Penstemons?

I've just bitten the bullet and cleard all the weeds out of my main perennial bed. I have lots of big gaps now, and would like to fill them with something that will give me some colour and blooms this summer.

I was thinking perhaps cosmos, and some penstemons. I don't know much about either so would love any advice if anyone does know anything? Can I but them in trays at nurseries or garden centres, or are they a seed purchase. If so can i sew them straight out in June?

:luv: Thank you lovely people!

 

In a moment of weakness I splashed out on some Penstemons from Hayloft. They have the new-fangled Ice Cream varieties, which supposedly have (relatively) massive flowers.

My Mother gave me some in the middle of the summer last year, and I lost the lot :( so this year I ordered replacements in the Spring, potted them on, and kept them in plastic bags in the shade under the greenhouse bench for a while to help them get established. Fingers crossed they will survive this time!

 

I can Highly recommend Penstemons! once you have one you'll ever need to buy any more ^^ they take very easily from cuttings and they have very pretty flowers =]

 

Sounds fantastic. YAY!!! I'm excited now.

Are they something you can buy in trays ?

 

Not seen them in trays and they can be borderline hardy, but mine always survive and are blooming now. I love them, if I had the room, I'd fill the border with them.

 

Dahlias will flower till the frosts blacken them .you can then lift the tubers or earth them up either way you have them for years.

 

No you will normally find them in 3 litre pots for about £3.50 ish each but you get plenty of material for that and by the end of the year you can quite easily take 40+ cuttings without entirely decimating the plant:lollol:

 

I too bought them, they were horrible "thick stem cuttings" plugs, all arrived with brown roots and naturally all died.

They replaced them, but the replacements were no better, but I managed to get some cuttings rooted before they too all died, they replaced them again this season, but I had to e-mail them and inform them they owed me, they were not sent until the beginning of June.
These ones were more like plug plants should be!

Never again will I order anything from Hayloft, to send out rubbish like they did, and costing £32 was a disgrace.

I saw them originally on Qvc Tv, on Googling, there were numerous others with the same problem as myself.

So be warned about them.

 

It might not be Haylofts fault,I ordered some plants from Vernons for my sisters birthday.Thry didn't arrive so I phoned and they said they would send more.On Monday morning early I had a call to say the geraniums were being dispached by post and should arrive next morning in fact they didn't arrive till Friday bone dry by then but they survived,less sturdy plants would have died.The Post Office could easily ruin someones business.

 

I've never had problems with hayloft plants. Had penstemons, hardy nemesia and wallflowers ( all ordered via QVC ) and all have arrived very healthy indeed, which is more than I can say about plants ordered from thompsom and Morgan

 

You should have see the rubbish they sent me,TWICE.

Never again!