Perennials To Sow And Plant Now

Don’t rest on your laurels this month, get sowing! Give perennials a head start and some heat and they’ll reward you with a summer chock full of flowers, says Graham Clarke

- Graham Clarke

There's snow on them thar hills… and with chilly winter weather likely there’s absolutely no point in even thinking about perennial border plants until – ooh, I don’t know – March, right? Wrong!

If you have a greenhouse or conservatory you can sow seed of some perennials now, for a supply of brand new border plants to brighten your garden this summer, and for years to come. Delphiniums, lupins, gaura, rose campions… they can all be sown in January and February, under a little heat, for flowers in five or six months’ time.

By summer, the plants will still be fairly small, but that won’t stop them producing a show of flowers. And as hardy perennials, they will, of course, come​ back to bloom again for many years, on bigger and bigger plants.

There are two bonuses to sowing perennials rather than buying potted plants: a) you’ll save pounds per plant, and b) with the number of seeds typically found in packets you can grow dozens – or even hundreds – which you can either give away to appreciative friends, or sell from a car boot table or at the front gate, and get your money back!

Planting out time

January is also a suitable time to plant out perennials, provided the soil is neither waterlogged nor frozen. Garden centres won’t have as many on display now as they will in March or April, but in some ways this is a good time for planting as the perennials themselves will be dormant. By spring they’ll have started into growth, and disturbing them can damage growth buds and roots.