Minnie's Gardeners' Question Time - help for the new gardeners

[gentlegreen]

But why? Why don't they just give them all nice pronounceable English names

Too many plants get given the same name even when they're very different plants ...

 

[Minnie_the_Minx]

Too many plants get given the same name even when they're very different plants ...

It's totally confusing all these sodding plant names and different types.

Begonias are a pain in the arse for a start. I've got a very floppy one that I had come to the conclusion was maybe a trailing one for hanging baskets, but my sister has a red one but hers seems to stand upright. Maybe the stem is just stronger as it's a few years old, although a few of the flowers do face the ground. The flowers are huge as well.

 

[weltweit]

I have a pot plant inside which just keeps growing too tall for where it is.

It has a long brownish stem and then at the top it produces long green leaves which hang down rather like a grass skirt. At its very top, the leaves point up from the stem, then below that they start to hang down.

I have no idea what it is, but it has just grown too tall for its last place and now I am out of high places.

Should it go outside - or to the knackers yard? I am not particularly fond of it, it has to be said!

 

[gentlegreen]

The poor thing is probably just stretching for the light - and the lower leaves have dropped off ...

I'm not certain, but nipping the top off might have been an option to make it branch - and you may have been able to root that and have a new plant ...

EDIT :-

apparently you can do stem cuttings, so it could end up like the sorcerer's broomstick !

http://www.gardenersworld.com/how-to/projects/houseplants-take-dracaena-stem-cuttings/

 

[geminisnake]

Yep, if you cut it right back it'll probably sprout lower down. Mine certainly did when I lopped it. (the dracaena)

 

[weltweit]

Thanks gentlegreen and geminisnake. And thanks for that great link GG..

I guess I can bite the bullet and cut it back then..

 

[weltweit]

Ok, what about this:

It is not well, I don't water it enough but its stem is too long and it is kind of spreading out.
What are the options of cutting it back?

 

[Minnie_the_Minx]

Look at my New Guinea Impatiens. This is what happens when you don't water it for two days in scorching weather

 

[geminisnake]

What?? They become invisible??

 

[Minnie_the_Minx]

so apparently, we're due frost. Will I wake up to a garden of dead plants tomorrow?

 

[TruXta]

Frost tonight? It says rain on the Beeb. Can't have rain AND frost at once can you?

 

[Minnie_the_Minx]

Frost tonight? It says rain on the Beeb. Can't have rain AND frost at once can you?

Weather report earlier said "gardeners beware - frost"

 

[TruXta]

Maybe later in the week, looks like the nights are gonna get colder.

 

[Minnie_the_Minx]

Maybe later in the week, looks like the nights are gonna get colder.

So anyway, as I'm new to gardening, I don't know what's going to survive and what will die. If there's a chance I can save some by bringing them inside, then I'd like to do that.

My brother in law has made me a great big net/meshy type of thing that he's going to drape over my plants to try to give them extra protection in the winter, but he can't do that until November

My main concerns are my fatsia japonica, wallichiana fern, some iris types, my banana plant, and a few others. Will bring my New Guinea impatiens inside in the hope they'll survive a bit longer. Maybe it's time to harvest my lemon grass?

I have two Boston Ferns that I know aren't hardy, and three other ferns. I have loads. It's upsetting me seeing them die

 

[TruXta]

Fucked if I know, all our plants die every winter.

 

[Minnie_the_Minx]

Fucked if I know, all our plants die every winter.

Thanks Trux

 

[TruXta]

In fairness we only have a couple outdoors in pots - all the big bushes that are in the soil proper seem to make it through fine.

 

[Minnie_the_Minx]

In fairness we only have a couple outdoors in pots - all the big bushes that are in the soil proper seem to make it through fine.

All of my plants are in pots/planters

 

[TruXta]

Then you're in the shit aren't you? Unless you tarp them up, bring them inside or spray them with anti-freeze.

 

[tarannau]

Yep, taking a trip down to the allotment tomorrow night to rescue a couple of (chilli) plants from the greenhouse before frost strikes, ready to overwinter. Then I'll go down on Wednesday (have the afternoon off) to take the last crop off the other plants which may well be on their last legs by then - think I should have well over 100 nagas, scorpions, 7 pots, habaneros and others to do something with. On the plus side I've pretty much emptied the fridge of 3 batches of different types of pepper sauces, distributed to mates and plenty down the pub.

