Biennials are often under rated. One advantage of growing biennials is to sow them, July onwards, plant out when big enough and they go through the winter outdoors. They start growing as soon as the weather starts to warm up and can be transplanted before the last frosts, long before annuals are ready to be planted out.
I grow a few varieties in a nursery bed then move them about March time to where they will flower in the garden.
And dont forget that the early flowering perennials, such as foxglove and lupins are very prone to slugs, so if you dont keep on top of them, you wont see your plants again.
A lot of people plant these out then say they died, most times its the slugs eaten off the new shots.
Gardening on the wild, windy west side of Dartmoor.
Cadging spares from friends helps too, or taking bits from their plants to grow on. I always take a plastic bag with me when visiting a garden...... bits drop off all sorts of things and lots of them will grow! Wanted a Bay tree so bought a pot of Bay... and there were 15 separate bits in it, Have just passed on the rest via raffles and pursuasion. Box grows well too if you want to grow Box Balls.
Tracy, if you're going to look for a perennial to split, look at the top of the plant and see if you can identify one with several crowns, these are the ones to pick for splitting, or apparently congested pots. They usually mean you can get multiple plants for the price of one.
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Biennials are often under rated. One advantage of growing biennials is to sow them, July onwards, plant out when big enough and they go through the winter outdoors. They start growing as soon as the weather starts to warm up and can be transplanted before the last frosts, long before annuals are ready to be planted out.
I grow a few varieties in a nursery bed then move them about March time to where they will flower in the garden.
And dont forget that the early flowering perennials, such as foxglove and lupins are very prone to slugs, so if you dont keep on top of them, you wont see your plants again.
A lot of people plant these out then say they died, most times its the slugs eaten off the new shots.
Verdun
I'm going to make it my mission to buy and split a perennial at weekend
Cadging spares from friends helps too, or taking bits from their plants to grow on. I always take a plastic bag with me when visiting a garden...... bits drop off all sorts of things and lots of them will grow! Wanted a Bay tree so bought a pot of Bay... and there were 15 separate bits in it, Have just passed on the rest via raffles and pursuasion. Box grows well too if you want to grow Box Balls.
Tracy, if you're going to look for a perennial to split, look at the top of the plant and see if you can identify one with several crowns, these are the ones to pick for splitting, or apparently congested pots. They usually mean you can get multiple plants for the price of one.