Perennial starter plants

If you have been reading this blog for a while you may remember that last year I reviewed a variety of plants from Plant me Now, an online plant nursery.  The plants were always well grown and everything I had from them last year  has survived really well so I was very pleased to be asked to review some perennials for them this spring.

I am on a bit of a mission to increase the number of perennials in my cutting garden.  I have so far relied heavily on annuals and grown most of them from seed.  This is fine when you have the time and attention to devote to seed raising but this year is not the year for that.  I can pretty much guarantee that if I disappear down to Devon  every couple of weeks for a few days things will die and I can do without that.  The garden has to sustain me this year and not be too hard work.  It has to be somewhere that restores and recharges my batteries (is that possible?  not looking too likely just now with the march of the creeping buttercup and the return of the monster bindweed.)  Anyway, I digress.

I love echinacea, its a great favourite with pollinating insects and it works really well as a cut flower so I decided to devote one whole square of the patchwork which is the cutting garden to echinacea.

As before the plants are sturdy and well grown with good root systems.  Some came as starter plants in these square pots and these will be potted on in a couple of weeks.  Some came as plug plants and these I potted up into square pots as soon as they arrrived.  I will grow everything on in the greenhouse for another few weeks and put them out when they have a hope of being big enough to survive marauding slugs.

I have chosen four varieties of echinacea:

Double scoop cranberry

Pow wow white

Pow wow wild berry

Sombrero Lemon yellow

These are all images from plant me now.  I rarely use double flowers but I really liked the shade of the double scoop.  I am hoping that there will be so many flowers which are readily accessible to pollinators that I can indulge myself.

I have also received some gaillardia and some monarda bergamo.

monarda bergamo

It is the attention to detail that I like about plant me now.  The packaging is sturdy and efficient and I have never had a delivery which has been in any way damaged.  All the labels are clear and they can be transferred from the original packaging to my new square pots very easily.  The plants don't appear to be grown too "soft".  They are not floppy and sappy and over large so that they collapse and sulk when they arrive in my coldish greenhouse up here on the hill.

Now I really must dig over the cutting garden and put lots of compost on to give everything the best start in life.  I try not to have to feed constantly but conditions here are not that easy and it really helps to give everything a good start.  It also helps if plants go in reasonably small and grow to maturity in our stony soil.

I am dreaming of a long hot summer like last year's, with bees on the monarda, clouds of butterflies and a rug under the sycamore tree.

Do you have any other suggestions for a more perennially focussed cutting garden?  I already have lupins, rudbeckia and achillea and I always grow a lot of dahlias.  I suspect I need more foliage plants but am a bit stumped as to what will really earn its keep.