Been a good year, but it'll still be sad to see a few of the productive plants croak their last

 

[geminisnake]

If you can take the banana plant in do so. I think they are prone to frost damage. Tbh I only grow perenials that are hard as and sometimes you even lose them up here. I thought ferns die back then resprout in spring, wild ones do anyway. I suspect the frost may be further north than you but if you have some gardening fleece or simialr use it if you're concerned

 

[Minnie_the_Minx]

Then you're in the shit aren't you? Unless you tarp them up, bring them inside or spray them with anti-freeze.

I don't know, that's why I'm asking here

 

[Minnie_the_Minx]

Yep, taking a trip down to the allotment tomorrow night to rescue a couple of (chilli) plants from the greenhouse before frost strikes, ready to overwinter. Then I'll go down on Wednesday (have the afternoon off) to take the last crop off the other plants which may well be on their last legs by then - think I should have well over 100 nagas, scorpions, 7 pots, habaneros and others to do something with. On the plus side I've pretty much emptied the fridge of 3 batches of different types of pepper sauces, distributed to mates and plenty down the pub.

Been a good year, but it'll still be sad to see a few of the productive plants croak their last

Oh, I've got a couple of chilli pepper plants outside with some new peppers on them. Will move them in. Will pick the rest of my tomatoes even though there's only baby ones left.

Will bring my Vietnamese Coriander in as well I think

 

[Minnie_the_Minx]

If you can take the banana plant in do so. I think they are prone to frost damage. Tbh I only grow perenials that are hard as and sometimes you even lose them up here. I thought ferns die back then resprout in spring, wild ones do anyway. I suspect the frost may be further north than you but if you have some gardening fleece or simialr use it if you're concerned

Will bring banana in as I purposely left that in a plastic planter so it wasn't too heavy. Will drape some bubble wrap over my ferns. I'm in the middle of decorating so really don't have time to google every sodding plant to see what's safe and what's not I'm covered in dust from sanding. I look like I've gone grey prematurely

 

[tarannau]

Oh, I've got a couple of chilli pepper plants outside with some new peppers on them. Will move them in. Will pick the rest of my tomatoes even though there's only baby ones left.

Will bring my Vietnamese Coriander in as well I think

To be honest, unless they're the slow growing varieties - usually habaneros and other hot capsicum chinese types - then it's often easy enough to grow more from seed next year. They're not the most attractive houseplants when the leaves start dropping and they only grow a minuscule amount in Winter.

I'm weighing up which ones of my babies to overwinter next year - about 40 plants and only a handful of windowsill spaces really. On the plus side, I'm now double propogator'd up and have more chilli seeds than the average garden centre. Roll on January - after this year's successful grow and sauce try out, I've got ambitions next year

 

[Minnie_the_Minx]

To be honest, unless they're the slow growing varieties - usually habaneros and other hot capsicum chinese types - then it's often easy enough to grown more from seed next year. They're not the most attractive houseplants when the leaves start dropping and they only grow a minuscule amount in Winter.

I'm weighing up which ones of my babies to overwinter next year - about 40 plants and only a handful of windowsill spaces really. On the plus side, I'm now double propogator'd up and have more chilli seeds than the average garden centre. Roll on January

I'm not bothered about losing the chilli peppers, but may bring one in and leave one out - just as an experiment. Going to do the same with my least favourite NG impatiens, will leave the one that's flowered least out, and bring the other 5 in. Have three sunpatiens to bring in as well. They only started flowering last week!

 

[Minnie_the_Minx]

Oh, what about my lilies?

 

[trashpony]

They won't like the cold but tbh plants are a bit fucked up this year - they are supposed to be going into hibernation but got a bit confused by the autumn warmth. Lilies will survive outside perfectly well though - leave them to absorb a bit of the goodness back into the bulb (so until the top growth goes brown) then lop it off.

 

[gentlegreen]

I won't be panicking down here in the SW.
Mind you I lost most of my tender plants last winter.

Some people leave their bananas out until the frost has touched the foliage - assuming it's a hardy-ish one and not a dwarf Cavendish ..

One of my brugmansias is small enough to bring indoors and maybe get a flower or two... the other will just have to get wrapped up and put in the greenhouse - hopefully I'll get some of the chopped-up stems to sprout..

I just dead-headed my one hardy perennial.

 

[Minnie_the_Minx]

They won't like the cold but tbh plants are a bit fucked up this year - they are supposed to be going into hibernation but got a bit confused by the autumn warmth. Lilies will survive outside perfectly well though - leave them to absorb a bit of the goodness back into the bulb (so until the top growth goes brown) then lop it off.

Lop the WHOLE leaves off my lilies?