As regular readers will know I have been acting as a plant reviewer for Plant Me Now this year. The final installment 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.
