Forum home› Talkback
This Forum will close on Wednesday 27 March, 2024. Please refer to the announcement on the Discussions page for further detail.

Talkback: To chop or not to chop?

Gardeners' World Web UserGardeners' World Web User Posts: 17,147
in Talkback
Perenniels. Crocosmia - you mention "take the long walk". Do you mean leave through to the Spring, or "take the long walk" and chop?
«13

Posts

  • Gardeners' World Web UserGardeners' World Web User Posts: 17,147
    Thanks. I like the suggestion that my normal approach might be described as "slowly and steadily editing things out through the season"! I generally regard my efforts as the result of prioritising, with too little time(daylight?) & too much to do at any given moment.
  • Gardeners' World Web UserGardeners' World Web User Posts: 17,147
    Carter: I'm afraid that I mean 'long walk' in the context of immediate chop. Apologies for lack of clarity.
    Lainey: Appropriate that i should have mentioned it really as we had a fair bit of snow in Northamptonshire last night (it is still here) and a lot of my plants have gone flumpf!
  • Gardeners' World Web UserGardeners' World Web User Posts: 17,147
    James, many thanks. There are two lines of thought about Crocosmia. Some people say leave until autumn. I will take your advice, wish me luck.
    Carter.
  • Gardeners' World Web UserGardeners' World Web User Posts: 17,147
    James, sorry I used the word autumn in the third line of my message, should read Spring.
    Carter
  • Gardeners' World Web UserGardeners' World Web User Posts: 17,147
    Hi James, You seem a decent like a cove, o I'm sure you can answer what will seem to you to be a simple problem!. Can Nectaroscordums be planted in containers like other bulbs, and if so how.
    Thanks in anticipation of a full and comprehensive answers
  • Gardeners' World Web UserGardeners' World Web User Posts: 17,147
    The recent frost has done for my Dahlias-do I dig up the tubers or cut down the plants and cover with mulch?
  • Gardeners' World Web UserGardeners' World Web User Posts: 17,147
    Madame Gummidge, a pleasure to hear from you. Nectaroscordum can indeed be planted in pots but I would suggest that they would look better alongside something else- they look particularly fine with taller ornamental grasses (like Calmagrostis) - in a larger pot. They are better in the ground though.
    For those who do not know this bulb, Nectaroscordum siculum are particularly lovely, about 1.2m high with hanging bells that emerge from a papery shell. Quite like the people in the original 1956 version of Invasion of the Body Snatchers but without the froth. There is a picture here (http://www.flickr.com/photos/14662964@N08/2986383909/)
  • Gardeners' World Web UserGardeners' World Web User Posts: 17,147
    Fitzytoo: The snow has done for my Dahlias as well. The answer to your question depends very much on where you live. I live in Northamptonshire and leave Dahlias in the ground with impunity - although I dig up any that are in pots and just store them in a shed until about April when I pot them up. If you live in the South then they should be fine left in the ground with a good duvet of mulch.
  • Gardeners' World Web UserGardeners' World Web User Posts: 17,147
    My problem with dahlias is if I do not dig them up I forget where they are (as with my spring bulbs). Since I'm not too fond of labels, any other suggestions - getting 'old' is a terrible problem!!
  • Gardeners' World Web UserGardeners' World Web User Posts: 17,147
    Wonder if you could advise when I should harvest gourds, growing in my unheated greenhouse in W Yorkshire. Planted late, the biggest is only the size of a tennis ball, but I'm not sure if they will deteriorate as the weather gets colder, and I want to dry and varnish them. They keep producing flowers which I'm removing, and the leaves are beginning to get patches of mould, so I take off the worst of those. Haven't grown them before and don't know what to do next - they are mixed gourds.
Sign In or Register to comment.