Last I week I was enthusing about Simply Perennials bringing lots of great new American perennials to the UK for the first time and I was also reminded of an article in Britain’s Daily Telegraph newspaper a few weeks ago saying, basically, that American plant breeders had taken over the world.

But British plant breeders not only have a great history of new introductions going back hundreds of years but in Britain there’s still a huge number of nurseries and plant specialists developing new plants. Although in North America it’s often not clear that these plants are actually British. So perhaps an American company should specialise in bringing new British plants to North America?

Many of Britain’s best are already have their plants doing well in North America. Raymond Evison’s clematis are much admired. Blooms of Bressingham continue the great tradition begun by Alan Bloom eighty years ago. There are Tumbelina double petunias, and singles too, from David Kerley; begonias from Fred Yates are everywhere; David Austin trials his new roses in the US, as well as the UK, and recommends varieties specifically for North America; many of the plants created by Charles Valins, at Thompson & Morgan from echinaceas to the first blue verbascum (as well as buddleias and hollyhocks), are popular in the US.

There are also companies like Whetman Pinks who develop new varieties of garden pinks of all kinds; Peter Moore works on shrubs, Joe Kennedy works with primroses. David Tristram is a leader in hellebores with his fine hybrid of H. niger and H. x hybridus, and has other valuable introductions. Patrick Fitzgerald in Ireland has some good things on the way.

In vegetables companies like Tozer and Elsoms are world leaders and smaller companies led by people like John Burrows and Simon Crawford are leaders in patio tomatoes. Britain is also a leader in strawberries, raspberries, and other fruits while in Floranova and Vegetalis Britain has one of the most innovative creators of new annuals and patio flowers and vegetables.

I apologise to the many many other accomplished creators of other new varieties for not mentioning them; that’s the thing, there are just so many – delphiniums, sweet peas, peppers, irises, caryopteris, the list goes on. Perhaps an American nursery needs to start a Best of British brand.

In the picture (click to enlarge): Begonia Million Kisses Elegance (‘Yagance’), Clematis ‘Josephine’, Geranium Rozanne (‘Gerwat’), Rosa Molineux (‘Ausmol’) and Verbascum ‘Blue Lagoon’