Bedding Plants

Glenjjones

I've been guilty for the last few summers of spending most of my time and attention developing my little veg patch and slightly neglecting the garden border. I've thrown in loads of perennials and almost let them get on with it. 
Though it looks ok (ish), the other half has told me that I need to get it back to how it looked a few years ago when I gave it a bit more attention.
I'm planning to fill up any gaps with Spring bedding, as most of the perennials don't seem to flower until later in the summer.
I'm thinking Begonias will be my main plant with maybe some Impatiens and Pelargoniums. Does anyone have any advice on the best place to buy these plants, as I don't want to spend too much, but also want a good quality and quantity of plants. Also, any other long flowering easy to grow plants you would suggest?

Any advice is much appreciated.

Kind regards,
G.

Loxley

A couple of years ago I sowed Ageratum 'Blue Horizon' (in trays in a cold frame) - they started flowering in midsummer and went all the way through until the frosts. They mix well with perennials as a 'gap filler' imho.

Guernsey Donkey2

I would suggest you grow some nectar rich bedding plants if you want some instant colour gelnjjones.  Something like antirrhinum, foxgloves, wallflowers and cosmos will all encourage a diversity of insects and bees. I think the plants that you have suggested are sterile not bee friendly, and we all need to encourage bees and butterflies into our gardens. Honesty and lavender will also attract wildlife and give your garden a far more interesting balance.

Nollie

I think it depends on what you already grow perennial-wise whether the plants you are thinking of will fit well with the rest of the scheme visually and also in terms of soil/watering needs - e.g. pelargoniums like it dryish and well drained, but if your soil is heavy and you are planting them inbetween plants that need a lot more water they may not thrive. 

Do you have a pic of how it used to look? Did some things not do well, hence it now looking a bit gappy?

Glenjjones

Hi Guys,

Thanks for the thoughts so far. I hadn't thought about the sterility and nectar richness of the plants. I try to put in plants that are bee and insect friendly where possible. i'll bear this in mind, though I will likely have a few Begonias, as I do like how they look.

I'm happy to have quite an informal look to the border, so the idea of some self seeding annuals and biennials like foxgloves is something to consider. I already have a lot of Calendula that self seed all over the place. I just have to keep a bit of a check on them if they get out of hand.

Nollie, unfortunately I don't have any photos of the border as was a few years ago. the main reason that it looked a little bit "gappy" last year was that I didn't really use any annual bedding plants, I just sort of left the perennials do their thing. It looked ok, but as a fair number of the Perennials were new, they didn't look as full as they will in time, and they almost all flowered in the last part of summer, so I didn't have much colour until quite late on.

Thanks for your thoughts guys, always good to have a discussion and some ideas from other.

regards,

G. 

jaffacakes

Wow, those Ageratum 'Blue Horizon' look beautiful. I need to try some seeds.