Monty revisits one of his classic books, Gardening at Longmeadow, in an occasional series.
Here’s why I like bedding plants – they’re cheerful and lift our spirits after a long winter; and they can be used in containers, hanging baskets, borders or as a display. Quite simply, bedding is beautiful and fun.
Wherever you buy your plants, do not be seduced by a show of flowers – more flowers in the garden centre means fewer in your garden.
Look instead for strong, bushy plants, and when home pinch off any flowers to allow the plant to put its energy into developing strong roots and foliage.
Monty Don (pictured) gives people advice on bedding plants in an extract from his book Gardening at Longmeadow
This will encourage a better show in a few weeks that will last a while. But growing your own bedding plants from seed is much more fun and economical.
The range of seeds you can buy is also far greater than the available plants.
Every year at Longmeadow I grow tobacco plants (Nicotiana sylvestris), tithonias, leonotis, sunflowers, nasturtiums, marigolds, salvias, cleome, rudbeckias, cerinthe, poppies and zinnias.
HOW TO DIVIDE YOUR PERENNIALS
The gardening expert also shares how to correctly divide your perennials, advising to cut them for herbaceous plants
- Herbaceous perennials grow better if you divide them every 3-4 years as they are starting growth in spring. You also get a supply of new plants.
- If the plant has strong fleshy roots, such as a hosta (far right), cut with a sharp knife.
- Herbaceous plants have the strongest roots on the edge so cut them like a cake, with each slice consisting of mostly outside roots, as well as at least one healthy bud. Get rid of the central section.
- For fibrous roots, like in helianthus or hemerocallis, prise the plant apart with two garden forks. Discard the centre and replant the outside roots.
- Replant in groups of three to create clumps that will grow together as a great display.
For fibrous roots, Monty suggests prising the plant apart with two garden forks
I also grow biennials – wallflowers, foxgloves and antirrhinums.
When you buy bedding you’re invariably presented with trays of mixed colours bred for their ease of production and ability to flower for a long time and resist disease.
None of these qualities are bad, but geared first for the producer rather than the consumer.
If you choose your own seed, you can select the colours, heights and fragrances that work best in your garden.
There are three kinds of annuals: hardy, half-hardy and tender. These can be divided into those that will tolerate frost and those that will not.
So, for example, busy lizzies, petunias and nicotianas grow in response to heat rather than light and will not cope with frost, which means that at Longmeadow they cannot be planted outside until well into May.
Hardy annuals like cornflowers, poppies and nigella can cope with cold.
So it’s often best to sow them directly where they are to grow – the seedlings will survive a cold snap.
You can scatter seeds into a border and let them grow where they fall.
But there’s a risk they won’t grow where you intended, that weeds will swamp them, and that you might weed them out by mistake.
The time-honoured way of incorporating seed into a mixed border without it looking unnatural is to sow them in zigzags, crosses or circles – you can see where they are growing and not weed them out – then thin the seedlings to lose the artificiality of these shapes.
The only hard bit is to sow much more thinly than seems sensible and to ensure each plant has room to enrich itself – as much as 15cm.
If the seeds are very small, mix them with sharp sand or vermiculite.
Half-hardy or tender annuals must be sown under cover, at a fairly constant temperature above 6°C.
The harder they’re grown – or the sooner they’re exposed to the outdoor climate – the healthier they’ll be.
If you have a greenhouse, you have your own plant factory. But a porch, windowsill or coldframe will do.
If you’re growing seeds on a windowsill remember seedlings crane towards the light, so turn them daily. Also avoid a southern window as this can get too hot at midday.
The British gardening expert also urges people to buy bushy plants rather than being seduced by a show of flowers when shopping for garden plants (above, colour themed bed of plants)
Every year at Longmeadow, Monty grows tobacco plants (right), tithonias, leonotis, and sunflowers, as well as biennials such as wallflowers, foxgloves (left) and antirrhinums
YOUR KITCHEN GARDEN: GETTING STARTED
As soon as your soil is dry enough to rake without the soil sticking to the tines and does not feel cold to touch, you can sow carrots, parsnips, broad beans, rocket and spinach.
You can also plant onion and shallot sets, burying them so the tops are clear of the ground.
When you sow outside you can make drills and sow the seed in rows, which means you can see them as soon as they emerge and avoid treading on them or confusing them with weeds.
Alternatively, you can broadcast the seed. However you sow, always sow as thinly as possible.
Thin again a few weeks later so you have a row of maturing plants 8-23cm apart.
Monty advises people who are starting their own kitchen garden to sow seeds under cover for planting outside across March (above, vegetable seedlings ready to be planted)
It is more controllable to sow the seed in plugs or seed trays, grow them into good-sized seedlings then plant out at 23cm spacing when the conditions are right and they are big enough to withstand slug or snail attacks.
A peat-free general-purpose compost will be fine for this.
March is the perfect time to sow seeds under cover for planting outside a month or so later, when the soil has warmed up a little and there is more daylight.
A greenhouse is best but coldframes are very good and a porch or spare windowsill or two perfectly workable.