A couple of years or so back I ordered some bare root roses from Parkers...duly planted them but 5/6 months later they were not what I ordered,they had been missed labelled..initially I was rather peeved as when you have a colour scheme in you border and they are not what you wanted when in bloom it gets on my ning nangs... But I must say when I contacted them they immediately sent replacements (the ones I actually wanted in the first place) it was a bit of a pain having to dig them out plus a good chunk of the surrounding soil to replant the new ones but they were quick to rectify the problem.
Further update: they've arrived already! Ordered Wed evening and delivered to office at lunchtime today. Great timing as I only work until 1pm on a Friday so I got them straight home and the absolutely glorious spring type day it's been here enabled me to be outside all afternoon. Heaven. I'm extremely hungry now though! Oh and all the plants look fine So far so good ....
Sorry for the late reply nick , it crossed my mind today when I come across the same picture on the desktop background. Yes it is a Monarda, Monarda Scorpion to be exact , I grow squaw as well . I find them to be fickle plants not quite sure if they are going to come up from one year to the next. Squaw is a tad different though because its evergreen and doing very well.
Thanks Perki, I think I've tried two different ones over the years but they've never done well, they always seem to die off in my heavy clay soil however much grit I add to it! I'm going to have a go with 'Beauty of Cobham' this year in a container, see how that one does. Nick
When I've planted mine @Nikolaos I've dug in plenty of organic matter. I've grown Beauty of Cobham it did the best out of the original plants I bought, I planted it to close to a shrub which sapped the moister out of the ground so it eventually succumbed, they are funny plants like it damp and moist during the summer but like it free draining in the winter, that why organic matter probably better it does both it opens the soil structure up but also retain some moister as well. They are susceptible to powdery mildrew as well its a white coating of the leaves, occurs when the plant get to dry My squaw is in heavy soil which gets water logged and it seems to soldier on , I do have some spare plants if you want to try one?
@Perki Thanks for the advice regarding monarda mate, very useful! Really appreciate the kind offer, but I'm not too keen on red. My garden is getting a bit oppressive with so much purple in it, so I'm going to add lots of white, blue and a little pink (that's where 'Beauty of Cobham' comes in), which will hopefully give the garden a lift colour-wise. I don't usually like warm colours, but I might try adding a touch of orange too, it combines well with purple, I think. Nick
Well I may have been too enthused about my Parkers perennials. They arrived 6 March as per my earlier post and I did exactly as instructed re planting. It's now 26 April and this is the current state of play: 1st pic =3 white Veronicas in there. One's gone. One is doing not much at all [you can just about see it in pic] and the other is ... well it's growing. 2nd pic 3 Veronicastrum - two doing ok'ish and one doing nothing hardly. Also 3 blue Veronica. One's gone. The other 2 - well they're growing but don't look all that great. 3rd pic 3 Lychnis Chalcedonica - seem to be doing OK so far. 4th pic 3 Lychnis Chalcedonica - not doing as well as the others. Two of them seem to be shrivelling but I've inspected them and can't seem to see any pests present. I'm just stuck now.... they were all bought for my small north facing corner bed where I planted them originally but then moved them to pots temporarily when I saw they weren't ready for that corner at that time. I wonder whether anyone has any idea of what's happening, what to do to save them/make them grow well? Thank you Deborah
Hmmm, not knowing where they were kept while you were trying to bring them on, Deborah, all you can do is keep the pots watered and in shade for the time being and see what happens. I've used Parkers in the past and found that they are a pack 'em, stack 'em and sell 'em cheap type of Company, but that is just my personal opinion. I've probably had more failures of plants/bare roots from Parkers than any other Company. I ordered a "collection" offer of Perennials Poppies some years ago which I ordered specific varieties and what I got was correctly named bags of bare roots...great. The Perennial Poppies didn't flower, (which was fair enough), until the following year but when they did they were all the same common red variety despite being in the specific named bags. I wasted a year waiting for them to flower before finding out the Poppies weren't what I ordered and on phoning Parkers got told I would be refunded, but no apology. It was then too late to order the specific varieties I wanted so I had to wait another year to buy them from another Nursery and then another year for them to flower I've probably had more success with the "bonus" plants/bulbs which were free than any of the plants I ordered earlier. I stopped using Parkers after the Perennial Poppy debacle!!
Thanks for responding Armandii. Sounds like it's just as you say - keep in shade, keep watered and see what happens. Hmmm. Not good really - was expecting a bit more from them. At least the Lychnis seem to be doing OK but I hope they don't all start to shrivel like some of them have! Seems it's just hit and miss then perhaps with this seller. Your poppy palaver must have been frustrating! !
Parkers still send me catalogues but they end up on the Compost Heap, Deborah I bought 15 bare root Lupins from Hayloft this year on a special offer, potted them up and all 15 are going strong. I also bought some bare root Thalictrums from various other Nurseries and although slow to come through they are now doing well. This year I bought 4 Astilbe bare roots from Farmer Gracy as well as bare root Iris, and they've also grown on without problems.
@DDM , buying bare root from parkersvis a bitbof a lotto, just to add to Armandii thoughts, perhaps a gentle feed, a 50% strength feed will help.
With all these plug plants and bare rooted plants I plant them up in pots and put them somewhere sheltered until I see fresh top growth and new roots being formed; then I plant them out in the final position.
