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Thompson & Morgan
Since the first seed catalogue was published in 1855, Thompson & Morgan has grown to become the UK's largest Mail Order Seed and Plant company. Through the publication of our catalogues and the operation of our award-winning website, Thompson & Morgan is able to provide home gardeners with the very best quality products money can buy. In addition to our longstanding UK presence, the brand also operates throughout the world through its international website and offers its popular seed range through major garden centres across Europe.
Our product range has also expanded to include an award winning seed range, young plants, bulbs, seed potatoes, onions and garlic sets, soft fruit and fruit trees as well as an extensive range of gardening supplies. All have been carefully selected through stringent testing and trials to make gardening a pleasure and a success for our customers. In addition, we also offer a wonderful range of Christmas gifts sent with a personalised card to both the gardeners and non gardeners in your life!
We are very proud to have our own plant breeding programme based in Suffolk in the UK, and can boast a number of award winning discoveries - including the stunning Rudbeckia 'Cherry Brandy' and Buddleja 'Buzz'™.
Thompson & Morgan is very pleased to offer a UK based customer services division who can respond to your horticultural queries as well as resolving any queries you may have regarding your order or why not join our thriving Facebook community for additional advice on gardening and plants.
If you prefer to choose your seeds in a local garden centre, Thompson & Morgan sells a large range of flower and vegetable seeds through major garden centre chains in the UK and Europe. Click here for major UK stockists.
If you are growing plants for resale, our Direct2grower division supplies a large range of seeds and British Grown plug plants to commercial growers and seed wholesalers.
Seeds are a perfect choice for marketing promotions - please consult our Promotional Seeds website for further details of the services we can provide to support your campaigns.
History
More than 150 Years of Accumulated Horticultural Knowledge and Experience
The UK has a rich horticultural history and there are many well known personalities who have given their names to plants, garden styles and modern day horticultural companies. Among the companies that have founded the country's seed industry a few names still survive, although their independence has been surrendered. Yet, as one of the oldest firms in the business, Thompson & Morgan retains both its identity and its reputation for innovation and quality.
It all began in a small garden behind a baker's shop in Tavern Street, Ipswich, tended by William Thompson, the baker's son. He started work by helping his father but, stricken with ill-health, he began studying botany and passionately cultivated the garden at the back of the shop in Ipswich, Suffolk, England. He was soon to acquire the name of the 'baker botanist'. From the back garden he moved to a nursery at the edge of Ipswich and then to an even larger one. Eventually there were three Thompson nurseries in the town and William began to publish a magazine called 'The English Flower Garden'.
In 1855 his first catalogue was produced and this was to be the forerunner of an unbroken line stretching through to today. William Thompson specialised in growing rare and unusual plants, seeds of which were sent to him from many overseas countries. It brought him a spirit of adventure, earned his business a reputation for exciting introductions and gave him the friendship of such great scientists as Sir Joseph Hooker, Sir Michael Foster and Charles Darwin. As one of the most distinguished plantsmen of his day his skill in raising plants of the Western United States was recognised when, in 1876 a volume of Curtis's Botanical Magazine was dedicated to him. This was a rare honour. Twenty years later the Royal Horticultural Society invested him with its highest honour, the Victorian Medal of Honour.
The seed raising firm expanded and William Thompson entered into a fortuitous partnership with John Morgan. Although Morgan was by no means a botanist he was a shrewd businessman with sound financial knowledge and he was able to offer capital resources that enabled the expansion of the enterprise to be soundly financed.
William Thompson died in 1903 at the age of 80 but he had lived to see Thompson & Morgan become one of the country's greatest seed firms with a reputation for introducing more species and varieties to the British gardening public than any other seed company - a tradition that continues to this day. William's death left John Morgan the sole owner of the business until, ten years later in 1913, Joseph Sangster became a partner.