Month-by-Month Perennials.......

[Nicos]

Bulbs, plant lots of bulbs. especially for the early months of the year. As they die back (April/May) the perennials will be putting up new shoots to cover the dying leaves.

I absolutely agree with this!


I must have near in 1,000 various daff type bulbs in my garden.
Different types flower at different times.
I generally have yellow/ white/ orange colour from Feb/March- June and of course the leave start to grow as early as Dec/ Jan.
Absolutely wonderful how they break up patches of bare , winter soil.

There must be hundreds of varieties out there, all flowering at slightly different times, and different heights/ colour

An absolute must for me!!

And then, of course you have all the other bulbs you can plant

[SusieG]

Do you want flowers for cutting or to look at in the garden?
I love hardy fuchsias - they seem to flower nearly all year round. Great for adding height and structure to a border and easypeasy to grow.

I really just want them to look at in the garden ....... My thoughts were having various colours, with some flowering at different times - or even shrubs with coloured leaves or grasses.....
Although I'm not adverse to growing some for cutting

[SusieG]

Oh yeah, forgot to add - stuff that pollinators like too ....

[Ryez]

one of my fav foliage perennials is Coprosma - Pacific Dawn. They look very special, if you like nice coloured leaves, especially in the winter. They have an offer in Suttons at the moment, 3 perennials for £9.99, which includes them, but my only worry is that I have clay soil...

[muddled]

Grow a few evergreen shrubs and things with winer colour too.
Dogwoods are excellent, vivid red or lime green stems....cut them back hard late Feb to leave space for your summer flowers and to encourage long straight stems the next winter.

The stems keep their colour, I used to grow them for basket making.

[mothhawk]

Soz to be a pain - this flower growing game is totally new to me .......

Do all flower seeds need to be started in a propagator - as I was really surprised by my lack of success .....???

I'm sure veg are much easier......!!!!!!

Any tips for success ie compost, pot size or ANYTHING that seems to you to be trivial - most welcome

The bonus of starting seeds in a propagator or a pot in a poly bag, is you can be absolutely sure slugs and snails have not eaten them, because the pesky things don't just scoff each new shoot as soon as it shows green above the soil (and before you have a chance to see it), they will also munch the seeds as well.
So if the seeds are in a prop and don't show, you know either they were duff/old seeds, or you didn't give them the right conditions to grow.

[muddled]

Plus, if the prop is on the kitchen table, you can check it a hundred times a day

(or is that just me? )

[Nicos]

Oh yeah, forgot to add - stuff that pollinators like too ....

Gosh yes!!!
So often on a warm spring morning I've seen bees flying around looking for flowers and there are none around!..the poor things need all the help we can give them to get them through winter/ a late Spring!

[muddled]

I bought loads from @sda last autumn. ...got some lovely ones too along with the usual, tulip, daffs, they had some lovely varieties...
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What IS that?
I need to get me some of those!

[Nicos]

^^^ looks like part of the allium family?

I have grown some lovely garlic chives etc...
At the moment my last years leeks are flowering and look absolutely superb!
So much so that OH has suggested we plant some in the flower borders and jipust leave them to it!!!

[Ryez]

Gosh yes!!!
So often on a warm spring morning I've seen bees flying around looking for flowers and there are none around!..the poor things need all the help we can give them to get them through winter/ a late Spring!

Any suggestions on plants I can get for them that flower at this time of the year? Daffodils? I could order some bulbs. I really want to help the pollinators.

[Nicos]

Have a look at the lists I've already posted above....but here is one aimed more specifically for pollinators.....

https://www.rhs.org.uk/science/pdf/c...-garden-plants

There are 2 other lists on the left of that page .

[Scarlet]

What IS that?
I need to get me some of those!

As Nicos has said..aliums, ive loads of varieties. I love them. Planted in autumn, you can get loads in to grow up through shrubs, plants.

http://www.crocus.co.uk/plants/_/all...FQgz0wodkrkBYA

[Ryez]

I got 2 type of allium bulbs, hyacinths and tulips ordered already. I am also propagating dianthus, but after noticing that bee's struggle with them, actually found one dead on one of the flowers after watching it struggling with the multitude of petals dianthus has... I wonder whether I should bin the dianthus or just keep the ones i got but go for open flower plants. Poor bee.

[cpm82]

Can anyone advise if there is somewhere I can find a 'list' of perennials and which month they flower in......??

My plan is to plant many perennials in my back garden borders, so that I can have some colour from one or two plants each month of the year....

I would like some large growing (height) varieties for back of borders, interspersed with some smaller ones toward the front ......I also would like to fill in with some annuals for summer/autumn colour

And, was thinking of mulching any bare ground with bark chips....

Have looked through flower catalogues, but find them a bit bewildering. I ordered some seeds last month, which I have started off a few (others recommend to start October time) with poor germination success ....

Funnily enough I posted a very similar thread on the New Shoots forum last week and hardly got a response!