This spring I was needing plants. Never, I hear you cry! Well, huh, I did. And I looked online for what I needed and was horrified at the cost of them. And while I quite understand the challenges nurseries are up against, they were quite out of my reach.
Except – there were lots for sale at good (comparatively) prices bare rooted. Well, it felt like a no brainer – it was that or nothing. So I succumbed. And ordered some, somewhat tentatively. If giving my card details is a tentative thing.
When I started gardening, a long time ago, bare root plants were sent out wrapped in newspaper – remember that rather useful stuff? Fish and chips in Britain have never recovered since they stopped wrapping them in something which absorbed the steam. And (bare root plants) were an ordinary way of obtaining plants, mostly shrubs, trees and roses – and that is still often the case now, I understand. But that would be in the autumn. This was mid April. And I had not come across bare root perennials in spring before.
They looked rather hopeless when they arrived.
Like this!
Some came in a plastic bag with a generous sprinkling of dry compost. Which was a nice free gift, but I’m not sure what it offered the plants.
I potted my first few up, feeling very apologetic to them, and rather disbelieving as I bent the roots round to squish them into pots which were round rather than suitably long and thin. I put lids over them, feeling that keeping them warm and moist might help.
And I waited. On the first of May I had hope :
and
Then I kept getting emails telling me I could have more and more, at err.. sale prices. So I kept at it.
I even grew on some geraniums until they were big enough to plant out, though it has to be said that this is basically a slow growing method. Anyway, would you believe, these precious, sweated over darlings got instantly devoured by some foul creature, chomp chomp – and no, it was not slugs or snails. Vole?? Mice! (err, traps proved it)
Big Swearing Word!
One other plant, a thalictrum, got chomped at about a foot high. What on earth? Flying mice?
Back to the bare rooted. I’ve got used, now, to the rather weird beginnings. This is not how a normal seedling emerges, is it? (Long time since I sowed seeds.)
This one totally refused to fit in the pot.
I think I am winning. It works. It could be the future.
One sad point, though. I ordered Persicaria microcephala ‘ ‘Red Dragon’ and it eventually became this: (whatever this is)
I waited a long time, in order to be sure. The seller has acknowledged that it’s the wrong plant. But they have no replacements, so I get a refund. Buy cheap, get cheap refund…… Sigh….
However, other things came on well.
And now, we have a heatwave. For the third time. So all those plants are now confined to the nursery because I can’t plant them out. Do I go on potting up?? My greed has come back to bite me. What a chore.
A bit of a burden now? This is just a sample…..
It’s going to be a very planting autumn.
Last year I bought my first bare-root plants: three Dictamnus (Gas Plant). They’re hard to find! They came in the spring, and I planted them directly in the ground. They all survived, and are getting bigger. For a while there, I was doubtful they’d even come up.
Wow – I wouldn’t have dared plant them straight away. That’s encouraging.
If you’re in the US, can you tell me where you ordered the gas plants? Mine abruptly died a few years ago and I just can’t find a supplier with them in stock. They’re scarcer than the proverbial hen’s teeth.
I got them from DutchGrown. They usually have both the purple and the white.
Costs being so high I have tried bare root plants now and then. Success rate is about 50% for one reason or another – and they are so small! I’m not of an age where I want to wait years for a shrub – container grown from now on. Don’t think I really saved any money – and the hassle was not worth it! Live and learn. Even at my age.
Yes, a shrub would have a lot of catching up to do, compared with one in a pot.
The Persicaria looks like P. amplexicaulis which blooms with pencil thin red wands. There’s a chartreuse cultivar called ‘Golden Arrow’ , too, which grows shorter but a great companion of Hostas like ‘Stained Glass” or “Golden Toara”
Yes, there are a lot of similar persicaria – I have many. They all start off looking like that, and not at all like the ones I wanted. However, I have not come across the yellow one: maybe I’ll have struck lucky, after all???
I keep foolishly buying bareroot siberian irises because the varieties I’m after are so hard to find as live plants… Last year only 3/6 survived. This year it’s looking like 2/6 of another batch. This year’s were even starting to grow pale leaves in their packaging! I was so hopeful, but it all died down once they were in the dirt 🙁 The sadness…
I have found it problematic to find Siberian Iris too. I wonder what the problem is in providing them in pots??
Take heart – they will emerge. I have ordered bare-root specimens and can say that ALL have eventually grown into actual plants! Yes, it is a gamble. And yes, unfortunately, all plants that we order cost way more than we should be paying. But, we plant geeks accept this and soldier on. I understand your frustration! Don’t give up just yet.
I won’t, as long as I can keep them alive until it’s possible to plant them. The heat and lack of rain goes on. And on. No sign of a change.
“My greed has come back to bite me.”
It does…….
I buy a lot of bare root plants because I live in the middle of nowhere. They are chancy, and the sprouts are kind of otherworldly, but it is a reasonable way to buy perennials. (The narket here tends to focus on annuals.)
Good to hear.
In the 80s we ordered 150 sterile willow trees to grow as a wind break between our yard and a farm field. It was just in time for a drought and we had to water them most of the summer. They are a fast growing but weak wood tree with a life expectancy of 15 – 20 years. 40+ years on about 15% are still alive. Meanwhile volunteer maple, mulberry, and black walnut trees have filled in. All this to say the bare root trees all came up and survived that drought.
That’s encouraging! Especially since we have some willow trees, planted two years ago, trying to survive beyond water!