Hi OL, well, you can faff about repotting and protecting from frost, slugs, vine weevils, making sure you don't forget to water or they'll be dead completely, pinching out and cutting off flowers, don't forget feeding, OR you can get them in the ground and ejoy their beautiful flowers and leaves. It's up to you of course.
Thank you also folks. With the verbascum, I actually have too many of them really, so I am going to do an experiment (a la Beechgrove!) If I put them all in pots, I would run out of pots, so some have already gone in the nursery bed, but I will keep some back and pot on and keep cool by the gazebo, or in the shade of the raised beds. I will cut off the flowers if they come, and next year I will be able to see which ones have done best!!.
Yes, I know what you mean, I am a trained Horticulturalist and have been gardening for over forty years. Some people get snippets of advice here and there and it is right in context but not always the broader picture. A bit like a blind man describing an elephant from behind. Sometimes it's good advice if you're a professional grower or growing for show but a bit over the top if you're growing for your own pleasure. Many things will work in Horticulture and what's best really depends on what conditions you have, which is why when I give advice I try to give a rounded view. I now only work in an advisory role. Make up your own mind what you want to do. Keeping them in pots could well give bigger plants in the end but that all depends how much work you want to put in and the comparable conditions in the ground. As I said at first if you have room to put them in the ground then they will fair better with less fuss, and cutting off the flowers is really only going to make a small difference as long as you don't let them seed and even them I'd challenge you to see the difference.
As for pinching them out, they're herbaceous plants not shrubs, what a plant needs is to grow a big root system. For that it needs to get light so really pinching them out isn't going to aid that. Unless your plants are very highly messed about by breeders then I would let the plant do what mother nature 'designed' it to do. There's no 100% right answer or wrong answer though, and cutting them back could well be the best thing if they're leggy from too little light which they will be if you hide them away to stop you having to water them three times a day when it's hot.
This is turning into a very interesting thread. Lots of food for thought. I have a lot of stuff to move about and re-work next summer, now that I have made a bit more border space. It is thought provoking to hear everyone's opinions.
At this time of year I'm pushing to get as much in the ground as possible. The ground's still moist and they settle in well. If they're still in pots come summer you're forever watering. And you have to water them much more to get them established once they are out.
… I have experimented with the Chelsea chop before it became fashionable,
Fashion has nothing to do with it. It's a technique that has been used, well before there was a Chelsea, to make plants flower on shorter stems rather than having to be staked. Perhaps people talk about the 'Chelsea chop' because of mentions on GW, GQT and in the papers but I can assure you it's an age old technique not a fashion.; and nothing to do with the other separate technique of 'pinching out' used to make plants branch.
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Hi OL, well, you can faff about repotting and protecting from frost, slugs, vine weevils, making sure you don't forget to water or they'll be dead completely, pinching out and cutting off flowers, don't forget feeding, OR you can get them in the ground and ejoy their beautiful flowers and leaves. It's up to you of course.
Thank you also folks. With the verbascum, I actually have too many of them really, so I am going to do an experiment (a la Beechgrove!) If I put them all in pots, I would run out of pots, so some have already gone in the nursery bed, but I will keep some back and pot on and keep cool by the gazebo, or in the shade of the raised beds. I will cut off the flowers if they come, and next year I will be able to see which ones have done best!!.
Well, it's not really easy when you are new to all this and getting conflicting advice - I might just do half and half and see what happens
Yes, I know what you mean, I am a trained Horticulturalist and have been gardening for over forty years. Some people get snippets of advice here and there and it is right in context but not always the broader picture. A bit like a blind man describing an elephant from behind. Sometimes it's good advice if you're a professional grower or growing for show but a bit over the top if you're growing for your own pleasure. Many things will work in Horticulture and what's best really depends on what conditions you have, which is why when I give advice I try to give a rounded view. I now only work in an advisory role. Make up your own mind what you want to do. Keeping them in pots could well give bigger plants in the end but that all depends how much work you want to put in and the comparable conditions in the ground. As I said at first if you have room to put them in the ground then they will fair better with less fuss, and cutting off the flowers is really only going to make a small difference as long as you don't let them seed and even them I'd challenge you to see the difference.
As for pinching them out, they're herbaceous plants not shrubs, what a plant needs is to grow a big root system. For that it needs to get light so really pinching them out isn't going to aid that. Unless your plants are very highly messed about by breeders then I would let the plant do what mother nature 'designed' it to do. There's no 100% right answer or wrong answer though, and cutting them back could well be the best thing if they're leggy from too little light which they will be if you hide them away to stop you having to water them three times a day when it's hot.
This is turning into a very interesting thread. Lots of food for thought. I have a lot of stuff to move about and re-work next summer, now that I have made a bit more border space. It is thought provoking to hear everyone's opinions.
At this time of year I'm pushing to get as much in the ground as possible. The ground's still moist and they settle in well. If they're still in pots come summer you're forever watering. And you have to water them much more to get them established once they are out.
In the sticks near Peterborough
nut, that is a good point, about the watering.
I get bored with all that watering BB
In the sticks near Peterborough