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Plants growing but flowers dying instantly

kaynforbeskaynforbes Posts: 2
in Problem solving
Hello,

I am very new to gardening so please bear with me! At the start of May I planted a range of perennials in a bank which gets sun for a large portion of the day and I believe has a high clay content. The plants themselves appeared to be doing extremely well, with most quadrupling in size. The lupins, Jacob's ladders, and Centaurea montana all recently began flowering, however as soon as the flowers come out, within a day or so they had effectively died (wilted and gone crunchy). I was giving the plants with a good soaking every evening on days we didn't get any rain, but thought I was perhaps over-watering them. I haven't watered them for two days and the ground seems pretty dry to me now so was I not watering them enough? My biggest point of confusion is that the plants seem to be taking extremely well to their new surroundings with such vigorous growth (at least to my eyes!), but why are the flowers dying so quickly?!

Any help is greatly appreciated

Cheers,
Kayn

Posts

  • FireFire Posts: 19,096
    Hi Kayn, welcome to the forum. So, the plants seem fine but the flowers have wilted fast?  If you suddenly have had very strong sun on them it might cause the flowers to die off fast. Mine are certainly going over very fast. Also, if it has been very hot and sunny where you are and you watered water on the blooms, might it have caused them to keel? If the plants are in beds, I don't think you would be overwatering them.

    Perhaps posting some photos the plants and flowers might help us to determine a cause...
  • kaynforbeskaynforbes Posts: 2
    Hello Fire, many thanks for the warm welcome! Yes, that's exactly the weather I have had here in Norfolk (basically the same as yourself in London). Further, I just took the dog for a walk and I noticed some of the much more established lupins in some of the houses on the route are suffering from the exact same issue. I imagine then we are all suffering the same problem, and it isn't anything I am doing wrong per se. This makes sense as the plants themselves seem to be thriving.

    Interestingly (regarding watering the bloom) I thought that could be an issue and have since stopped allowing water to go on top of the flowers so hopefully this will be a useful thing to do anyway. 

    I have attached some photographs just in case you (or others) can add anything further. I assume I should just continue to water them daily when not raining and put this down to things out my control.

    Again, many thanks for the reply.

    Cheers,
    Kayn
  • FireFire Posts: 19,096
    We in London had a night frost warning on May 26th (two weeks ago) and today the day temps hit 28oC. It's quite a jump and quite a shock for some plants. Most of my blooming roses have fallen apart in the direct sun.
  • pjstaylorpjstaylor Posts: 4
    Hi Kayn  and Fire ,
    I live on Norfolk and Cambridgeshire border, my lupin flower stems also look poor and fade away extremely fast.my sea holly stems have grown too fast and are now really leggy and floppy..
    the sun feels so intense at the moment.
    let’s hope it settles down a bit!’
  • ChelseajaneChelseajane Posts: 17
    My newly planted weigela has lost all its flowers too. I think sometimes plants do this to save themselves. It has been in the strong sun as well. Hopefully it will recover.
  • BorderlineBorderline Posts: 4,700
    From the photos, your plants are young with no strong root system yet, and there is no other ground cover near it, so the soil is baked and then sodden because it is clay based. The condition of the soil does not have enough organic matter to help with holding moisture as well as keeping surface dry. The result is, on young plants, the growth will be stunted and flowering will happen fast and die back faster. 

    Also, without ground cover, the soil will dry out quickly and bake around your plants, causing them to dry out and suffer.

    With clay soil, in extreme heat, it cracks and then cause the soil to be un-workable and roots are vulnerable to drying out quickly and causing the plants to suffer/die. I think, the priority is to spend the time to add more organic matter on a dull day when the soil is damp. If you cannot dig into it, then lay a very generous layer on top. You should do this at least once a year to help get the soil back to life. 
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