. 

Quick Photo shoot

May is my favourite month in the greenhouse because it's full of promise with plenty of tomatoes and chillies setting, but I can still manage to manouvere around to take photos. Come July the yoga moves come in very handy to try to get whole plants in shot without tumbling over the tomatoes!

Anyway, here are a few photos.