Growing plants from plugs is incredibly satisfying. You take them when they are still so small, and grow them on until they can spread their wings into your pots, baskets and flower beds.
Not only do you see the fruits of your labours grow, but you can make big savings buying early and growing them on, rather than buying more established plants later in the season.
If you have an area in the house big enough to stand a half wall basket, busy lizzie balls are great fun to grow. This area will need to have some natural light and keep fairly warm (about 12 degrees C).
- Get some busy lizzie plug plants of your choice – mixed ones are always nice but plain colours also work very well when making balls.
- Allow them to grow in the plugs until you can see the roots coming through the bottom – we want them to have a good established root ball before you plant them on (general good tip for growing plugs)
- Line your basket with ordinary black plastic or a bin liner.
- Mix 30g sachet of swell gel with some compost and put in the bottom.
- Fill with good quality general purpose compost (if you can get mount folly mix this is perfect – includes vine weevil treatment and slow release fertiliser).
- Take a sharp pair of scissors and make horizontal slits in the plastic about 2cm long. Keep them approximately 6-8 centimetres radius apart
- Take your busy lizzie plugs and push them in from the front, being careful not to snap the stems. Be very gentle and take your time.
- Fill all the slits with plugs, and plant the top with plugs using the same distance in between.
- Make a couple of small drainage holes in the bottom with your scissors.
- Water well to water the plants in.
- Be careful not to soak or overwater the basket when growing on, as overwatering will rot the roots. Compost should be moist to the touch at all times.
- The more sunlight and warmth you can give it the quicker it will grow, but don’t rush them on too much as we don’t want them to be too used to the warm and peak too early!
- Watch your little plugs grow into a beautiful ball of colour!
Read more about plug plants and view the range on our web shop.