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Wallflowers care

yorkiethorntonyorkiethornton Posts: 100
in Plants
Hi. These perennial wallflowers have f so own well for the first time this year. Any advice on pruning/tidying, if any? If so where should they be cut to? Or just leave as is? Thank you. 😀

Posts

  • CeresCeres Posts: 2,698
    Can you tell us what variety this is? They look more like the type that is planted in autumn, flowers in spring, and then gets chucked on the compost heap (biennials). These can last for more than one season if they are cut back hard but they rarely do well.
  • Mrs-B3-Southampton,-HantsMrs-B3-Southampton,-Hants Posts: 732
    I wait until a stem has finished flowering then snip it off so it doesn't set seed.
    Southampton 
  • JacquimcmahonJacquimcmahon Posts: 1,039
    I have had my supposed biennials for 6 years now. They are once again stunning. I let them finish flowering, cut back most to just below the flower stem and cut any really “leggy” growth to almost ground level. At end of winter tidy up any dead stems and let them do their own thing again. Sometimes you get a second smaller flowering.

     To be honest I give pretty much everything a chance to come back on its own as I can’t afford to replace every year just because a book tells me it’s “normal”. You can be surprised by what nature decides on her own.
    Marne la vallée, basically just outside Paris 🇫🇷, but definitely Scottish at heart.
  • FairygirlFairygirl Posts: 55,117
    You can also gather seed from the 'non perennial' types - note the description ;) and sow for future years. There are various types of Erysimum. 
    Many of them will last for several years if conditions suit, as @Jacquimcmahon describes, and they'll also self seed.
    They don't look like the 'proper' perennials to me, but it's hard to tell unless you know what you planted/sowed @yorkiethornton, and I don't quite understand your first sentence. Sorry. 
    It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....



    I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
  • CeresCeres Posts: 2,698
    @Jacquimcmahon is lucky to be able to keep her wallflowers going for so long. In this part of the world where rape seed is grown, flea beetles can destroy a plant in a week so keeping biennial wallflowers over summer isn't really a good idea. The little blighters also destroy nasturtiums so I have had to give up growing those delightful plants.
  • JacquimcmahonJacquimcmahon Posts: 1,039
    Luckily I. Only got infested with flea beetles once a few years ago. I seem to have escaped them since. Black fly on the other hand wreck narstitiums here.
    Marne la vallée, basically just outside Paris 🇫🇷, but definitely Scottish at heart.
  • CeresCeres Posts: 2,698
    I'd forgotten the black fly problem. Nasturtiums are not as easy to grow as they ought to be.
  • FairygirlFairygirl Posts: 55,117
    I've never had a problem with black aphids on nasturtiums - I presume that's what you mean by black fly? 
    Maybe the birds get them before I notice though.  :)
    It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....



    I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
  • B3B3 Posts: 27,505
    I've dumped my wallflowers. Snail magnets. In their defence, I would say that it saved me from looking elsewhere for them.
    In London. Keen but lazy.
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