Plugging the floral gap

Ruth selects some plug plants for her summer display

- Ruth Hayes

Potting up new plug plants to grow healthily before being planted out in a few weeks' time

PLUG plants are a great way of taking the 'faff' out of growing your summer garden. They are an easy and economical way of growing ornamentals and vegetables because someone else has gone to the trouble of sowing, germinating and then raising the seedlings.

The plants are small and bought in trays or singly, in a floral version of the 'pick and mix' sweet counters of old.

I have bought a mix of lobelia, petunias, fuchsias and a funky dahlia and will grow them in the greenhouse before hardening them off.

Pinch out early flowers for stronger plants

Plug plants are young and delicate and need careful nurturing. When you get them home, keep them somewhere frost-free and stand them in water for half an hour or so to hydrate their roots.