How to make bedding plants in pots appear to flower all year.

Very clever Scotsgran.
Every year round here you see people putting bedding plants in the garden in April. Two years ago they got away with it but most years they die and the people go and buy more from the shops...which, is why the shops get them in so early Crazy...but the shops didn't get them in early this year.On fact O noticed Band Q and Homebase couldn't even sell their pansies etc and reduced them all a few weeks ago!
Your begonias in the pots look superb!!!!

Thanks Paul. I'm seeing lots of bargains in the shops because the weather has not encouraged anyone this year. Those are sempervirens and I love them because they are so hassle free.

I bought some half price Saxafrage for the rockery...6 for 1.75 in Homebase 2 weeks ago!

Well done. I have always bought cut price plants when I see something I can use. My best ever bargain was from a large DIY store. I spotted a trolley filled with dead??? lupins. I asked what was happening to them and I ended up with the lot for free. They went down a bomb on our plant stall at the church fete a couple of months later all spruced up and looking the picture of health.

Particularly these DIY stores as the people there generally don't know much about plants.My youngest worked in a Homebase for 4 years whilst at college and university, just left last summer to start his teaching career.Bit, he used to say that he knew more about the plants, just from from what he'd heard from me, than the full timer who was supposedly the garden centre expert!!!!
The ones that are a good buy late in the summer are pots of Lillies.Homebase always reduce them and sometimes, some Clematis too!! I never get time to go in the summer though and not really got room for anymore, anyway!!!!!

A very good idea a lovely way to get a never ending display.
I must admit that what tulips I grow I grow them in large pots and sink them pot and all into the ground as I just hate to see them when they go over.

I'm becoming more choosy about what I buy too Paul because we have a pretty well stocked garden but as things die off they need to be replaced or if like me you add another facet of gardening ie my interest in alpines is growing steadily, then I had to add to the growing space by doing away with a bit of lawn. When we built the raised planter I took the opportunity of removing the grass on top of the naturalised bulbs and I laid down newspaper and woodchip. I can access the raised beds all round and the bulbs come up through the woodchip. As the woodchip rots so will the paper and I can put it in the compost bin after about 3 years. Its lovely to walk on and much better for the garden than bark or expensive imported coconut fibre. Its local so no long distance travel for it either.

Stroller that is a good idea. Do you take the pots out and store them over the summer. I planted some tulips in a pot and they have been vandalised by a pheasant probably. I'll put him in a pot if I catch him.

Ha ha ! I found Winter flowering Pansies did very well this year as heaved the planter onto some old bricks to give it height. They are coming into full Spring flower mode now, well worth the effort to give them height.
Wonder if this applies to all over-winter plants ?
Do they prefer their feet to be warm ?

Lovely displays Scotsgran and a clever idea, the begonias in particular look great!

Its probably wet feet that kills them off Diane. I found if I planted flowering plants in the autumn they quickly spread out to fill the pot and never really stopped flowering well right through the winter. Thanks Louisa I have used these small annual begonias since we started the garden. They put up with too wet, too dry wind and sun or shade. Smashing little plants.

Its a great idea S'gran and your displays look amazing, it certainly saves the gap between spring flowers going over and summer bedding, sometimes there can be quite a gap without flowers in the borders, I do like your raised bed, we have a similar wall on our yard but when I tried placing planters along it for a bit of colour the flipping dogs knocked them off and ruined them every time so I gave up, now I wonder if I can bribe hubby into doing something similar for me (Watch this space he's already said he must renew his fishing licence, thats bargaining power to me,LOL)
I use those planters for my cut and grow lettuces and the majority of my lilies are in round plastic planters from Poundstretcher, just hide them around the garden during the winter months for protection, not so pricey to replace if they have an accident and when on display they are hidden amongst the foliage from other plants..
I always collect the seedheads so have a new supply of viola's and pansies on the go throughout the year so can refresh them when neccessary, they have been very slow growing the past year though, that I've put down to lack of light, hadn't really considered having the planters already set up, bit daft really on my part as with two g'houses space wouldn't be a problem for me..

