Planting bare root perennials

Derry Journal

Some perennial plants are just extremely difficult to grow from seed and some others take years of care to get them to flowering stage, but fortunately there are numerous affordable options that require little effort.  Mostly these come in the form of bare roots and bulbs, and now, as we near the end of spring and start of summer, is a brilliant time to get some bargains at the local garden centre or online. As a bonus they’ll probably come with shoots formed giving you a head-start.  At the time of writing, numerous companies have up to 60% off a wide range of their summer and autumn flowering plants, and I’ve picked up a few bare roots in shops and garden centres. I’ve also received a couple of orders I placed online with the very reasonable Farmer Gracy and with an amazing Irish family-run facility, Caherhurley Nursery in County Clare which is selling off already potted up perennial plants for the bargain price of £5 or €5 which can then be either planted or grown on in pots for a few weeks before planting. There are many garden centres, shops and companies out there offering value for money but these are the two I’ve bought from online and can verify that their plants came in pristine condition.

Transcript

00:00Hello again today we're going to be planting up some bare roots and some bulbs that I've

00:17ordered on and they've arrived today these are from farmer Gracie in Holland you can pick up

00:23these in shops as well in some garden centers bare roots are basically plants or parts of plants

00:34that are established and they're usually just sliced part of the root mass is sliced and then

00:39they're bagged up and these have arrived in very fine compost which can be reused as well I have

00:49some over here soaking right and this is the thing with bare roots very important that you soak them

00:55when they arrive many of them will arrive with growth already on them like this one here this

01:03is a philacrum black stockings which is a big tall plant when it grows and it should reach about six

01:12seven feet and it's good for the back of a border and then and here I have an astolbe this is a

01:22cappuccino astolbe it would have really dark foliage and then these white feathery plumes coming up out

01:31of it and those are both going to the garden the good thing about these are they are perennial and buying

01:41them at this time of year and at the end of the end of the season really when people are planting plants out

01:50you get them a lot cheaper so here these are ones I've already planted out so what I have what I've

02:04got in this order is celebration of angels these are a lolly a really beautiful lolly I've never seen

02:11in person before but I've seen the photos and it's pretty stunning and this is another astolbe that I

02:18have potted up already that was soaked for three hours or so and there's another of those so I got

02:27three of the lollies one of the or sorry two astolbe's one red one one white plumes one with dark foliage

02:36one with green foliage that's the other one and then got two of the black stockings salacrum as well

02:44and as well as that I got ten of these gladiola both and as you can see they're already sprouting

02:53as well they're all very healthy looking every one of them's got growth on it and they just arrived

02:59in this little black or little brown bag and these are a sort of a creamy peachy color with a pink center

03:11called amber mystique but all in all for everything it cost around less than 30 pound with postage and

03:18packaging and so I would only I'd advise you to buy if you're looking for perennials like these may not

03:27do much this year but for next year the gladiola will come up this year but for next year

03:32they should put on a great display and they'll come back every year as well so it's a great idea

03:42just if you look online now you'll get the end of season stock and as I say maybe not for this year

03:50but for next year just plan ahead you'll have a really nice lot of plants and they'll be well established

03:58as well so you can see here the root mass of the astalbe and this has just been cut down the side

04:08from the parent plant and some of these wee shoots are broken off in postage but there's plenty more

04:14coming on it so they'll give you an indication of because it was split down the side we'll plant it

04:20down that way and you can spread the roots a good idea is to spread the roots evenly either way

04:26across because then that gives the plant a good foothold and do the same when you're planting the ground too

04:36so I'm just going to remove some of the soil from this plant

04:44and then so you just want a base really and then just sit that in you don't want the crown going

04:51down too far so we'll put more in there so that's about the right depth and then we're just going to

05:00fall around that so just gently firm it down make sure the roots are being covered but you want the crown

05:09exposed okay broken off all there but these can be left out in all sorts of weathers because they are

05:21hardy perennials and these astalbees in particular will handle all different kibs of the soil and they

05:32seem to prefer a bit of shade according to the experts rather than full sun so they should do well

05:41here in Ireland and that is that one basically all that needs now is a watering in and i'll just do the

05:54same with the philagrums as well but that's basically it and i'll just show you when just remove some of this

06:03now let me show you the roots on some of these boys now look at the size of that look that just shows

06:15you how far those roots go down and that's only a part of the plant one little section so i'm just going

06:21to spread those out into the pot i could probably put that straight in the ground there the way it is

06:26at the moment but the reason you wouldn't normally do that is because of transplant shock so the last

06:39thing you want is the plant going into shock and dying on you so and they have a lot more to contend

06:46with on the ground than they ever would like and this little pot of compost this just gives them a

06:51chance to establish for the roots to sort of find a footing because these have been dry for god knows

07:01how long like and they're really just waking up and then when you put them in the ground they've had

07:09that chance to adjust to the climate outside and where their new home is and then they'll also have a

