my only plant (planted in July) flowered profusley until late August - it's in a raised bed with sun from midday 'til 4pm or so. There are larger plants like verbena and an acer overhanging it, so it stays quite moist in there too. My soil is heavy, with loads of clay. Do they survive a milder winter, does anyone know?
Never lost one in Winter and we have had some bad ones over the last 20 years or so. The only tenderish one I have is G capensis and I have seedlings of it so I am going to try that outside over winter next year.
Hi Denise Major, pelleted chicken manure easy to get hold of in garden centres and B&Q, Homebase etc about £7 for large tub whixk lasts for a couples of years though i am quite generous in the spring around everything!
I'm very much a novice, but I'll try to help, as my Geums (totally tangerine) came up great early in this their 2nd year.
I bought 2 of them as plants in (7") pots last year and planted them together. They did well in their first year with good amount of flowers. Like one of the previous posts, I pulled out the stalks from the base when they went brown.
At the end of summer, I cut them back to the newer, fresher leaves (about 18" high) and they stayed green all through winter.
This year, all I did was add some compost around the base in early spring with some feeding along the way (tomato feed later on). I had masses of flowers from early spring until mid summer.
However, I have had nothing late summer. So i have cut them back again now.
They are in a raised bed against a fence, West facing with full sun most of the day.
I've read that theythrive in clay soil and being in London ours is very heavy and reckon this is why they did so well (at least early on)
However, I reckon i wasn't brave enough to cut them back earlier to encourage a 2nd bloom and tried to eek out what I could when I saw a few buds left on longer stalks.
not sure ifbthis helps, but just a bit of personal experience from a complete novice.
I grew about 20 blazing sunset from seed but found they are relatively short lived in my garden (clay, emids) and most have now gone after about 5/6 years. Planted in a variety of aspects. While they were alive they all flowered wonderfully though and regular dead-heading was the key to that I think. I think I'll grow another batch next Spring as they are lovely plants even if they are short-lived for me.
A trowel in the hand is worth a thousand lost under a bush.
Posts
my only plant (planted in July) flowered profusley until late August - it's in a raised bed with sun from midday 'til 4pm or so. There are larger plants like verbena and an acer overhanging it, so it stays quite moist in there too. My soil is heavy, with loads of clay. Do they survive a milder winter, does anyone know?
Never lost one in Winter and we have had some bad ones over the last 20 years or so. The only tenderish one I have is G capensis and I have seedlings of it so I am going to try that outside over winter next year.
Hi Denise Major, pelleted chicken manure easy to get hold of in garden centres and B&Q, Homebase etc about £7 for large tub whixk lasts for a couples of years though i am quite generous in the spring around everything!
thanks Berghill - I guess i ought to just be happy it flowered as much as it did
I'm very much a novice, but I'll try to help, as my Geums (totally tangerine) came up great early in this their 2nd year.
I bought 2 of them as plants in (7") pots last year and planted them together. They did well in their first year with good amount of flowers. Like one of the previous posts, I pulled out the stalks from the base when they went brown.
At the end of summer, I cut them back to the newer, fresher leaves (about 18" high) and they stayed green all through winter.
This year, all I did was add some compost around the base in early spring with some feeding along the way (tomato feed later on). I had masses of flowers from early spring until mid summer.
However, I have had nothing late summer. So i have cut them back again now.
They are in a raised bed against a fence, West facing with full sun most of the day.
I've read that theythrive in clay soil and being in London ours is very heavy and reckon this is why they did so well (at least early on)
However, I reckon i wasn't brave enough to cut them back earlier to encourage a 2nd bloom and tried to eek out what I could when I saw a few buds left on longer stalks.
not sure ifbthis helps, but just a bit of personal experience from a complete novice.
I grew about 20 blazing sunset from seed but found they are relatively short lived in my garden (clay, emids) and most have now gone after about 5/6 years. Planted in a variety of aspects. While they were alive they all flowered wonderfully though and regular dead-heading was the key to that I think. I think I'll grow another batch next Spring as they are lovely plants even if they are short-lived for me.
I did deadhead along the way, but will be sure to cut back earlier. I may also experiment with dividing as per Verdun.
thanks