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The gardening thread

contadino said:
Is that Scabious Black Knight? Mine are looking pretty healthy with a good compliment of buds but not open yet.
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Yes. Mine are getting there. I'm in the north so everything is always a bit later to bloom. The Melton pastels is flowering, maybe an earlier flowerer like my giant scabious? .
 
StoneRoad said:
Calamity1971 - how attractive to bees are the scabious cultivars like Black Knight ? More importantly, are they resistant to rabbit nibbling ?
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I have yellow, white, blue and the black Knights. The blue ones are the most popular by far, followed by the yellow, then the black ones. Never seen a bee on the white one, although tbf, it wasn't big when I put it in last year.
 
contadino said:
I have yellow, white, blue and the black Knights. The blue ones are the most popular by far, followed by the yellow, then the black ones. Never seen a bee on the white one, although tbf, it wasn't big when I put it in last year.
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My favourite is probably the yellow, it just doesn't stay in flower as long as all the others. My blue ones were still going late winter!
 
I have such a tiny garden so annuals and biennials are my most essential additions. Or I would collapse of boredom.

I have a scabious dilemma, Calamity1971. I sowed quite a lot in my allotment 'meadow' but by the time it flowered last year, the grasses were lodging everywhere and once they were bashed down (by rampaging sheepdog and summer rain) it all looked a bit of a mess.This year, I am going to try an early cut and hope it might work like a 'Chelsea Chop' and I get later, sturdier flowers...but it is all very experimental and chancy. I have sowed a shedload of various primulas, as a spring-flowering back-up (with extra bulbs).
 
campanula said:
I have such a tiny garden so annuals and biennials are my most essential additions. Or I would collapse of boredom.

I have a scabious dilemma, Calamity1971. I sowed quite a lot in my allotment 'meadow' but by the time it flowered last year, the grasses were lodging everywhere and once they were bashed down (by rampaging sheepdog and summer rain) it all looked a bit of a mess.This year, I am going to try an early cut and hope it might work like a 'Chelsea Chop' and I get later, sturdier flowers...but it is all very experimental and chancy. I have sowed a shedload of various primulas, as a spring-flowering back-up (with extra bulbs).
Click to expand...
I did similar for a friend, the scabious retreated below borages etc. They've bounced back a bit this year. I've just found 3 packets of corn flowers and I think I may be a little late here in the north :(. Also a poppy mix. Bugger!
 
So I have a crazy number of plants to containerise - a lot of them I will pot up in stages and maybe they get planted at some point ..

In the old days I might have picked up ONE fuchsia or ONE lobelia in a 3 litre pot from a local shop.
I wonder what the mileage is in grouping several lobelias in one container ?

The mirabilises appear to be bonkers plants with colours all over the shop and mine aren't going to get as big as ones planted from tubers, so I will be stuffing all my seed-grown plants in two largeish planters.

Hopefully I'll be able to give a few plants away to neighbours ...

Since I will be awaiting deliveries from now on, today I will be in the front garden fettling planters from old floorboards for my insane house-eating climber project..







redthingstopotupsmaller.jpg
 
campanula said:
I have a scabious dilemma, Calamity1971. I sowed quite a lot in my allotment 'meadow' but by the time it flowered last year, the grasses were lodging everywhere and once they were bashed down (by rampaging sheepdog and summer rain) it all looked a bit of a mess.This year, I am going to try an early cut and hope it might work like a 'Chelsea Chop' and I get later, sturdier flowers...but it is all very experimental and chancy. I have sowed a shedload of various primulas, as a spring-flowering back-up (with extra bulbs).
Click to expand...
yellow rattle ?
 
I'm thinking about that £2 goji berry plant I saw yesterday. :D I could dig a patch out of my lawn for it, though it would mean a double depth border and maybe moving stuff around. Maybe I'd start it off in a pot..

Has anyone else grown one? Do the birds eat all the berries? Are the berries tasty?
 
Johnny Vodka said:
I'm thinking about that £2 goji berry plant I saw yesterday. :D I could dig a patch out of my lawn for it, though it would mean a double depth border and maybe moving stuff around. Maybe I'd start it off in a pot..

Has anyone else grown one? Do the birds eat all the berries? Are the berries tasty?
Click to expand...
chewy little tomatoes ...
No never had a fresh one ...
You can get enormous bags of dried ones from the Chinese supermarket.
I will probably eventually grow them because they're in the solanaceaeaeaea
 
Might be a pleasant thing for grazing ...
I'm growing Gardener's delight and pea shoots / peas / mangetout for that purpose ..
Actually goji might be a more interesting alternative to the potato vine that doesn't do much ...

1654072416197.png
and it's always fun to chomp on nightshades and wind up various people ...
 
