Is this just the wrong time to buy plants?

[Seainasive]

Have spent the last few weekends creating an 24x3 ft new raise bed border at the back of my garden and was looking forward to start planting it up. Climbers to grow up ugly fence, maybe some soft fruit, some smaller things to the front. Looking online most plants I looked at were out of stock. Or said available in autumn!

Am I going to have to be patient? Should I just put some bedding plants in for now?

Plants are genuinely difficult to post. If you are well, would you be able to travel to your nearest garden centre? Or maybe someone local might help? Or a cuttings club locally?

It’s a good time to put in perennials while the ground is warm and they can establish before the winter. They must be well watered, but I would only buy then from nurseries or garden centres, in person.

Thanks for the advice! I think I’ve just got so used to ordering stuff online that I automatically went there.

We do have some good garden centres near here

I order lots of plants online, but there is very little I would choose to plant in mid July. End of August /early September the ground will still be warm but is less likely to dry out.

Or said available in autumn! At one time, autumn was the planting season, because nurseries lifted your plant straight out of the ground, and that was best done when the plant was dormant. Then in the 60s "Container grown plants" were the new sliced bread of gardening - suddenly, you could buy and plant plants all the year round. But some nurseries stick with the old method of "bare root" plants because obviously it's a lot cheaper to send a plant if it hasn't got a big lump of soil stuck to it. So that's why some things are available in the autumn only.

i've picked up some good basics from B&M and some better plants from B&Q

Morrisons is good for plants, but they can be very variable on what they have in stock at any given point.

A garden centre would be your best bet, or a local market stall or farm shop.

I'm loving www.secretgardeningclub.co.uk/ at the mo. It's a bit hit and miss what they currently have, and it changes weekly. But what there is comes quickly and well-packaged, and all of mine have thrived.

Might be worth a look, not for fruit (wrong season really). Maybe look in Asda or Morrisons for clematis? Mine have a surprisingly big range, very cheap.

If you've got a decent garden centre nearby go and have a look. There's loads of stuff you can buy now. It's fine to plant now you'll just have to water if we get a dry spell.

Got a Morrison's near you? They are good for plants :)

Thanks for all the advice. I found a local independent nursery and got some lovely climbers. They’re all doing well so far.

I then got loads of small plants at Secretgardeningclub. Quality has been good, all but one are growing nicely now.

Vanmeuwen had some amazing offers on bulbs (but an awful website) so they will be going in soon.

It should all come together next year. Thanks again