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Are slugs eating my violas?

*Astrantia**Astrantia* Posts: 307
in Problem solving
I planted some pretty red & gold violas a few weeks ago & now they look like this! No flowers! I did dead head them as the flowers finished but now there’s no new buds & they look a bit chewed??? 
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  • PosyPosy Posts: 3,601
    Probably. Woodlice eat the flowers, too.
  • FairygirlFairygirl Posts: 55,117
    Yes - they're slug magnets unfortunately.
    It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....



    I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
  • PerkiPerki Posts: 2,527
    They don't normally go for my viola / pansy's but yours have black spot, it is weakening the plant which makes them even more prone to attack . They call them winter pansy/ viola but really they are spring ones that's when they really get going,  they always look a tad sad at this time of year. 
  • B3B3 Posts: 27,505
    They're certainly eating mine
    In London. Keen but lazy.
  • FireFire Posts: 19,096
    Mine are getting chomped, yes.
  • *Astrantia**Astrantia* Posts: 307
    ☹️ Shame as they did look pretty! I just wanted a bit of colour this time of year. I do live in slug city so not surprised, I noticed the black spots when I took the photo. Oh well they can stay where they are maybe they'll survive, If they don’t drown in the meantime with the constant rain!
  • FairygirlFairygirl Posts: 55,117
    They're better if you pot them up. Easier to keep an eye on them, and you can minimise the access a bit more too. It's far too wet here to put them in the ground anywhere.

    I have a shelf on the fence near my kitchen window, and that's the only place I grow them, if I bother at all. I keep various things on it from sempervivums to dianthus to heucheras. Some spring bulbs too. 
    Slugs will still climb, but it's easier to manage   :)
    It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....



    I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
  • *Astrantia**Astrantia* Posts: 307
    edited January 2022
    I’ve put some different ones on a shelf by my front door so far they are ok, blue and from a farm shop not the garden centre.

    They were on an outside shelf in the full weather where I bought them from but the garden centre ones, although outside, were under cover so I wonder if they were still really too tender to plant out?

    The farm shop ones were cheaper too! 
  • FairygirlFairygirl Posts: 55,117
    Certainly - some will have been grown in more protected conditions, so they need a little acclimatising, but pansies and violas are hardy, so it's only if they've been cossetted that you need to take a little care with them for a few days before planting them out at this time of year.  :)
    Many of the ones in GCs will have been grown undercover right from the start.
    It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....



    I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
  • UffUff Posts: 3,199
    They are eating or should say eaten my Blue Owl seedlings that are in the greenhouse too. Grrrr
    SW SCOTLAND but born in Derbyshire
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