When I asked Tim Milward of
Plant Me Now how many lines of seeds they had in their catalogue he looked at me politely and I realised I was a bit of an idiot. Plant me now, geddit? Plants arrive as plugs or in 7cm pots and the punter plants them and tends them.
It’s neat for those who do not care for the worry, flutter and bother of germinating and nurturing diddly-squat young plants.
And so I got on board to review some
winter bedding plants. I am new to reviewing and new to winter bedding too. But equally horti experimenting is part of my business. Here follows a report of my parcel.
This time last week an email came in to tell me that my delivery was on its way. This was followed up by messages that I could cancel or alter the date but otherwise Jamie the driver was on his way and would arrive in a one hour time slot on Thursday.
He did - and just look how pleased the dogs were with the parcel. Next up, unpacking and I am truly impressed with the quality of the plants and the efficacy of the packaging. See how happy these pansies are.
Three days followed while the plants were neglected. I wrestled with my conscience about the pansies and the primulas. Did I like them at all? Did I want such dwarvish plants occupying my oh so posh pots that I gave myself as a present? By Sunday the solution entered the slowness of my mind. The Random Bed, of course. In the Random Bed there is parsley, lambs lettuce, fruit trees, beans, peppers and radicchio - a bit of dill and coriander too. Perfect for the pansies and their friends to join and jostle with curly parsley and the like.
On the aesthetic front, the bed is raised and the small plants can be seen close up.
Despite the 3 day neglect (surely a viable, even essential part of a trial) the plants were still in very good nick. I would note that the 5 cm plugs (some really cute violas called Lemon Jump Up) were in a fantastic growing medium that was like a set chocolate mousse and had brilliant moisture retention. The 7cm pots were a little on the dry side (my fault) and so I held them gently in a
bucket of water to rehydrate. One criticism about this excellent plant by post mallarchy: a little bit more plastic than I really want in my life so I particularly favoured the 5 cm plugs that dispense with the inner plot.
There was a catalogue in the parcel and hurrying past the early flowering primroses there was a mouth watering flower feast. Oh and PS, BTW they do have some flower meadow seed mixes available.
