Starting perennials etc. in pots- best tips please!

Hi, it's that time of the year again... I needed some hooks and cheese and came home with tubers of Astrantia, some trailing Begonias and stunning Dahlias. And the cheese. Wilkos and Morrisons have a great selection of perennials and bulbs at the moment, but as I can't get them in the beds yet, wanted to ask for advise on starting them in pots.

What would be the best time for various perennials, like my Astrantias? Are they best to be kept indoors, or would a dark garage or blowaway greenhouse be better?

I have started off Begonias and Dahlias before, but perennials are a bit of a question mark. The availability is great just now and I'm sorely tempted with Echinops and Geraniums and some lovely white Lupins and Gladioli and a bit of everything

My new mixed border will still need some final touches, such as starting the digging, so hopefully by June I have a good stock of perennials growing in pots ready to go in.

Thanks!

 

All the perennials you mention are pretty hardy, not so the Dahlias and Begonias which will need frost free conditions. Apart from the white Lupin which is a little tricky I have found all the others are really tough BUT if there is any new growth showing it means they have been severely forced (kept under cover in heated conditions, probably in Holland). None of my perennials will even start into growth for at least 6 weeks. Ok I live in Scotland but I doubt with this quite severe winter there will be many GC members from all parts of the UK who have perennials showing signs of life. As Armandii suggests anywhere outside with some shelter from the worst of the weather should be ok (south facing if possible and out of any biting wind) really IMO perennials should not be forced and sold in January for heavens sake!

 

Perennials, you say, starting from seed you say. Over the past 27 years of gardening I have started a few. (very few) the first was mountain rue, which never got big enough for the actual plant in the garden for 3 years. I started them, as each plant was so much $$$ . after this experience I buy 99% of them. Takes too long. As of recent however due again to cost, I have started blue poppies from seed, they are in a long pot, now sitting in the cold, as they need that. fingers cross again they will come up in the spring. For the type mentioned above, cost wise, I'd buy them out right. But that is a personal choice. Rather spend my energy on the unusual and higher priced perennials. Good luck to you.

 

Thanks everybody!

@redstar, they are not seeds, but sort of semi-dry roots or corms . I have successfully started Wilkos Echinops and Hostas in pots in mid-spring in a blowaway greenhouse, giving them a nice head start so that the plants were well grown by June. But it's January now, so a totally different situation.

@silu @ARMANDII , it makes perfect sense now to pot perennials up and keep in a sheltered place. I'll probably have to take a train to find a sheltered place though, it's snowing heavily at the moment

Next week it should be a bit milder so I'll pot them up and find my poor man's cold frames (clear plastic storage boxes) from the garage to give a bit of shelter.

I'm off to a trek to the garage now to get compost to sow some seeds... if you don't hear from me I have probably perished in the drifts Snow is ankle deep now and more is coming. Brill!

 

missed that word tubers. good luck to you .

 

Oh well you know best hope you don't get lost in a snow drift!

 

Gladioli bulbs shouldn't be planted out until after the last frost.

Each year you dig them up in the Autumn, put them somewhere dry and dark and then replant next Spring.

As for Geraniums, if you mean the perennial ones which look something like this (other colours are available) ..



... by all means tuck them up in a pot and they will be fine outside. When your garden is ready in June they will transplant from pot to garden quite happily.

However, if you mean this sort ...


... they need to be kept indoors until after the last frost. They won't survive low temperatures outside.