I bought 160 bare root perennials for £40!

[takemetothespace]

I am new to the gardening, these plants will be in dormant stage. please give me some tips: order has not dispatched, is it hard to have proper plant from dormant stage

I’ve bought from gardeningexpress before and had great success. J Parker are also great, particularly their mixed packs of perennials, and their lavender when it goes on special offer.

@takemetothespace
It's taken three years from a rubble infested new build nightmare - but I'm really proud of it now. Lots of trees and pollinators and it's very calm. Takes s lot of pruning and weeding though!
I bought my trees and my roses from specialists, but everything else was cheap as chips!

@MrsHamlet where did you get your hammock stand from, and is it good?

(love the garden! We’ve just moved into a new build so starting from scratch again)

Before planting soak the roots in a bucket of water for an hour to give them a good start.

I doubt they’re a pig in a poke but they might need a bit of TLC to help them catch up. I’d be inclined to pot them into individual pots and keep them in a cold frame or shady corner until I could see what was thriving and (fingers crossed, not many) what wasn’t.

@User19844666884 simplyhammocks - I bought it before I had the garden done, and used to lie in it amongst the weeds 🤣

I just can't figure out why perennial plants would be being sold at dormant stage here in the UK in summer. That's a winter thing - you move them when they're dormant.

I'd be preparing 160 decent sized pots [8 inches] for them to be potted into, with some good quality compost ready for when they are delivered. Then pot them on, grow them on and meanwhile prepare your space for them. Some of those are ok in poor soil whilst others need good soil so look at how each like to grow and make sure your garden is prepped. Also take note of how big each will get so that they are given the space to grow.

Then plant them in the final position in September/October.

I get the impression that gardening Express offer low prices as they are selling things off that haven't sold "in season". I got some ajuga recently, decent size, flowering just completed, but pretty root bound, so presumably overstock from elsewhere. I thought they died when i was away for a bit, but they seem to be doing ok now.

plants have arrived and they are just roots which are nearly 20cm long. I nearly cried as I could not deal with that many plants. Such a wastage. I am really angry at myself . I have planted some in pots and i highly doubt if i get anything get growing out of it. I left some in bags as I ran out of compost and pots. I feel heartbroken

@Imicola guess they are, just roots and some shoots have been formed so no idea how to plant them, whether to expose them as they were grown in container and roots were everywhere and not compact at all. Such a waste of plants.

i have ordered some more plastic pots if they survive until tomorrow as they are packed in plastic bags with just roots

That’s exactly how bare root plants are usually supplied. Did the suppliers not explain?

The plants have survived until now in their plastic bags so should survive a few more days while you obtain more pots. AlisonDonut is right and, in an ideal world, you’d plant each one in its own pot, but if you don’t have that many pots or that much compost, you could plant 2 or 3 of the same variety in the same (large) pot. Obviously, they’re a long way behind where they would be if they’d been planted in spring but, If they put on some growth before autumn, they should be good to go next spring. Don’t despair. All is not lost.

@ComeIntoTheGardenMaud i was expecting some sort of top growth but there was no very minimal top growth. It was very time consuming, I have left some of them in bags and will try to plant more tomorrow. I should have been prepared properly

Yes, it must be hard work, but (as someone said earlier) even if only a minority of them flourish, you’ll have got a bargain.

I will have lots of plant pots by tomorrow and will buy four bags of compost.Thank you @ComeIntoTheGardenMaud for reassurance, I was overwhelmed and now have gone back to the garden to preserve the left ones

not sure whether i need to bury them in the soil altogether .I have exposed the green bits

@AlisonDonut Thank you for the advice, I didn't expect them to be that quicker. They have just arrived next day.
I have used as many plants pots i had in my stock, that's issue when we order things from sale snd not realising that do we need them or are we actually prepared to provide them space snd same it goes for my clothes. I need to get out of this habit

I've had too many plants before, they are in bags so just use a watering can and water them in the bags to stop them drying out and then come back to it when you have more compost and time. If you don't have pots you can use seed trays and just put them all in a seed tray together, green bits up/roots covered, until you have the pots to put them in.

I once had 10 bareroot trees in a trug of soil dug up from the garden for about 2 months, as long as they don't drown or dry out they should be fine.

I bought this same / similar deal from this website and they arrived today. 80 tubers / bare root plants essentially for £29.99. I got allsorts and they look great. Even if just 10 grow I've more than broken even I'd say as there are hostas and peonies and geranium and other great things in there. I went halves with a friend so we're splitting them up on Thursday and shoving them in / hoping for the best. My garden is so full already but I'll always try squeeze more in hahaha

So I could buy these and plant them straight out? Or would I need to pot them up first and then plant them out in the autumn? We have two new, empty borders that I want to fill with cottage garden-style perennials and this looks like a good deal! Obviously I wouldn't expect to get much growth this year but any advice welcome.

I just planted mine where I wanted them - CBA faffing about potting on. Honestly I think you'll be surprised by how well they do.

Ok, I've bought the 'perennial megabox' - supposedly 80 bare root plants for £30 so as people have said even if only 5% of them take I'll have done ok compared to buying from my local garden centre!

Honestly if it was me, I'd do 1 or 2 of each in pots and put the rest in the ground. I don't think I'd have the time or inclination to be watering 160 pots every day!

@SatelliteStomper good luck, hopefully we both have a good bargain out of it

How big is your garden that 160 seemed a good shout? I do admire your optimism!

How many pots have you filled so far?