Couple of mine are just starting to flower, one small one from last year is still tiny and my massive mystic illusion isn't going that well at all. It's normally about 4ft tall by now, it's maybe 1ft....have to wait and see what happens.
It looks like I've mixed up the labels of the handful of tubers that overwintered in the shed so I'm not sure which variety this is. It's enjoyed the long-awaited rainfall though.
I topped up my pots with alfalfa pellets in the spring and I wonder if this was a good idea. I did want height this year and certainly the plants are taller than previous years, and healthy; however this may be at the expense of blooms. I put FBB in the orignal mix and added a bit more about two/three months later but haven't been giving any weekly tom feed. Tom feed is probably the best bet if you are set up to give it.
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I suspect that Matilda wants a 30cm pot - more room to spread out. More peach/apriot than the photo shows - not pink.
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Bishop of Llan, taller than me, if you incl the pot. It does have a lot of buds, but doesn't seem as floriforous as previous year. Bees loving it. Offering here some pics of whole plants rather than just the blooms, to give a sense of the overall.
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Mexican Star. V good for bees and for the vase. Plants as tall as me. Quite a lot of plant for tiny flowers.
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Karma Choc. I Love the bloom. V strong smell of chocolate. But such an odd growth habit. It may need more sun than it's getting where it is and make sure to pinch out brutally next spring.
This is a slightly meagre haul, but I haven't been around much to give tlc.
Mexican Star (dark red, with a choc smell on the first days of opening),
Bishop of LL (mid red, with the strong sun)Â
and Aruna purple. I like the dark purple early blooms, but not keen on blooms going pink/fuchsia. I think I will give Aruna to someone in the garden group who loves purple dahlias.
Karma Choc, Matilda and Creme de Cognac taking their sweet time. The last two have as much full sun as I can offer but it's not speeding them along.
It turns out that the tuber sold to me by Sarah Raven as 'Cornel' earlier this year is actually 'Embassy' — happily I was refunded the princely sum of £3.95 by Sarah Raven when I sent pictures of the flowers
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These tiny unnamed ones are bringing me a lot of joy at the moment. They seemed to love that heatwaveÂ
Cambridgeshire/Norfolk border.