Plug Plants

[Rosefriend]

I have just had my monthly Gardening magazine and as always at this time of the year there are adverts for Plug Plants.

I have never had them and I remember years ago someone in the UK telling me that they were good, but that the summer was nearly over before they were big enough to plant out.

I am assuming that it was a bit of an exaggeration but does anyone have any experience with them?

Rosefriend

[sweetleaf]

rosefriend said:

I have just had my monthly Gardening magazine and as always at this time of the year there are adverts for Plug Plants.

I have never had them and I remember years ago someone in the UK telling me that they were good, but that the summer was nearly over before they were big enough to plant out.

I am assuming that it was a bit of an exaggeration but does anyone have any experience with them?

Rosefriend

Its definitely quicker than plants from seed but you have to repot several times to bring them on ready for planting. Some plugs are so small the rootball is as slim as a pencil ie the Lavender plugs I bought from T&M last year.

[Deleted]

I love plug plants and I normally put them in paper pots I make myself from newspaper. I have a tool specially designed to do the job. This allows me to put them in the ground much earlier than I could otherwise.

[grannyjanny]

If you order them early enough from T&M you an choose when you have them delivered.
ie late march or late april.
There was an add in todays Telegraph www.jerseyplantsdirect.com 160 plug plants £9.99 4-8cms.

[grannyjanny]

What a clever site this is. I don't know how to do links so I just put an address in & low & behold it became a link. Well done.

[Dr Bill]

I got some plug plants as a freebie from Gardener's World magazine last year. I potted them on, then in the confusion of the building work completely forgot about them. I found them today. Hollyhocks shooting nicely, Heuchera making good growth. Nothing on the Delphiniums yet but it's early days. What a bonus!

[MamIDdau]

I've had mixed results. Ordered some dianthus and lavenders last year, all the lavenders died and one of the dianthus but my campanulas are doing alright so far <crosses everything>

[Barbara]

i always buy geraniums as plugs.
pot them on a couple of times, and by late spring they're not a bad size, cheaper than buying them when they're bigger
barbara

[isabella]

I have just ordered

Impatiens 'Pink Petticoats'

Salvia 'Summer Skies'

African Marigold ' Vanilla'

Laurentia 'Blue Stars

and Busy Lizzie 'Apricot Butterfly'

[Rosefriend]

Lovely - so I reckon I can take a chance. I am assuming that I should take the earliest sending date I can?

There are some lovely plants in the catalogue.

RF

[Deleted]

Barbara/Isabella - Where do you get your plants from? I've been looking for plug plants for Geraniums etc but havent managed to find them.

[isabella]

I have always found Gardening Direct and Thompson and Morgan reliable.

Best Wishes Pam

[MamIDdau]

B&Q ;D I'm buying a load from there after I move house. I'd buy them tomorrow but I'd get told off We've got a 10 for £6 thing going on fuscias, geraniums etc They're only the half hardy ones mind.

[borderbabe]

I get a lot of plug plants from Gardening Direct and I have found them extremely good. There is always more than you expect - sometimes two plants in the plug and I carefully separate them and pot them. They have a good policy of replacing things if they are not up to standard when they arrive although in ten years I've had no problems.

[Barbara]

i have bought from qvc very good,
i mostly buy from my local garden centre.
barbara

[Deleted]

I always get the tiny pansy plugs from Wilkinsons for the winter baskets, as long as you get them the day they come in they romp away and flower really well. It saves seed sowing space when everything else is going full belt. One neighbour bought some summer bedding last year but I think my seed grown was just as good & much much cheaper.

[Deleted]

Thanks guys have just ordered loads of plug plants....ordered geraniums, surfinias and impatiens and i get a mystery set too. Ordered from

www.jerseyplantsdirect.com/

Any advice on what to do with em when they arrive would be appreciated....i've got a cold frame but could use Mums greenhouse if needed.

Would you think ok to put in paper pots....i've been avidly making these as and when i get the chance?

[Chuckles]

Never thought of buying plug plants before on line or GC, maybe worth looking at for my hanging baskets. I normally put Surfinia Pracilla in a couple of backets.

[Deleted]

I buy lots of plug plants - mainly annuals and a few perennials, from T & M and Suttons.

[blackrose]

I've been looking at water soldiers that arrive as plugs, I've no idea about this as Water soldiers are floaters and the site says to plant them in baskets how can they float if in a basket. I think it's me that should be in a basket ;D
CB

[Deleted]

Lillies are also floating plants but they are also planted in baskets...do they mean that the leaves float on the top of the water.

Trying to remember what water soldiers look like...quite a while since i had a pond.

[blackrose]

I think the place where I was looking was barking up the wrong tree as I'm sure you just chuck them in and the send down their own roots to pull themselves down in winter, that's what I found out a wee while ago.
CB

[madonplants]

ziggywigs said:

Lillies are also floating plants but they are also planted in baskets...do they mean that the leaves float on the top of the water.

Trying to remember what water soldiers look like...quite a while since i had a pond.

Water soldiers look like the tops of a pineapple and come up to the surface in late spring to flower then in autumn they sink to the bottom. I.e. never plant in baskets!

Keith

[Chuckles]

There were loads of Plug Plants at Downtown GC on saturday, how much is everyone paying for them from a GC, I thought they were 99p each, not sure.....does that sound right. They were probably around an inch across size in little round black plastic pots. I just glanced at them a made myself look away ;D

[Barbara]

last spring i paid 2.99 in my local GC. i am sure there were 12 in those little plastic trays.
they were geraniums btw.