Seeds to plant now for next year ... advice

[myscottishgarden]

I garden in Scotland.

There are some plants I have in my garden that can be very slow to mature if I plant them early in the year. For example, verbena bonariensis, agastache, black cat scabious, among others.

Sarah Raven says all of these can be planted now to get ahead for next year.

How does this work? If they germinate now, how do I get small plants through the winter?

We have a polytunnel. Would it be enough winter protection to keep them in there?

I’m planning on doing the same. I meant to plant them back in August though as we are also in Scotland.

I’ve only ever done it for veg and sweet peas before, but I’ve got loads of packets and a new garden to fill. My understanding is they just stop growing from November -March so it gives you a small head start. They will all be frost hardy.

Definitely protect them from the elements in your poly tunnel, mine will be in a greenhouse. I’m going to start them indoors for a week I think just to germinate the seeds as it is such horrible weather right now. On the other hand they say September for sowing grass so maybe they will be ok.

I'm doing the same as Peak and overwintering my young plants in an unheated greenhouse. We are in north east England. So far I have quite a few perennials including salvias taken from cuttings from this year's plants, echinacea, agastache, sweet rocket, foxgloves (biennial) then I've planted lots of hardy annuals to get a head start for next year.

I think I'll sow my sweet peas in early March and possibly start them in the conservatory. I sowed them mid April this year and they were slow to start (but rampant now!)

It's my first year having a greenhouse so lots is trial and error 😊

Oh, thank you both. I'd better get going then.

peakotter - most of my large garden is from perennials I've sown myself over the last five years. We arrived to a completely blank slate, which was overwhelming, but we've achieved a lot in that time. Lots of manual labour digging a new border every year.

It's the only way to manage I think. However, I've never managed to get a jump start on the Scottish weather with annuals. I'll start mine indoors too.

I'm planning a new massive border for next year, so I'm hoping to have plants to get that going.

Do you think it would be useful to have a gardening thread just for Scottish gardeners?

Or,for gardeners in cold areas with crazy weather.