This may be my answer for the lobelia cardinalis in any case.
Until I saw "live plants" on the packet I assumed they were the seeds I ordered :D
If all the plants I've ordered are this size, I may have to fire up an HPS to get them up to size in time ...


teenyplugs.jpg


nanoplugsplanted.jpg
 
gentlegreen - they is tiny plugs !

I went for 'decent' sized potted stuff this year ... having had some plug plants woefully treated in the delivery process in the past couple of years.

[bought some "mother n child" houseplants, which arrived bone dry & wrapped in newspaper. planted on at once, but took them at last 48hrs to start picking up, and one of the three didn't make it !]
 
I actually got my finger out and made some planters... they aren't Chippendale, but they'll be OK once there are lots of plants and maybe I'll think of something to cascade down...
I dindn't have any excuse really - old floorboards going spare, impact driver, modern screws and a chop saw.
And I dodged every nail !
I may run more timber across the front.
I will line them with polythene to be slightly kind to them - but they only need to last 2 or at the most 3 years.
70 litre capacity, but I may well fill the bottom third with bricks - maybe it depends on whether Tesco have replenished their compost shelf by tomorrow morning ...
Everything along that wall will be getting drip irrigation on a timer all being well ...

These are to plant sweet peas, cobea scandens and morning glory in.

planters.jpg
 
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StoneRoad said:
gentlegreen - they is tiny plugs !

I went for 'decent' sized potted stuff this year ... having had some plug plants woefully treated in the delivery process in the past couple of years.

[bought some "mother n child" houseplants, which arrived bone dry & wrapped in newspaper. planted on at once, but took them at last 48hrs to start picking up, and one of the three didn't make it !]
Click to expand...
Until about 5 years ago we had this lovely, anomalous department store a mile and a half down the cycle path with a garden centre full of tried and tested things that work well locally.
Most years I would go in there for decent plants in 3 litre pots...
They trimmed the place down and the garden centre is now a car hire place...
 
bimble said:
I think there are a hundred plants all referred to as ‘moonflowers’ but mine (and I think gentlegreen ’s as well) are Impomea Alba. Nothing but the lovely heart shaped leaves so far but will keep you posted. 🙂
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I just learned it's a "short day" plant - so would have its flowering delayed by any significant amount of light that extends day length beyond 12 hours ...
So there are implications there for growing it indoors...

en.wikipedia.org

Ipomoea alba - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org

Cultivation​

The species is widely cultivated as an ornamental plant for its flowers. In areas too cold for winter survival, it can be grown as an annual plant. Since it is of tropical origin, it flowers best under a summer short day photoperiod. Though it can be successfully flowered in the north, its flowering is impaired by excessively long summer days. Thus, it often does not set buds and bloom until early autumn when daylight length is once again near 12 hours. Propagation is usually by seed. The seed resembles a small, brownish nut, and should be nicked with a file and then soaked overnight before planting. In some areas, it is an invasive species which can cause problems in agricultural settings.
 
iona said:
Just dug out the max/min thermometer from behind a load of pots in my garden (where it was hanging about a foot off the ground & in full shade) - lowest it recorded all winter was 0.8°C!
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Yep, I kept ALL my geraniums. :)
Bristol did dip below freezing though ... there was one day when there was a bit of crunchy stuff on the north-facing slope in the park.

1654100156903.png
 
Slightly longer gaps between the rain showers today, and even some slight signs of sunshine, compared to yesterday.
But still remarkably cold & damp for the first day of June.

Various things have been arriving, so, hopefully tomorrow will be dry / warm enough to deploy said items ...
 
:eek: :eek:

So much for sending beans up my sunflowers ...
I'm now fearing what might happen to my squashes and I need a new home for my French beans ...

Not many people know about the dark side of sunflowers (Helianthus annuus). However, the beautiful bright blooms do hide a nasty secret: sunflowers are allelopathic, that is, they give off toxins (terpenes and various phenolic compounds) from all their parts (roots, leaves, stems, flowers, seeds, etc.) that impede the growth of other plants or even kill them. This is a protective system for the plant: they kill their neighbors, but not their own seedlings, so this gives the plant, an annual that only reproduces by seeds, a head start, making sure it can come back the following year without too much competition.

laidbackgardener.blog

When Sunflowers Kill!

Not many people know about the dark side of sunflowers (Helianthus annuus). However, the beautiful bright blooms do hide aContinue Reading
laidbackgardener.blog laidbackgardener.blog
 
contadino said:
The traditional three sisters are corn, zucca and climbing beans, not sunflowers.
Click to expand...
I know, but I wanted to grow sunflowers as a political thing - and because they're pretty ...
I would grow corn if it made naked multicoloured cobs .... I am after all a giant grass person - bamboo, miscanthus, pampas ...
At least my sqaush roots will be a reasonable distance away, but I've planted two smaller ones in my front garden ...
 
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