As regular readers will know I have been acting as a plant reviewer for Plant Me Now this year. The final instalment is autumn/winter bedding and I was asked to choose from a wide selection which you can find on the web site. There is a good range to choose from and I was inclined to go pastel this winter having been all tropical yellows and oranges last year.
As I have a weakness for Violas my request featured these heavily but I only realised how heavily when the box turned up. I received the following:
Viola Sorbet Coconut Swirl
Viola Sorbet XP Raspberry
Viola Sorbet XP Denim Jump Up
Viola Sorbet XP Yellow Frost
Polyanthus Stella Champagne
Cyclamen Metis Victoria
As you can see the plants were well packed in plastic blister packs. The Cyclamen are standard plants so are in individual pots. The others are ‘Starter Plants’ so large plug plants which need to be potted up asap. I was very impressed with the root systems which looked strong and vigorous.
I am particularly taken with the flowers on the Viola Sorbet XP Denim Jump Up and the Viola Sorbet XP Raspberry (below) but then they are the only ones with open flowers at the moment, although if you look carefully you can see tight buds on the other varieties.
I have potted everything up which did take some time but then again I don’t have to go to garden centres looking for the delicate colours which is what I particularly wanted for this winter. Hopefully, given the strong roots, the plants will bulk up substantially over the next couple of weeks while I wait for the hanging baskets and other pots to be passed their best. I am also going to a bulb sale later next week so I want to see if I can find some small bulbs to pick up on the pretty colours.
I haven’t posted many photographs of the summer bedding this isn’t because I’m not pleased with the plants its just that the photographs never look great and there is always so much else to show and my heart is really with perennials and not annuals. However, despite my sporadic watering and even worse feeding the summer bedding: Coleus, Lobeilia, Pelargoniums, Gazinias, Disacia are all still looking good which is great given the warm dry weather we have had. If I remember I will post a photograph of some of them soon.
To date I can say that I have only been impressed with the plants from Plant Me Now. They are packaged well, in good condition when they arrive and have all gone on to form strong and floriferous plants. As anyone who knows will know, if this wasn’t the case, I would say so or I would not post about the product.
August 31, 2013 at 8:35 am
Lovely post Helen thanks for sharing with us
August 31, 2013 at 8:15 pm
Very healthy looking plants. Interesting to see how they were packed for shipping, too.
Have a wonderful week-end!
Lea
Lea’s Menagerie
August 31, 2013 at 8:54 pm
What fun! I planted viola coconut swirl a couple of autumns ago and they flowered all winter. My tiny white cyclamen which have flowered and spread, flowered and spread for years . . have vanished. Sorrow! (Neither from Plant Me Now but from our nearest garden centre.)
September 1, 2013 at 9:00 am
I am the same with summer pots but have made an effort this year because of all my otherwise empty pots – still forget to photograph them as my interests, like yours, are with perennials! They look good healthy plants, don’t they, although I have found nearly all my mail order stuff has been of good quality and companies have been very good about replacing ones that aren’t.
January 4, 2014 at 10:59 pm
Re your plants of Cyclamen Metis – are they truly hardy in UK?
January 4, 2014 at 11:07 pm
Hi Raymond
They are doing fine at the moment but we haven’t had temperatures below 0 yet