Planning for the future – Starting perennials

The first seeds we sow to make new plants for the next season are always the perennials. These can technically be sown at any time but we tend to sow ours in July for autumn planting. We pre-chill any seeds in the fridge that require a cold stratification period. This means that unless they are an exceptionally slow growing variety, they will make reasonably stocky plants by the time we are ready to plant them out (usually early October) and will have a good chance of surviving the winter. By August I might have to pot on the perennials from plugs to 9cm pots. Sure this is extra work right now, but we will have these plants for many years hopefully, and so in the long run they are less work than annuals. The bigger the plants are right now, the less work we’ll need to do looking after them in the field later, and the more chance there is that we might even get a crop off of them in their first year. Some particularly vigorous growers, such as achillea millefolium may even provide me with cuttings or splits before they even make it into the ground.

Productive perennials that are easy from seed – achillea, aquelegia, campanula, delphinium, echinops, most eryngium, perennial foxgloves, galega, lupin, polemonium (in picutre above), perennial sweet pea, verbena, veronica.

Shopping for new plants is never a chore for me* (is it a chore for anyone?). I have to be very strict and carefully weigh up the value of a plant, how difficult is it to grow in our conditions, how useful it is, how easy is it to propogate, before I invest in more new stock. Many new varieties now have plant breeders rights on them, which prohibits propogation or commercial use of the plant stock, so that is another consideration for us. I will buy new perennials at any time during the summer and pot them on to grow on until planting out in autumn. Some I buy specifically to use for propogation. It is quite brutal to come home with a lovely bushy plant and then immediately remove all of its top growth to make material for cuttings. In June I came across a particularly lovely specimen of a lysimachia variety, which was new to me, at a plant fair for just £4. I now have thirty very bushy plants in the greenhouse, all waiting to go out. The original plant was planted out in the field, all the better for it’s severe haircut. A very well spent £4.

Productive perennials that are easy from cuttings – achillea, aster (september flower), campanula, eupatoreum, galega, gaura, lysimachia, nepeta, salvia, sedum, verbena, veronica.

The worst thing for me is slow growing varieties that take more than a season to get going, or tender perennials, such as scented pelargoniums. If they need to be overwintered and molycoddled in the greenhouse or the conservatory there is a good chance I will neglect them, and they will die of underwatering, overwatering or just because I looked at them sideways.

(*ironically, while typing this post I have opened a new tab to check the spelling of a species, and discovered a plant nursery that I did not know of. I am shopping right now and have two items in my basket already. I’m a lost cause.)