Lol it also hides a not very inspiring low wall Linclass. The frames were built to take the size of cheapest long pots we could find. Each frame holds two pots. The wood cladding is tongue and groove that we rescued when we knocked a building down. Because the pots are only used 6 months or so each year they needed to be small enough to handle easily.I think they are around 80cm long.

If I can coax him to do mine it will hide a gully that is for the overflow from our flat roof, not very attractive which is why I tried to disguise it over the years..

Fingers crossed then.

It looks great, Scotsgran. I've found the pansies to be very good this year, also the primulas. It must be - as you said - because they are not going to seed so quickly.
Your begonias are lovely - I'm a great fan of them, and love to see them all together rather than dotted about. In fact, I think I prefer containers that are just one or two varieties, although I do plant up mixed baskets.

Another excellent blog, Scotsgran!
Much food for thought.
Thanks everyone!

Thank you Mel and Mouldy. I have used begonias for years. I feel another blog coming on.

They do make a great display and such a clever way of changing plants.
I saw a couple buying 2 massive trolley loads of bedding plants from B&Q the other day - they must have spent an absolute fortune! I also noticed today that Dobbies were doing 3 for 2 on trays of pansies and violas.
I'm just learning to pick up bargains thanks to GOY!

Sadly, I have to admit that I don't like begonias or helebores.
Apologies to those who love them, it's no reflection on your tastes, so, please, don't take this personally. Lol.
Begonias remind me of intenal organs (minus the blooms) and the hele's just look totally alien to me, like they're something else pretending to be a flower, so we won't find them out.
(Nurse, the screens & 10cc of something to sedate him!) Lol.

It would be a very dull world if we all had exactly the same taste in plants Mouldy. I can think of nothing worse than seeing every garden filled with any single plant. lol.

Sadly, I like begonias in bloom, but not before then and as long as I don't get close enough to see under the blooms.
It's the shape & colour of the bare plant.
The colour I quite like, but not that strange shape, too.
If it was green it wouldn't matter. Lol.

These begonias are never bare plants Mouldy. They are bought in and come with green leaves and lots of flower buds and never stop flowering until the frost kills them off and then they go in the compost heap.

Are we all talking about the same begonias?!

Purple (before they bloom) & look like they belong in an operating theatre? Lol.

Another lesson to be learned here Mouldy - it is always worth knowing the latin name of the plant you want or do not want. Latin names are very precise and exactly describe one plant. It cannot refer to any other plant. The plant may have half a dozen common names by which it is known but the latin name is the one given by the experts. The plants above are Begonia sempervirens. Lots of shops are selling them 6 or ten in a sectional tray. I can't think of any begonia which fits your description. Unless the buyer has a green house or cold frame where these small plants can be stored, protected from the frost, many of us feel they are being conned by dishonest sellers. We need to wait until after the last frosts before putting them out to face the weather.

A friend's dad, when I was living in England several decades ago, grew them.
I didn't like them, asked what they were & he told me they were begonias.
I hated walking along their front path to chap their door & would whistle from the gate, rather than walk past them, before they bloomed. Lol.
His were always planted out in April, but the weather was less harsh than up here.
I'm learning the value of Latin names.
My most recent, before your's, was Ophiapogen Planiscapus Nigrescens.
That one I'll take to my grave. Lol

Its quite a mouthful.

You were sure spooked by those plants, Mouldy!!!

Have posted a photo of begonias, purple among them, that I saw in Tesco's today (Actually yesterday now)
Imagine a garden full of them with not a single bloom on them!
Spooked is an understatement. =-O

Oh dear. I don't know what to suggest as a remedy. Please don't start a campaign to ban them.

Oh, perish the thought...horses for courses, I say. Lol.
Now I know they also come in green, I'll doubtless give them a 2nd lookover, but no promises. ;-)

You're missing a good old standby though, Mouldy. I wouldn't be without them - shade or sun, wind or rain they carry on blooming all summer. I have a dry little shaded border that they cheer up without fail. I've tried to think of the red ones your way, but no success so far!

Don't rush to remember on my account, Steragram. Lol.

I meant I would try to see them from your point of view. But I'll take your advice and give up on you!

Ah, I see what you meant now, Steragram. Lol.