Wallflowers
 

Tradition has it that we plant them in October, then pull them up in spring
(whenever that is!) to make way for bedding plants.
But there is one wallflower that looked so good one year that we left it - I
think about 3 years ago.
It is now my favourite plant to grace the patio, and getting better every
year
ftp://www.ldwilmer.pwp.blueyonder.co...wallflower.JPG

Is tradition all wrong? Care suggestions?

Lol

Wallflowers
 

"Lol" wrote in message
...
Tradition has it that we plant them in October, then pull them up in
spring (whenever that is!) to make way for bedding plants.
But there is one wallflower that looked so good one year that we left it -
I think about 3 years ago.
It is now my favourite plant to grace the patio, and getting better every
year
ftp://www.ldwilmer.pwp.blueyonder.co...wallflower.JPG

Is tradition all wrong? Care suggestions?

Lol
Sorry, got the link wrong:
http://www.ldwilmer.pwp.blueyonder.c...wallflower.JPG

Wallflowers
 

"Lol" wrote in message
...
Tradition has it that we plant them in October, then pull them up in
spring (whenever that is!) to make way for bedding plants.
But there is one wallflower that looked so good one year that we left it -
I think about 3 years ago.
It is now my favourite plant to grace the patio, and getting better every
year
ftp://www.ldwilmer.pwp.blueyonder.co...wallflower.JPG

Is tradition all wrong? Care suggestions?

Lol

I have two wallflower plants that must be 7 years old now and they look (and
smell) brilliant.

Tina

Wallflowers
 

Lol wrote:
It is now my favourite plant to grace the patio, and getting better every
year
ftp://www.ldwilmer.pwp.blueyonder.co...wallflower.JPG

I think you meant
http://www.ldwilmer.pwp.blueyonder.c...wallflower.JPG

It's very nice.

Is tradition all wrong? Care suggestions?

I left some in last year, and they are flowering away now, but they are
looking a bit on the leggy side now.

They're perennial. But they can go straggly, they're not particularly exciting when not in flower, and they're cheap and easy to raise - hence the normal practice of growing them as annuals.

But no reason at all why you can't keep them going (especially if you have the odd one or two rather than a whole bed of them - you can see why you'd want to heave them out if you had a bed of a couple of hundred plants), especially if you trim back straggly growth after flowering.

Wallflowers
 

On 12/05/2010 16:15, Lol wrote:
wrote in message
...
Tradition has it that we plant them in October, then pull them up in
spring (whenever that is!) to make way for bedding plants.
But there is one wallflower that looked so good one year that we left it -
I think about 3 years ago.
It is now my favourite plant to grace the patio, and getting better every
year
ftp://www.ldwilmer.pwp.blueyonder.co...wallflower.JPG

Is tradition all wrong? Care suggestions?

Lol
Sorry, got the link wrong:
http://www.ldwilmer.pwp.blueyonder.c...wallflower.JPG



That's gorgeous! If I were you, I'd be trying to get cuttings (seeds
may not come true) and see how they develop. If they make good plants,
you could sell them, or the rights to them. How long is the flowering
season? That is a lovely colour; not one I've seen yet in the perennial
wallflowers (Erysimum).

--
Spider
from high ground in SE London
gardening on clay

Wallflowers
 

"Spider" wrote in message
...
On 12/05/2010 16:15, Lol wrote:
wrote in message
...
Tradition has it that we plant them in October, then pull them up in
spring (whenever that is!) to make way for bedding plants.
But there is one wallflower that looked so good one year that we left
it -
I think about 3 years ago.
It is now my favourite plant to grace the patio, and getting better
every
year
ftp://www.ldwilmer.pwp.blueyonder.co...wallflower.JPG

Is tradition all wrong? Care suggestions?

Lol
Sorry, got the link wrong:
http://www.ldwilmer.pwp.blueyonder.c...wallflower.JPG



That's gorgeous! If I were you, I'd be trying to get cuttings (seeds may
not come true) and see how they develop. If they make good plants, you
could sell them, or the rights to them. How long is the flowering season?
That is a lovely colour; not one I've seen yet in the perennial
wallflowers (Erysimum).

--
Spider
from high ground in SE London
gardening on clay

Selling the rights to plants?

Novel idea that, but I think that if even if I were the one who designed
and created plants, and owned the rights, I wouldn't need money!
True?
I'm just pleased to be able to enjoy them.

Lol

Wallflowers
 

Lol wrote:
"Spider" wrote in message
...
On 12/05/2010 16:15, Lol wrote:
wrote in message
...
Tradition has it that we plant them in October, then pull them up
in spring (whenever that is!) to make way for bedding plants.
But there is one wallflower that looked so good one year that we
left it -
I think about 3 years ago.
It is now my favourite plant to grace the patio, and getting better
every
year
ftp://www.ldwilmer.pwp.blueyonder.co...wallflower.JPG

Is tradition all wrong? Care suggestions?

Lol
Sorry, got the link wrong:
http://www.ldwilmer.pwp.blueyonder.c...wallflower.JPG



That's gorgeous! If I were you, I'd be trying to get cuttings
(seeds may not come true) and see how they develop. If they make
good plants, you could sell them, or the rights to them. How long
is the flowering season? That is a lovely colour; not one I've seen
yet in the perennial wallflowers (Erysimum).

--
Spider
from high ground in SE London
gardening on clay

Selling the rights to plants?

Novel idea that, but I think that if even if I were the one who
designed and created plants, and owned the rights, I wouldn't need
money! True?
I'm just pleased to be able to enjoy them.

Unlikely to be profitable for anybody outside the trade, anyhow...and I
think Sacha will testify that it involves quite a bit of hassle per
penny even for a professional.

But I think all wallflowers are perennials: it's just that their habits
make it easier to treat them as biennials for most garden purposes. I
took one from the ruined walls of Reading Abbey, and it grew on, quietly
neglected, for a few years in West Wales till age and other plants
overtook it. If you don't feed yours, and dead-head rather severely
after flowering, it should go on pleasing you; it's lovely now, but I
think it will get too straggly, and cross the vague boundary between
informal and scruffy. But you can take cuttings of side shoots in, I
don't know, probably July. I've never done it with wallflowers, but one
of my books says "heel cuttings": if you haven't got a book, nice people
in this newsgroup will fill in the details.

--
Mike.