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Monday 28 February 2011

Buying and planting herbaceous perennial plants

In general, there are two seasons when herbaceous perennial plants are supposed to be bought and planted:

(1) Spring
(2) Autumn

The idea is that, planting in these seasons gives time for a perennial plant to settle, including its roots. Those that take longer to settle and/ or flower earlier in the year should be planted in autumn - e.g. peonies.

In general, I plant in early spring - March/ April. Why, because this is generally when the nurseries and garden centres have them in stock :^) In my experience the best plants are always on the shelves in the early season.

My rule of thumb in spring is to plant when I see some healthy new growth on a plant - but not too much. If there's too much growth, the perennial plant is well out of its winter dormancy phase and will not always do as well as one that is planted earlier in its growing cycle.

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