One of my favourites but the ones I have planted here have been annihilated by aphids or possibly failed to thrive for other cultural reasons. I'd really like to get some purple ones for next year though. Any advice?
If you want them to flower next year you'll need to buy them.
If you start them early from seed and pot on, by summer they should be in 2L pots and produce a small spike or two. As soon as you can tell the colour, label the pot and snip the flower off so the plant bulks up better. Leave them in the pots or pot on again if needed and plant them out the following Spring for the slugs to eat That's what I done, and out of 11 plants only 2 hadn't been decimated by slugs or aphids by early summer🙄 They rarely survive for more than a season or two in my garden at best.
Billericay - Essex
Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit. Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.
Sigh, the only pests worse than the aphids here are the slugs.
Thanks, Pete- I'll rethink. The larger plants are a big pricey for such an unlikely shot at success. I have started perhaps 50 seedlings here in various years, and all got demolished before flowering.
I received some bare-rooted lupins in winter a few years back as an unwanted freebie thrown in with a different order I had placed with J Parkers. I wasn't too bothered about them so I planted them in a tricky spot under a tall eucalyptus (full sun, but very dry because of the thirsty tree). They have thrived, and in this, their 3rd growing season, they were bigger and better than ever.
The freebie was labelled "noble maiden mixed" but, happily, they all came up purple.
I don't do anything other than cut them back as they start to fade (which is by midsummer). I have penstemon that grow up through them and quickly cover the unsightly gap.
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If you start them early from seed and pot on, by summer they should be in 2L pots and produce a small spike or two. As soon as you can tell the colour, label the pot and snip the flower off so the plant bulks up better.
Leave them in the pots or pot on again if needed and plant them out the following Spring for the slugs to eat
That's what I done, and out of 11 plants only 2 hadn't been decimated by slugs or aphids by early summer🙄
They rarely survive for more than a season or two in my garden at best.
Billericay - Essex
Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit.
Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.
Thanks, Pete- I'll rethink. The larger plants are a big pricey for such an unlikely shot at success. I have started perhaps 50 seedlings here in various years, and all got demolished before flowering.
The freebie was labelled "noble maiden mixed" but, happily, they all came up purple.
I don't do anything other than cut them back as they start to fade (which is by midsummer). I have penstemon that grow up through them and quickly cover the unsightly gap.