Among the herbaceous perennials we enjoy in gardens year-to-year are some that grown from seed go on to flower within 12 months, making these cost-effective and sustainable choices for new plantings.
While many gardeners know a simple and quick way to increase numbers of perennials is through division, relatively few have a go at growing them from seed. Buying potted plants from garden centres or nurseries works well if you are looking to fill the occasional gap or add new flowers to existing borders, but planting a whole new area can be an expensive business if you rely only on this method, and while dividing existing plants gives you material, it will only be more of the same.
What many nurserymen might rather you didn’t know is that many popular perennials will easily flower in their first year from sowing, and that this process is usually as simple as growing annuals or bedding plants from seed. If you need quantities of plants- perhaps for a drift of Achillea through a sunny border, a swathe of Digitalis below trees or a path edged with Nepeta, growing from seed is worth considering- you’ll find both drought resistant and shade-tolerant perennials among potential choices, as well as some popular and often expensive plants. Many of these are by nature quick-growing so although they may be initially smaller on planting than shop-bought stock, they’ll soon catch up and fully bulk up the following year. There are other reasons why growing from seed makes sense.
•Sustainability; buying from garden centres comes with a cost to the environment, be it in transport (some plants travel around the country or are imported from overseas), compost, pots and associated packaging. Raising from seed cuts much of this and allows you to
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