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Perennials help

Connornew1246Connornew1246 Posts: 4
in Plants
Can somebody advise me off some nice flowering perennials for next year for a large flower bed I only want one type of the same flower in there but I need something I can plant as seeds early spring and will flower in the summer and stick around for the following years 

Thank you in advance

Posts

  • K67K67 Posts: 2,506
    Choice is wide, need to know your soil type and how sunny, any colour preferences 
    I would also suggest you have a look at Chilterns seeds and seedaholic websites as they list perennials that will fliwer in their first year.
  • Connornew1246Connornew1246 Posts: 4
    Full sun but typical English summer's so not too much of it any colours in open to suggestions and the soil will be healthy compost
  • Connornew1246Connornew1246 Posts: 4
    I need one that doesn't need starting off indoors one I can plant outside and it will grow 
  • K67K67 Posts: 2,506
    edited August 2020
    Penstemon flower for ages but no idea if you can grow from seeds and I haven't a garden big enough to bother. I usually buy 2 litre pots and divide the plants before I put them in.
    Only trouble with one type of flower only is once they have flowered the bed will look drab unless you go for something with coloured leaves. 
    The perennial choice is huge so please look at the websites suggested to help you narrow it down. Seedaholic lists 450 hardy perennials! Chilterns seeds list 296 that will flower in their first year.
    And how big an area are you covering?
  • AnniDAnniD Posts: 12,585
    I think l'm right in saying that most perennials are generally started off in seed trays or pots and grown on before planting out. I can't think of any that you treat in the same way as hardy annuals (but l'm happy to be corrected :) ).
    As @k67 says, Chiltern have a big selection, and you can grow penstemon from seed, but they need to be started in seed trays and grown on.
  • edhelkaedhelka Posts: 2,351
    Why do you want only one type of flower? Do you want a long flowering season? Is it OK that it will die back in winter and generally the bed will look bad a significant part of the year?
    Mixing 2-3 flowers would give you a longer season of interest. Or even better, 2-3 types of flowers with some simple evergreen for structure and bulbs for spring interest.
    If you want a mass effect, you could still do 1 type of bulb (or two in succession), 1 type of summer perennial and some evergreen (box, small hebe, evergreen grass etc.) so there is something when nothing else flowers.
  • LynLyn Posts: 23,190
    I thought the OP wanted just one plant of each, where we would plant a group of three. 
    Gardening on the wild, windy west side of Dartmoor. 

  • LoxleyLoxley Posts: 5,698
    There are a few perennials that flower in their first year, but most will give you a pretty sparse show in year one. Might be an idea to sow hardy annuals alongside them to give a reasonable display. 
    "What is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbour". 
  • K67K67 Posts: 2,506
    Lyn said:
    I thought the OP wanted just one plant of each, where we would plant a group of 3

    Surely not! There seems little point in growing from seed, but saying that when I did seeds I quite often got only 2 or 3 plants out of a packet!
  • gjautosgjautos Posts: 429
    If you only want one type of plant i would consider ornamental grasses. Easy to look after and will come back year after year. You could even include some evergreen ones.
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