Finding free plants.

[IStillMissBlockbuster]

Having spent a bomb already on plants for my newly cleared and landscaped garden, I am now becoming increasingly keen on acquiring plants for free....

Not by proper thievery you understand. Today I found some orange poppy pods ready for harvesting at the side of a public path. Happy days!

I have tried and failed to grow a magnolia tree from a neighbours (consenting!) cuttings. I used rooting powder too.

Do you have any tips for growing from cuttings? Are there any other poppy type seed opportunities I might find whilst out and about? Does anyone else feel like carrying secateurs around in their handbag?

Try freegle - often people give plants away on there.

If you buy the supermarket "living herbs" in pots, you can spread them out to make dozens of separate plants.

Much cheaper than buying ones meant for growing form the garden centres.
You can grow your own trees from conkers and acorns, but keep them in a pot unless you have a lot of space.

Not free... but growing from seed is much cheaper and very rewarding. Also again not free but check out the bargain shelf in your local garden centre, anything that has already flowered usually ends up there!

There are some Facebook groups for swapping seeds/cuttings and people often offer freebies.

Also local FB groups, local community markets etc. can be a good source for either swaps or freebies. Especially this time of year... I'm about to offer my extra tomato plants in my local group this coming weekend.

Seeds. Very cheap and you get loads.

Cuttings are easy. Look at YouTube videos.

Get to b and q or similar and look at the poorly plant shelves, or Tesco’s, often perennials that have just stopped flowering are v cheap and can be split or take cutt8ngs. Again you tube is your friend. I got loads o& begonias for about 10 p that just needed overwintering.

Join a local gardening club. Subscription is normally cheap as chips (£10 a year where I am) and there’s often seed swaps, v cheap plant sales/auctions of members excess cuttings etc. Also a good chance to meet people with a plentiful supply of cuttings

As for cuttings, some plants grow very easily from these and some don’t. Lots of small, shrubby things do well from cuttings eg rosemary, sage, penstemons etc. Some plants differ in the best time and type of cutting to take as well, so do a little bit of research if it’s something you really want. Also look into dividing plants. Primulas, irises, anemones, bulbs clump up and can be divided and spread around. Love a bit of propagation, me!

Oooh responses. Thank you. I don't think i am a talented enough gardener to rescue poorly plants, i think my lack of talent is my biggest hurdle with the cuttings to be honest.

Love the bargain shelf for plants that have already flowered, bargain city! And i'm going to look up freegle right now....

give it a few years and you'll be wondering what to do with all the plants you've had to thin out!

If you happen to be in North London I have plenty of columbines, love in a mist, poppies and hellebores looking for a home...

Foxgloves and hollyhocks too...

Basically if it's a happy self-seeder I probably have too much of it!

Seeds whilst not free are great value. So I’m currently over run with Morning Glories which I start indoors and they self seed outside so you get random ones (I’m in Kent so it’s fairly mild). Ditto Ox Eye Daisies and Scabious.
I collect the odd bit of seed out and about. I’m the proud owner of a huge opium poppy in bud and two normal poppies. We had a wild flower meadow in our village and after it died they just removed it😭so I took some seeds

I'm deffinatly a fan of super market plants for basil and parsley.Split the plants and put them in 6" pots and they grow quickly.Find the parsley a nice home in the garden as it will self seed and you shouldn't need to buyore.Curly parsley in a sheltered sot will be available all winter.
Mint grow inBig pot orit will invade your garden.
Chat to people at work,there are a lot of closet gardeners out there.
Non woody cuttings this time of year will grow roots in water on your window sill,I broke of some clematis and that is rooting nicely in a glass.You don't need much and nothing ventured nothing gained.

I've never managed to get supermarket plants to survive (other than indestructible chives!)

The trick with supermarket herbs is to do what pp says. Split out the loads if separate plants in the too small pot and pot them on. Then sunny windowledge or sheltered spot in garden and don't water too much. It really works for basil ...

I am a sucker for buying gardening magazines. I have no loyalty to any particular magazine and will buy the one that has the free packet of seeds sellotaped to the front.

I agree about buying seeds and I love watching things grow. I am not a patient gardener though and every morning am out there checking growth progress and it is slow. I moved last year and dug a border and put in quite a few shrubs, none have grown much really. This year I have bought a number of shrubs, but they are really small and it will be a few years I imagine before they become a decent size. I planted 3 small trees also last year and they have shown little growth, maybe it is me?
I manage to get cuttings from friends, I have some ferns from my brother in law's garden and they actually seem to be flourishing. I sprinkled hundreds of poppy and foxglove seeds, I have 1 poppy coming up. The fox gloves seem to have taken well, but I am gutted to read they do not flower in their first year.

Yay! Finally someone else who is an impatient gardener! I am too. I look at them everyday and tell them off if they're not showing sufficient signs of progress .

I didn't know that about foxgloves, that is disappointing.

I think things will speed up over the next few weeks and months!

Learn how to propagate (cuttings, seeds, layering, splitting etc). Also learn what’s not worth trying to DIY, like Magnolias. I hope you have a greenhouse on your birthday list, you do realise this is a serious addiction don’t you?

If you pass a front garden with a beautiful plant you covet knock on the door and ask what it is. Likely they will offer you seedheads/a cutting/rip a bit out of the ground.

(Oh and you need a sealable plastic bag in your handbag with your secateurs to keep your scavenged bits of plants alive).

Aah, are Magnolia cuttings a lost cause?

HSBC usually gives out free strawberry seeds close to Wimbledon.

You can often grow coriander, fenugreek, and even cardomom from seed (raid your Indian food aisle at the supermarket). Just soak them first.

You can grow lentils by soaking whole lentil seeds and then planting when they turn into sprouts.

If you have rotting onions / garlic / potatoes / tomatoes just plant them.

If you have linseed and sow it you will get beautiful blue flax. I also plant knackered onions. I had a load of nigella in the cupboard which was about 10years out of date and that grew too.

I am no good at growing from seed. But I’ve bought a few plants which have self seeded so this is a good way of getting extra plants for free - valerian, vinca & verbena bonariensis are my most successful. I gently dig up & replant the seedlings if they are not where I want them to be.

I also have quite a lot of —weeds— wildflowers which I don’t discourage - wild violets, ivy leaved toadflax, herb robert. But it does depend on your style of garden if that would work for you!

The Verbena looks marvellous Decorhate.

I generally find that starting seeds in seed trays gets best results in my quite snails garden. Cerinthe , borage and calendula all do well when down, you can still sow them noe directly in the ground and they’ll self seed everywhere.

I remember my grandma back in the day just knocking on neighbours with pretty flowers offering swaps from her garden to theirs of seeds, cuttings etc.

We are trying to do our garden up on the cheap as it will get ruined in a few years when the builders come so we are getting Hardy geraniums from my mum and hostas from my dhs mum plus aquilegia seeds. We are growing some supermarket veg in pots and bought a few nice things on offer. We tried wild flower seed mix but I think only about four plants are coming unfortunately. Our neighbour has a beautiful display so may ask which seeds he used. Might pop some more down this weekend and make the kids be scarecrows for the day.