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Plug Plants
this may be a silly Q, but i was thinking of taking up this offer for a load of 8cm plug plants - says delivery in april, so my question is, once i receive them, if i pot them on would they be ready to plant in the garden this year? and would they flower this year or? im not very good at keeping plug plants alive and would like to get them in the garden asap
http://www.thompson-morgan.com/GW823
many thanks for any advice 
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I've had offers like this before and they are very small. Only a few flower the first year, and you need to pot on a few times before putting them in the garden, probably in spring 2017. But if you have the patience it is a great way to get LOADS of plants for very little money. When I started out I had big bare borders to fill, so they were just the job
Hmmm, the blurb says "... Fill your borders with colour for years to come ..."
it doesn't say they're going to flower this year, so I think they're perennials in their first year (or even biennials in the case of the foxgloves) and they're unlikely to flower until 2017..
It's amazing how copy-writers can turn a negative into a positive
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
I have a massive garden and have ordered the plugs but will nurture them for a year or maybe more before they go in the beds. I'll be very surprised if they flower this year. Also, if they are planted out, they may disappear next winter and not survive - so tlc for a year. I did wonder about the foxgloves though! I did what Verdun suggested earlier in the year and bought loads of perennials from Wyevale. They have been potted on a couple of times and have grown enormously. They will go into proper beds once the night time temps have gone up a touch. Thanks Verdun for the tip!
In over 40 years of gardening , I've never bought plug plant, and can see no circumstances when that would change.
I've dealt with plug plants when I looked after other people's gardens and was never , ever impressed. 10% decent plants 70% so so, and the rest, quietly into the compost bins.
All my garden flowers started of as cheap plugs, then I have taken seeds and divided from there. If you can afford 48 large plants at around 5.00 each, then you can of course buy them and they will flower this year.
those plugs won't, you need to pot them on gradually and over winter them this coming winter, also, pick any flower buds of them this year, so they can make decent roots, they can't make root and flower.
If you have the patience, then get them, but they will be a long slow process to bring them on to good sized plants. Even then, I wouldnt recommend T &M, there is a thread on here somewhere saying they are not very good.
Not sure if it's as successful here in the land of the withering north-easterly blast that blows from the Urals straight across to Norfolk in the winter, but I'm sure it works down in the lovely lush south-west where no plants stop growing, they just slow down a bit over the winter.
Mind you, if this global warming keeps on at this rate I'll be eating my words - my G Totally Tangerine that I dug up and potted ready to take to Wonky has grown and grown and been in flower since the end of January
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
We'd let you have some of our rainfall Dove.
We get our wind straight off the Atlantic, wetter maybe, but maybe less cold?