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Talkback: Summer bedding plants

Gardeners' World Web UserGardeners' World Web User Posts: 17,147
in Talkback
my mums got the hump as shes spent loads of money at the garden centre this week and she put them out the front in the chimmey pots and the birds keep sitting ontop of the flowers and they have broke the stems of the flowers.the birds are woodpeckers and there is a family of them they have babies and we dont know why they keep sitting in the pots.they havent done it before.my mum says she gonna kick there backside if they keep doing it....if i say that i get told of.
bye.x
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  • Gardeners' World Web UserGardeners' World Web User Posts: 17,147
    I'm very with you Kate, detest bedding with a passion....mainly for the reason's you stated. I prefer to grow perennials from seed and watch them grown into strong mature plants over the years. I tend to fill up with cosmos and california poppies where possible, but inevitably the cat sits on the bare earth patches and nothign grows!
  • Gardeners' World Web UserGardeners' World Web User Posts: 17,147
    I think if you plant generously with shrubs and perennials then you'll only really have those pesky 'gaps' in the first year. I used shop-bought bedding (nicotiana) last year...it was gorgeous and I'm quite sad that there's no room for any this year! I love growing from seed as much as you do, but with busy lives and lack of space, it's not always possible is it.
    I also love nothing more than the glory of a mass of day-glo petunias (or whatever) in a hanging basket...It's the sort of thing that encourages millions of people to have a go at gardening....and long-term, more people gardening means more people learning about how our environment works. Swings and roundabouts!
  • Gardeners' World Web UserGardeners' World Web User Posts: 17,147
    Kate, you are a writer so I will tell you about the ten plaques of recycled wood that have arrived, thanks to the Resident Artist, at the Bristol Botanic Garden. They have haiku about the plant nearest them engraved on them. Gardens can be embellished by many more artifacts than gnomes. The Australian Garden at the National Bot. Garden of Wales has Aboriginal Art dotted about among the plants. Did you see the Literary garden at Chelsea? I wish you lived nearer. I would give you lots of lovely plants to fill the gaps. Your perennials will soon plump up. Does your local corporation not sell off its surplus plants at the end of June?
  • Gardeners' World Web UserGardeners' World Web User Posts: 17,147
    The roundabout in Cemaes bay angelsey, has been planted with beautiful perennials, grasses etc and are stunning. I reckon they show what a little imagination can do and make a wonderful change from the usual standard of rows of clashing bedding plants
  • Gardeners' World Web UserGardeners' World Web User Posts: 17,147
    If you plan your perennials carefully, you'll have a few things in bloom all summer long. I enjoy the look of lots of annuals, but I find them best used in pots and boxes to add some color on steps and sills.
  • Gardeners' World Web UserGardeners' World Web User Posts: 17,147
    I've just sown seedof biennials for next year, Kate honesty.sweet william and wallflowers (half-price seed now). These three are giving good shows in mine and my neighbour's garden from last year's sowing. My local roundabout is the first in Bristol off the M5 motorway and as such gets great design treatnment. We have had sculptures of Concorde, the Suspension Bridge, and now a rowing boat whose lovely tulips have just been removed for the June planting - red geraniums last year. But the rest of the planting is small conifers, perennials and grasses. It is very classy and looks good all year round. The next big roundabout is the one I pass to go to the Botanic Garden(through a lovely wild flower meadow on the Downs) and it is planted up with perennials to make you drool. The euphorbias stand out in early summer. If it is flowers you want why not plant some strawberry plants which will give you a crop in 60 days time? And for colour buy some red or orange stemmed chard for veg. in the late summer. And, as the- muddy-road says you can always drop in a pot or two of exotics.
  • Gardeners' World Web UserGardeners' World Web User Posts: 17,147
    I love perennials too; there not quite so popular here, so I've grown most of mine from seed (UK seed catalogues) and I fill my friends with delight when I give them a few "unusual" for Sardinia plants: Rudbeckias do wonderfully here, as do Galliardia (last year's Razzle Dazzle flowered from May to December). I do fill in the gaps with a few bedding plants, but these too are mainly grown from seed - the extras after I've handed out plants to my friends I sell off for a volontary organization.
  • Gardeners' World Web UserGardeners' World Web User Posts: 17,147
    I am so excited I managed to grow pot marigolds from seeds. Plus trying lobelias, no joy yet!!!
  • Gardeners' World Web UserGardeners' World Web User Posts: 17,147
    I have some gaps in my little herbaceous border where I grew wallflowers Annuals certainly have their place and are useful. I am planting my favourite heliotrope which has a gorgeous scent and is loved by bees and butterflies. I believe they can be taken in for the winter, but have not tried it before - may do this year. Also clary is useful - it seeds itself and is also enjoyed by wildlife. The colours of both these annuals blend in with other perennials and are not too "in your face" as some annuals are.
  • Gardeners' World Web UserGardeners' World Web User Posts: 17,147
    I tend to fill gaps with a few courgettes, french bean blue lake, even out door cucumbers, strawberries, chard, chives etc. Much rather have productive fillers than bedding plants.

    If I could I'd be breeding nicer bedding, as I really do not like any of the bedding plants commonly sold and tend to focus on perennials
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