Q: I bought a couple of plants this year, thinking they must have been sown last year so would flower but no. They are still in pots so should I plant out? I take it they must be hardy if a Biennial but they look like a slug’s banquet to me.
Mine were struggling in pots last year so I had to plant them out after a few months. I cut off a section of a big plastic coke bottle (or use a shallow plastic tray) and wrapped some copper tape around it, then place it around the young plant. Seems to have fended off the slugs here.
I sowed some more hollyhock seeds this year and set up the same defence. So far so good. Though even the one I left without the protection hasn't been attacked by slugs yet. Could be due to the dry weather we are having recently.
This is a house in our little town called - Hollyhocks! The previous owner of the house cut them all down as he didn't like them, but the new owner has allowed them to flourish.
Planted en masse like that, they are particularly stunning!
The self seeded ones we pot on to share suffer far more from slugs (and being pulled out by crazed blackbirds looking for worms) than the ones that get left. I think they are better in the ground as they develop a tap root and grow stronger (which does help with slugs as well).
I love Hollyhocks but rust is a problem unless you treat them as biennials . About twenty years ago I sowed a packet of seeds of the fig-leaved hollyhock (ficifolia I think) which has pale single flowers in lemon or white. It seeds everywhere and is very tough. Rust does not appear until the plants are two or three years old and this variety seems generally to be more resistant than others. Because I always have so many newer plants I just yank out the ones with rust, and the seedings choose to grow in some fairly inhospitable spots where they are very cheerful.
@Jenny_Aster You know we're going to need photos once they get going!
Foxgloves, I may have stretched the truth here , though they may flower yet (fingers crossed )
What a buzz to discover a foxglove has flowered this year after all. It was a poor specimen, almost completely covered in aphids and totally flagging in the heat. It was well deserving of a jet blast to get rid of the aphids and pep it up a bit.
Also delighted to discover one of the hollyhocks is a double!
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I sowed some more hollyhock seeds this year and set up the same defence. So far so good. Though even the one I left without the protection hasn't been attacked by slugs yet. Could be due to the dry weather we are having recently.
Also delighted to discover one of the hollyhocks is a double!
Cambridgeshire/Norfolk border.