07:18bigger root mass as well so there's one of the phylacrums in there now and they will correct themselves

07:23too you wouldn't worry about that being a wee bit lopsided that will correct itself over time

07:40now this big root mass again loads of stems coming out of it you can see the smaller ones in there

07:48as well take a photo of that while i'm here and again just plop that down plant upright you don't have

08:00to be too careful but just make sure you're covering all the roots let's move that one out of the way

08:11i'm very impressed with these dutch bulbs there

08:14maybe it is because it's the end of the season but they're so well on already

08:21you may even get flowers this year from some of them i already did from the allium but that was from

08:28the irish nursery the cair hurley nursery

08:35so they deliver north and south at cair hurley and it's very very reasonable postage as well

08:44so that's basically that and we'll just give them a water now and then that's them in there

08:48we'll leave them in for about a month and then we'll pot them up on the ground and plan to put one of

08:53these over here in that new patch i dug out a few weeks ago i'll just go over here and check what's

09:01doing what well the lubecki are coming on very well

09:07the echinacea a bit more slow there's heads already forming on these estalbees

09:15and they're doing quite well some of those were bare roots as well

09:18and there's another head over there that's one of the there's bariola here at the back these plants

09:28were came as bare roots and some of them were bulbs as well these are all the perennials that

09:33i'm going you can see there's an allium in the ground flowering it's very low down i don't know if

09:40they'll pop up and then over here they have some other bare root perennials that i've potted up it's

09:49a good idea to pot them up first for about a month and let them go on so that it's not such a shock then

09:56when they go under the ground and this is one i just patted up today that's the other estalbe the red

10:02one as you can see they usually arrive with growth on them we've got good success with farmer gracie

10:09but i know there's a lot of other companies as well and one of the ones i want to mention and a lot

10:15of these ones came from is kiaher hurley nursery in the south of ireland and they are currently doing a

10:22massive sale and they're closing down sale and everything is five pound and that those plants

10:30arrive uh in a pot of soil already so you don't even have to worry about potting them up when they

10:38arrive so they're not bare roots they're actually growing plants and they are fantastic healthy plants

10:45and i have a few of them in the garden there so while i'm here i'll just show you what's been

10:50flowering as well and everything is either starting to open or about to open now we have

10:59this bear patch here where nothing seems to be growing i think it's just too dry because we've had

11:04this unseasonably dry warm weather so i'm going to give that a good soaking and then plant some more

11:09things in it although i have so much more so a lot of new other plants so plenty to put in there

11:17as you can see i've got loads of these

11:21accolages or columbines beautiful plants all different colors as well there's a white one over

11:26there and different yellow pink or different flower heads as well pink and white here's a nice one as

11:35well and here's the first sweet william i've just noticed there's a couple more up in there but look at

11:41that that's a beautiful flower kind of rosy pink different shades i see a few of them there's yellow

11:47ones and white ones brilliant flowers more yellow ones the honesty now are gone to seed you can see

11:57the seed pods there i'll be collecting them and drying them out in a while here we have all the forget

12:03me nuts putting on a beautiful wee display and then we'll just look down at the sweet william as well

12:13these are our rookie liii all grown from seed last year biennial of course and the last of the

12:20the the the wallflowers now they're going over and you can see the seed heads on them i'm going to

12:27collect those seed heads too and regrow for next year as well and then we have some calendula growing

12:35and around the back i've got some sweet pea to lean the fence and just go and check here

12:46aye the first of the lupins as well is coming up it's a nice peach and yellow

12:54that was growing from seed last year too and planted out it's very very healthy looking that

13:02one in particular but there there was about five or six some of them were probably gone these snails

13:07and i have some room down here at the back for some of those bare roots

13:11and it's a really pretty calendula that's come up and we may have these little adonis they'll be going

13:20over soon and in the back there there's a lot of um returning plants these are those ones there they

13:29are uh hollyhock and i have some little hollyhock seeds to come up one of the ones i'm most curious to

13:36see which i've never seen is the canterbury petals which are all now forming flower heads as well as the

13:44papis they're all fun flower heads too and all these wee tiny flowers that you can see waving about

13:51they are all just radishes radish seeds that were planted last year and survived the winter and they

13:59were all flowering early and i'm going to plant a few more because they just look they have wee touches of

14:03white and light blue onto the garden and then further on down we have the first of the cornflowers

14:10open it's a bit wild looking at the moment and then some oxide daisies as well i'm going to keep an

14:17eye on them in case they spread too far but it's great to see that heat has brought everything on so

14:23well there's some more of those dark i think and some more of the acolygia and the sweet wedding

14:33these are really beautiful ones as well so i'm going to color code them when i collect the seeds after

14:42they go over so i know which ones to plant

14:46where but they will come back next year anyway as well the plants so it's just a matter of creating

14:52more of them very easy to go from seed as well so um i've got plenty here going on and we'll just add a

15:02few of the barriers on there after visiting them pots for a while

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