Autumn Bedding

Now is the time to ditch those sad summer containers and plant out with autumn bedding. The sooner you do it the better your winter display will be. The days are getting shorter and the plants are slowing down, so buy larger plants and plant closer than in the spring. There is a useful article in the October issue of “The Garden” giving excellent advice on this. They recommend planting Wallflowers and Tulips in blocks rather than intermingled which is a bright idea. You can then remove the Wallflowers when they are finished and re-plant whilst the tulips carry on. Tulips also look stunning under-planted with Myosotis (Forget-me-not).

A lot of people discard their Tulips each year but if you want to keep them, plant really deep. This encourages them to make a single bulb rather than a handful of tiny ones. But you must leave them to die down naturally to re-charge the bulb.

We have our usual wide range of Pansies and Violas in single colours and mixed; also Cyclamen and a range of basket plants.

We still do Sweet William, Canterbury Bells and Myosotis in packs. Also Polyanthus and Primroses in self-colours and mixed. Foxgloves come in mixed colours, white and apricot.

The Wallflowers look splendid this year. We have crimson, yellow, white, apricot and orange as single colours. These are F₁ hybrids and have excellent garden performance. The mixed ones are the old favourite Persian carpet and the shorter Bloomsby mix, a sturdy modern variety with a good colour range.