Brighten your borders

The time has arrived to plant out biennials in your borders for next year’s show. This applies to wallflowers, foxgloves, forget-me-nots, Brompton stock and any plants which come into flower the year after they have germinated from seed.

If you grew your own biennials from seed sown earlier this year, they should be sturdy little plants by now. Transplant on a calm day and water them well afterwards.

Wallflowers (pictured right), and stocks should be firmed in to prevent root damage in rough weather. With other plants, handle the roots more carefully, keeping soil on them. If the plants were self-sown, thin out overcrowded groups, using the ‘thinnings’ to stock bare areas. I do that with forget-me-nots in autumn.

Mildew can trouble them, often in wet, cool weather, so transplant only healthy young plants.

Pansies and violas often grow as biennials. If you have plants which have self-sown, transplant the seedlings or young plants for a winter or spring show. If you have clumps of truly perennial violas, those can be divided and re-planted.

Plants grown as annuals — calendulas, Shirley poppies, borage — also self-seed. They’ll survive most winters, so transplant any of the plants, if necessary, as soon as you can, to give them time to mature before winter.