Bedding Flowers

Bedding is a garden design category including all sorts of short-lived ornamental plants, meant to be planted out for one season and thrown on the compost after they flower.

They are usually planted around perennials, bulbs (which are in fact a type of perennial as well) and shrubs in borders to fill space, covering bare soil and packing in as many flowers as possible!

• Some are annuals and biennials that look good for one season.
• Others are tender perennials that won't survive Winter.
• Spring / Summer bedding is planted out in Spring before it fully blooms, after the frosts.
• Autumn / Winter bedding is planted out in Autumn and to flower whenever temperatures allow, or in early Spring.
• Some of the most famous bedding plants are Cosmos, Violas, Pansies, Wallflowers and Nemesias.
• Sweet peas are versatile annual climbers that are often deployed on wigwams of bamboo canes, adding height and volume.
• Grow them in flower beds, trailing out of hanging baskets, or in patio pots – anywhere you can keep them watered.

One does not simply produce a high-quality seedling using substandard seeds! The better the seed, the better the plant.

• We grow our own bedding plants from new, quality seeds in peat-free compost, under carefully controlled conditions. The stage is set for great results!
• We harden off our seedlings at night and pinch out their growing tips at the perfect time to make tough, bushy plants that won't wilt from surprise out in your garden!
• All of our nursery & warehouse staff know what is an acceptable specimen for our customers, and rejects go straight onto the compost pile (unless John takes them home)!

Bedding plants like full sun, and needs consistent moisture when in flower, so it pays to incorporate plenty of organic matter into the soil in advance of planting day. Consider using an irrigation pipe, especially if you are planting a large area.

As long as they don't dry out, none of them are fussy plants, but for the absolute best displays, Wallflowers like soil enriched with fertile compost or well rotted manure.

Cosmos and Sweet Peas are fine in relatively poor soils, enriched with leaf mould, coconut coir, or your least fertile compost, and will thrive with a little fertiliser while they are in full flower.

In order to help your bedding plants last as long as possible, we recommend:

• Water with diluted liquid fertiliser every week or two in the growing season.
• Pinch off the tips of developing stems to encourage branching & thus more flowers.
• Deadhead flowers when they begin to tire, and certainly before they make a seedhead.