"JoeSpareBedroom" wrote in message
...

As Brian said, they are late bloomers, and growers will sometimes
manipulate their light to make them look more saleable in the stores. You
didn't mention where you live, but here in upstate NY (zone 5/6, depending
on luck), they bloom in early September, and if dead flowers are removed,
they'll continue up until frost. Be patient, and give them some thick
mulch (straw, shredded bark) in the fall. They don't always survive the
frost. Here, they are more successful if planted near the house, where the
foundation warms up earlier than the rest of the yard.

Hi Joe,

We're in the UK, south-west. If this year is anything like last year, we
won't get the first frost until late October, (although who knows what's
going to happen with the current weather conditions), so maybe there is
still time for them to flower.
I can't remember what happened to them last year, whether we left them out
or put them in the garage. I seem to have this image of them still being on
the windowsills when we got the first snow in February. I think they either
rotted or got cut down to the stumps, but then started re-growing in early
March.

Ben