|
Plug-in plants |
Lifestyle
|
|
|
|
|
Above: Petunia ‘Cafe Au Lait’ |
Meet ‘Cafe Au Lait’. A new and exclusive petunia from Elm House Nursery, is a delight. Three plants are £4.95. Delivery from late March. I also have a penchant for Elm House’s Tumbelina petunias. Their new double- flowered collection – reddish purple ‘Gloria’, purple ‘Vanessa Improved’, plum pink ‘Julia’, mauve ‘Fiona’ and white and purple veined ‘Helena’, plus mauve ‘Priscilla’ have immense charm. Six plants (one of each variety) cost £9.50 Six plants of ‘Priscilla’, £9.95. Delivery from late March. Go on! Admit it. You’ve never found a summer bedding plant more obliging than busy Lizzie (impatiens). Performing from summer until frost whitens the garden, it gaily spills blooms from tubs, baskets, troughs and window boxes. This year, I’m greatly taken by Dobies ‘Spellbound Mixed’. Ht: 20.5cm (8in). It yields a bewitching mix of colours. A pack of 20 Supaplants costs £8.95. Last order date: 19 April. Delivery mid-May to early June. |
|
If you grow them in a basket, fringe them with trailing white lobelia. Right: Patio snapdragons (three varieties) I’m also impressed with Suttons’ F1 ‘Super Elfin’. Dwarf – just 23cm (9in) high – it was bred for today’s smaller borders and containers. Large, vibrant blooms – red and lavender are new colours this year – are borne on stocky stems. Pack of 40 Easiplants costs £8.45 and 80 £14.95. Final order date: 24 March. Delivery: mid to late April. I have a passion for pendulous begonias. Packed with a succession of double blooms that shrug off rain, Dobies ‘Show Angels Mixed’– a blend of pink, white, red and yellow – enchants us from June to October... or later if it stays mild. 10 Pot Ready plants cost £11.50. Last order date: 22 March. Delivery: mid to late April. Unwins’ Patio Snapdragons are very seductive. Perfect for baskets, window boxes, pedestal urns and for spilling from raised beds, there’s a quartet. Bi-coloured blooms will appear within a few weeks of planting. 12 Maxiplugs, 3 varieties of each, £11.50. Delivery: late April. |
   |
|
Above : Gazania |
Gazanias have the ability to captivate us with their large, radiant daisy-like blooms. Most are single. But silvery-leaved ‘Sunset Jane’, from Dobies, is anemone-centred. I can’t wait to savour it. Remember, it needs full sun or its tapered buds will remain frustratingly closed. 5 Pot Ready plants cost £7.95 and 10 £13.45. Last orders: 22 March. Delivery: late April/early May. Mr Fothergill’s ‘Kontiki’, a dwarf gazania with wonderfully zoned flowers that stay open on cloudy days, is just 15cm (6in) high. 24 Fotherplugs cost £6.99, 36 £8.99 and 48 £10.99. Unwins sell it too. 40 plugs are priced at £8.95. |
|
Plantlets – What you need to know Young plants are usually sold in three plug (root ball) sizes: the smaller the plug the earlier they are delivered and the more care – warmth and hardening off – they’ll need before you set them out. For example, Dobies Miniplants are seedlings grown in mini-cells of compost. A pack of 120 cells usually guarantees at least 110 plants. Their Pot Ready’s are more mature and come in packs of 5, 10, 15 or 20. They usually arrive at the right time for planting directly into containers or into pots for growing on until frost is no longer a hazard. |
Useful contacts
|
|
|
