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Why is my cockscomb dieing?

LeighbozeateLeighbozeate Posts: 1
edited May 2019 in Problem solving
Hello, 

I am looking for some advice. I'm a complete novice gardener and don't know anything about anything so excuse my ignorance.

I bought some cockscomb plants on Saturday and planted them in my raised flower beds on Sunday. I watered them Sunday and Tuesday. On Tuesday I included some fertiliser (Envii Seafeed Xtra - Organic Liquid Seaweed Fertiliser) at concentration of 15ml per 5l (recommended concentration for flower beds on the bottle).

I thought they were looking slightly worse for wear on Tuesday which is why I used fertiliser. Now, on Wednesday, they look droopy and half-dead.

I already bought some flowery plants a couple of weeks ago (sorry, don't know what they were called) . The flowers started to wilt literally 24 hours after I bought them and they were dead within a week.

Any ideas what I am doing wrong to these plants? I have Googled and read that cockscomb like well-drained soil and should be watered regularly. So I don't know if I am under-watering them or, to be honest, my soil while it has all-purpose compost on the top, if you dig a bit it's quite thick and clumpy, possibly clay? Although not red/light brown in colour. So possibly not the best soil. But would this be killing them so quickly?

Any help appreciated.

Photo :

Posts

  • ObelixxObelixx Posts: 30,090
    I suspect that you've over-watered them but they may also have had a chill if it's been cold your way.   They'll have gone from a warm, sheltered environment where they were grown then onto display shelves indoors and then you've put them straight outside with no hardening off period.   That will shock a delicate flower.

    Have a look at this cultivation info - same plant just different flower colour.

    https://www.rhs.org.uk/Plants/295078/i-Celosia-argentea-i-var-i-cristata-i-(Plumosa-Group)-Glow-Red/Details 
    Vendée - 20kms from Atlantic coast.
    "The price good men (and women) pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men (and women)."
    Plato
  • LynLyn Posts: 23,190
    We’ve only ever grown these as houseplants. 
    Gardening on the wild, windy west side of Dartmoor. 

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