Sorry, nutcutlet, not sure why that posted again. Certainly wasn't of my doing!
Mike, thank you for your comment. Yes, I've heard of hydrangeas changing colour. We used to throw a bucket of rusty water on ours and see them go blue. And of course those atrocious dyed chrysanthemums, they always seem to want to dye them neon colours!
Landgirl, Hester, on some of the plants they are fully out, though not as tall or large as the "right" coloured flowers, mostly they are still buds though.
Hester, it is quite miserable seeing plants neglected on supermarket shelves, I agree, especially when all they need is a drink and they're right as rain. They sell them at a reduced price all because they don't water them. It did make them very easy to bring home though. I could stack the pots on top of one another without risking breaking any leaves or flowers!
Here are some photos so you can see what I mean. The pink fringed one, in the lower right, was the only one that looked fine when I bought it, and you can just see that there are some buds that do have a pink tint to their edges, albeit paler than the older flowers, but there are also some buds that are coming through white as well.
I have some deep purple primroses that seem to get a bit paler through the season - I've noticed that in early spring (about now in fact) the leaves of these deep purple primroses are also deep purple, almost black in fact, but the leaves get greener after the flowers come out.
I've sort of assumed in a naive sort of way that the plant starts the season with lots of whatever it is that makes the colour, and it sort of gets used up?
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Dove, those primroses sound amazing! I've never heard of them having purple leaves. Would be great to see a photo. I also have the same sort of thought about colours fading, though I thought it was more an effect of the sun bleaching them lighter, like it does with coloured paper.
Landgirl, nutcutlet, that is a good thought, as there are the odd little leaf in between some of the flowers. There are still flowers of two different colours coming from close together in each plant though. The top right one has some other smaller yellow-orange buds coming out at the back behind the middle leaf under the red flowers, so I dunno. It's hard to tell when the plants are this size and jostling for space, whether it is one plant or more. The top left one's white flowers are almost certainly from the same plant as the purple flowers though, as they're all coming up through the middle.
I find that with lots of plants Hollie Roses with deep red flowers usually have dark green leaves, and those with paler blooms have paler leaves, and at our last home the neighbour had a long thick forsythia hedge and we would watch the twigs turn yellow at this time of year, some time before the flower buds fattened up and opened.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
An interesting thing to do would be to take them out of their pots and tease them out into individual pieces and repot or replant and then see what happens colour wise. They are tough as old boots and would benefit. They look v crowded anyway.
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I didn't know vulgaris used to be acaulis landgirl.
In the sticks near Peterborough
Sorry, nutcutlet, not sure why that posted again. Certainly wasn't of my doing!
Mike, thank you for your comment. Yes, I've heard of hydrangeas changing colour. We used to throw a bucket of rusty water on ours and see them go blue. And of course those atrocious dyed chrysanthemums, they always seem to want to dye them neon colours!
Landgirl, Hester, on some of the plants they are fully out, though not as tall or large as the "right" coloured flowers, mostly they are still buds though.
Hester, it is quite miserable seeing plants neglected on supermarket shelves, I agree, especially when all they need is a drink and they're right as rain. They sell them at a reduced price all because they don't water them. It did make them very easy to bring home though. I could stack the pots on top of one another without risking breaking any leaves or flowers!
Here are some photos so you can see what I mean. The pink fringed one, in the lower right, was the only one that looked fine when I bought it, and you can just see that there are some buds that do have a pink tint to their edges, albeit paler than the older flowers, but there are also some buds that are coming through white as well.
I have some deep purple primroses that seem to get a bit paler through the season - I've noticed that in early spring (about now in fact) the leaves of these deep purple primroses are also deep purple, almost black in fact, but the leaves get greener after the flowers come out.
I've sort of assumed in a naive sort of way that the plant starts the season with lots of whatever it is that makes the colour, and it sort of gets used up?
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
I think there may be more than one plant in some of the pots - the top right one looks as if there are two rosettes.
Mixed packet of seeds not pricked out to single plants?
In the sticks near Peterborough
Dove, those primroses sound amazing! I've never heard of them having purple leaves. Would be great to see a photo. I also have the same sort of thought about colours fading, though I thought it was more an effect of the sun bleaching them lighter, like it does with coloured paper.
Landgirl, nutcutlet, that is a good thought, as there are the odd little leaf in between some of the flowers. There are still flowers of two different colours coming from close together in each plant though. The top right one has some other smaller yellow-orange buds coming out at the back behind the middle leaf under the red flowers, so I dunno. It's hard to tell when the plants are this size and jostling for space, whether it is one plant or more. The top left one's white flowers are almost certainly from the same plant as the purple flowers though, as they're all coming up through the middle.
Ah, plants, you do confuse me!
I find that with lots of plants Hollie
Roses with deep red flowers usually have dark green leaves, and those with paler blooms have paler leaves, and at our last home the neighbour had a long thick forsythia hedge and we would watch the twigs turn yellow at this time of year, some time before the flower buds fattened up and opened.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
An interesting thing to do would be to take them out of their pots and tease them out into individual pieces and repot or replant and then see what happens colour wise. They are tough as old boots and would benefit. They look v crowded anyway.
Hester, I shall attempt that this weekend (if the weather calms a little and I can get out to my pots/borders) and see how they respond.
I shall try and remember to return to this thread in time if there is anything to report.