Trend growing for garden-ready plants

A garden-ready chrysanthemum plug from Woolmans

It's always tempting to anticipate a trend, but I reckon I'm on pretty safe ground in saying that we're going to see more and more "garden-ready" plants arrive on the market. 

Plant Me Now is a company that has made a virtue from its start of selling plants that can be put straight out into the garden but other companies, more used to selling seeds and plug plants that you pot on before planting out, are expanding into the market.

Suttons has had ready-to-plant options for a few years, with the range now including plants such as Ageratum and Cleome, which were only available as plugs and for pots a few years ago.  Thompson and Morgan also offers quite a choice with Bellis, tomatoes, and a couple of collections on offer for the first time.

Van Meuwen, in their Spring catalogue, say they've bowed to popular demand and are offering a range of begonias, pelargoniums, petunias, gazanias and lobelias from some of their most popular cultivars. They also offer sweet william, stocks and polyanthus, among others.

Chrysanthemum Lilac Chessington from Woolmans

And Chrysanthemum specialists Woolmans are offering potted garden-ready plants for the first time this year, choosing cultivars that perform particularly well in the garden (as opposed to the showbench).

I think on the whole I like this development. What do you think? With space at a premium, the fact that I could bypass the potting-on stage is very attractive. With the current emphasis on attracting novice gardeners, it seems a helpful development. Yes, the larger plugs cost more but, on the other hand, it must reduce the amount of potting compost bought on the domestic market and so cuts down the consumption of peat.

Will you be buying garden-ready plants this year?

Comments

[Roger Brook]

No no no I will NOT be buying. Mainly because I am a Yorkshireman.
Real gardeners will always grow their own- that is the pleasure.
I wonder if novices who are attracted will always be novices? or perhaps they will get the taste and read our blogs to learn how to grow.

[Helen]

I always wonder that, too, Roger. I think that people who have to look after a garden will either never get beyond the "buying-in" stage, or will find they enjoy the plants, gain confidence and move on to greater independence.