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

@swanling i have put few of them in ground. which I did not prepare at all, ground wad rock solid so I don't put too much faith on them. My plan is too cover them tomorrow with more compost.

I filled may 40 so far as I ran out of compost. I was about to cry and it felt such a hard work and then my sprinkler fell out of the tap and I just had enough. i have at least 90 left I think. Some of them i chucked in big metal container with some compost and I am planning to take them out tomorrow and do it slowly like pp's have advised.

It sounds like hard work, I wouldn't have got anywhere near as far as you did. You've done a good job by the sound of it, hopefully you'll get some growth in time.

Keep faith & carry on. When I revamped my garden I dug up some existing plants & just had them in plastic carrier bags. I watered them & they were like that for months until I could replant them. Most of them survived. I wouldn't be too precious with them. If 50% grow you will still have a bought a real bargain.

The roots in your picture look in great condition. You will have a lovely time seeing what you’ve got as things start to grow. One of the nice thing about growing random selections is that it introduces you to plants that you love but would never have thought of buying.

one thing you can do with long roots, if you have a spade, is to drive it into the ground, nearly vertical but not quite, then lever the spade to hold open a slit, drop the root in vertically so the green bit is level with the surface, remove the spade gently without disturbing the root, and use your foot to gently firm the slit closed. People do it with bare root trees if they can’t plant for. A week or two - in that context it’s called heeling in.

I f you haven’t had rain,it would be worth pouring a can of water into the slit first.

This is very exciting, think of the possibilities! Love a good garden progress story so thanks @MrsHamlet too.

If the ground is hard look at hiring a local teen to dig it over for you to plant them straight in. You'll still have a bargain. Most plants take a year or two to bed in properly anyway unless they're the one hit wonders.

I have planted most of them and ran out of pots again. Still, 25 geraniums left. I need to sort them out asap.

I am thinking of planting 12 each in a big container. Will that be okay?

I’d definitely go for the big container idea. I was going to suggest it earlier. I often buy the discounted ‘ plastic bag’ plants sold in Wilcos or supermarkets. They spend at least a season in a container until they’re strong enough to go into open ground. Best bargain was a 75p Elizabeth Rose. I bought 3, but only one really survived.
Rather than feel down about this experience, treat it as a plant adventure and enjoy seeing what eventually comes up. Then you can feel really proud of your skill.

I usually soak the roots in a bucket of water for a few hours and plant them in groups in a pot as I am too lazy to faff about with so many individual pots.

I don’t let the pots dry out too much and leave them to settle for a year.

The following year when I see growth I either pot them on or plant them out once the chance of frost has passed.

Bare root plants are cheap because they take time.

Best of luck!

Keep us updated as to how you get on OP.

I’ve ordered some myself and will plant them in long plastic troughs down the side of the house for this year.

I must say I found this process really overwhelming and it's a lot to take care of that many pots. Hopefully, the results will be amazing.
I had 50 geraniums
20 peonies
20 Ranunculus
30 Hostas
50 aster fall pleasure mixture
There are few other 20 and I don't know the name of them

These are about 75 plus pots and another 110 are not in the pic

Wow! You could start your own garden centre 😁

@takemetothespace keep us updated on the garden development

@MrsHamlet I will. I am new to gardening. So to do that on that scale will be very rewarding.

I'm impressed.

Thank you @swanling, if it wasn't for me to come here to ask for help, I wouldn't be able to do this. I really appreciated the tips.
I will post some pics later as I feel like I have exposed some parts of the roots which I should be or is that okay?

I got:
10 asters
10 ranunculus
10 rudbeckia
5 Sarah Bernhardt peonies (woohoo, my favourites!)
10 echinacea
25 geranium
10 hostas

I'm going to pot some of them up (definitely the peonies) and probably just plant the rest straight out.

Looks fab @takemetothespace - we'll need updates!

I’m so excited for mine to arrive now. I am hoping for geraniums and peonies, but will be happy with whatever I get. I went for their lucky-dip unlabelled fruit trees too - £10 for 4, although the reviews imply that they have been sending out 5 or 6!

@User19844666884 @SatelliteStomper I can't wait to see your progress.

Can I plant hostas in south facing garden ?

I think they will need a bit of shade, but it’s rare for a garden to have no shade at all. Close to the fence? Under a tree?

Be patient with your peonies and don't give up on them easily. I've found they can take 2-3 yrs to settle in and flower. Once the geraniums have settled and reached a good size, they are the easiest of plants to split and spread around the garden, incredible value for money. I hope you'll update us next year with photos, it's hard work but so rewarding.

Thank you , this is the progress so far. Bags were labelled wrong, I was expecting Ranunculus but they are hostas!

@User19844666884 I have some shade in my garden, as it's new build garden. we will be replacing the slabs next year or year after so I really want them to put where I am not disturbing the garden