Disappointments....
Loxley
Posts: 5,698
Anything new you've tried this year / recently that's made you feel slightly disappointed?
1. Thalictrum 'Elin'. Great foliage especially earlier in the season. But the flowers are not that attractive, and are way up above my head on the slightly lanky looking stems. The T. delavayi plants I grew from seed are looking much better tbh.
2. Salvia 'Caradonna'. This has looked amazing for a good month or two, so I shouldn't complain, but the second set of blooms seem much smaller and sparser. The flowers don't look that brilliant when the lower 3/4 of the inflorescence have gone over, but I'm loathe to snip them off while there's still some colour there. I was hoping it was going to look fantastic until early autumn. Still a good plant but not the long lasting border star I had hoped. Geranium 'Rozanne' keeps that crown.
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I was also a bit disappointed with S.Caradonna. I bought some S.Mainacht this year and they've been flowering for a couple of months. Having removed the dead spires of the 1st flush there are plenty more on the way and I think overall it's a better plant.
As far as disappointments go, I had 2 packs of mixed cosmos (Gazebo and Sonata) and planted out over 40 - they're all red except 2 pink ones!
Billericay - Essex
Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit.
Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.
@y that grows?
I was very dissapointed with Tithonia seeds, I grow thousands of seeds every year, would these grow for me, would they hell, they all germinated, got to the pricking out stage, then to the potting on stage, then one after the other died.
Maybe they don't like being potted on, i don't know, never have seed growing disasters.
WillDB - I've had Thalictrum Elin for a few years but I'm also more attracted by the foliage than the flowers, simply because as you say the flowers are so high that you have to be careful where you place it in order for it to fit in nicely with other plants around it. But - the foliage is so very attractive that it needs room to be seen - and I have to admit, I've always love it best after the rain because the raindrops (which seem to beautifully gather around the edges of the leaves) make it absolutely stunning. This spring, I uprooted mine and planted it in a very large tub. This has resulted in limiting it's height so the flowers are at my eye level now. I've also moved it in front of where I have three ugly tall plastic bins which house bird seed and mealworms and some tools - and the foliage very nicely hides where you can see the bins. I love the plant because of the after-rain effect which makes it really stand out and noticeable - and now that the flowers are at my height, I appreciate them more because I can see the detail in their smallness.
WillDB and Pete 8: I also bought some Salvia 'Caradonna' this year and I imagined they were going to clump fairly quickly and be real stunners - but they seem to have gone off the boil very quickly. In my case though, it may be because of where I've placed them and that 'Scottish' summers (not much summer more rain) don't suit them that well. I'm hoping they will perk up or bush a bit by end of summer and if not I'll move them for next year and see what happens.
My biggest disappointment has been the number of plants bought in a very reputable place at quite inflated prices which look really healthy at the point of buying - and then I get them home and discover they are so badly pot-bound. It's not the kind of place where I've felt confident to remove them from the pot in the shop to check them - which is what all author gardeners suggest you do. It's my favourite plant place but I've found that the last couple of years they seem to be buying in some plants rather than growing themselves. I never have the confidence to take any plants back or suggest a discount or replacement, which I suppose I ought to, but because of it's horticultural reputation and because it's my only nearby option now, I'm a wimp and just don't want any confrontation or bad feeling.
Last edited: 03 July 2017 00:52:11
My sweet peas were supposed to be mixed colours..........mainly white, very disappointed
Treated myself to a white Meconopsis after seeing Beechgrove, cost me a tenner,plus a tenner postage, only supplier I could find was in Scotland, planted it exactly where it said conditions were right, bed is covered in bark chippings, following day it has been scoffed I assume by slugs, what waste of twenty quid!
Oh no Nanny Beach, that is awful, I have to admit I put a few pellets around everything new I plant.
Nanny Beach
I would check to see if the parts of the stems under the soll remain OK it always worth trying. Never give up on a plant before the certified death certificate is delivered .
Put it in it a pot out of the way of slugs and see what happens.
I have just exhumed a Hydrangea White frills which was chomped to the ground. It looked a gonner but there were green shoots under the soil. I have dug it up and potted it and kept it away from slugs and I am hoping. Growing on pots can help.
That is dreadful There are certain plants that can disappear over night .
'You must have some bread with it me duck!'
Iamweedy.............good point. I bought 2 delphiniums last year, they died within the first week. Huge surprise this year when one of them grew big and tall, so maybe all is not lost.
Righto Iamweedy will try that, when I plant new stuff normally I know if they are really attractive to slugs and plan accordingly I planted 3 really pretty chrysanths from Sarah Raven in my cutting bit and slug pelletts, unfortunately dont remember ever reading that slugs adorded them and as I said the bed is covered in fierce bark chippings, I recon the devils made a bridge!