One of our customers in Suffolk, England spotted a very different Foxglove amongst those in her garden. The plant was unusually short and compact, and the primrose yellow blooms were appearing in whorls all around the stem, very unusual for a Foxglove.

The customer sent the seeds to us and our breeders further selected the original plant for 2-3 years in order to stabilise the habit, form and colour. The resulting variety was named Foxglove 'Primrose Carousel', which graced the front cover of our 1999 international Seed Catalogue and achieved worldwide sales of 81,000 packets!

An international star from humble beginnings!

One of our customers in Scotland sent in some seed of a tall, border Marigold with unusual, striped blooms that they had growing in their garden.

T&M breeders grew this plant on trial and acknowledged that it had a very different flower pattern and form, but the habit was rather unruly. They then crossed the plant with a modern, dwarf variety in order to reduce the height, and achieve a more compact habit.

The resulting variety was named Marigold 'Mr. Majestic', which has been popular with T&M's container gardening enthusiasts for many years!

A compact container plant bred from a tall border specimen