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Growing wildflowers

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  • Thanx Jim,

    point taken, & another thing these Boston seeds I was given they do not say if they are Perennial, which I would prefer instead of plant every year. 

    So I wonder what should I do end of summer or next year, do I moan them down or what happens?       ......nick 

  • nutcutletnutcutlet Posts: 27,441

    Don't mow before they set seed Nick. Borage, corncockle and yellow rattle are annuals and seed well. I can't remember what else you've got in there



    In the sticks near Peterborough
  • landgirl100landgirl100 Posts: 655

    Nick, you made me giggle - I love the idea of moaning at the weeds to get them down!

  • nutcutletnutcutlet Posts: 27,441

    I can tell you Nick, moaning doesn't work on stinging nettles, hogweed or bindweedimage



    In the sticks near Peterborough
  • Fishy65Fishy65 Posts: 2,276

    Oh if only moaning at them did work,my garden would be weed free.

    Nick - I've got one Corn Cockle out here that I've had to stake,its gone berserk and in danger of growing itself to death.Its produced so many flower heads that some have wilted as new ones develop.

    On the subject of Corn Poppies,I bought a pack of seeds and sowed them but I think my garden is too shady because they germinated but seem to have died.

  • Thanx all, and stop moaning, its my keyboard's fault.

    Is very helpful to hear what happens to others as I have never seen or noticed before all these plants that must be around in hedges.

    I just dug out the thick grass from a third 4x5m patch. & if it keeps cool & wet I may sow some more seeds.

    The second patch I did 5-10 days ago shows hundreds of tiny leaves already.

    Having little else to do I get anxious about all these things so I better leave it to nature that does it best.         .........nick

  • Jim MacdJim Macd Posts: 750

     

    image I type malaprops and Freudian slips too, and if someone is talking near me I'll type what they're saying. image I'm easily distracted.

     

    Most annuals won't come again unless you dig over the soil. Corn poppies in particular would not grow without the ground being cleared first. In their native range that's done by summer drought. Annuals are hard work but beautiful and I have only got a couple of poppies this year where I've dug over for one reason or another. I did tried over seeding with a top dressing after cutting the grass as short as possible, though it appeared to be working the grass came through too quickly and swamped out the seedlings. Ground is cleared naturally by poaching by animals, horse, dear, wild bore

     

  • Fishy65Fishy65 Posts: 2,276

    You're right Nick,nature does do it best and if seeds/seedlings don't survive then nature is trying to tell us something I believe.I too get emotionally involved with plants but try not to if I can,they only break your heart image

  • Jim MacdJim Macd Posts: 750
    nick nicolas wrote (see)

    Having little else to do I get anxious about all these things so I better leave it to nature that does it best.         .........nick

    You might need to keep an eye on the watering Nick, however I'm sure it will be fine but a little image tongue in cheek, if you leave it to nature you'll have oak woodland. There's nothing natural about a meadow. Anyway, watch to make sure it doesn't dry out and it will be fine, it's not so late. 

  • Jim MacdJim Macd Posts: 750
    nick nicolas wrote (see)

    Thanx Jim,

    point taken, & another thing these Boston seeds I was given they do not say if they are Perennial, which I would prefer instead of plant every year. 

    So I wonder what should I do end of summer or next year, do I moan them down or what happens?       ......nick 

    for checking if something is annual or perennial pfaf is a good place to look, followed by wiki of course, the trouble with wiki is every page is formatted slightly differently so finding the right bit of info quickly isn't so easy. I have pfaf store as a search engine. 

    For example

     http://www.pfaf.org/user/Plant.aspx?LatinName=Cardamine+pratensis

    By the way, a lot of seed suppliers only give very general advice, if any on how to sow your seed so I check with pfaf first to find out if the seed needs special treatment. Again, another example of why you can't always leave it to nature. image sorry, take Thrift, Ameria maritima, a lovely plant, and fairly common on the coast. I've always had some so never bothered trying to grow it from seed until I moved here and wanting a clean slate wanted to collect local seed. It didn't grow. I checked on pfaf, and after soaking the seeds got hundreds come up. Saves you wasting seed. I just did the same thing with hounds tongue. Sowed it without thinking. Realised what I'd done after watering in the seeds. I soaked the next batch and they all came up in just over  a week. First lot still not come up. 

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