[Help] Gardeners Question Time.

[WATFORD zero]

I am pleased that my wife planted a small area in front of the verandah. It has brought a fair number of butterflies which seem to like the planting. Over the last week I have seen Red Admiral, Green Veined White, Meadow Brown, Woodland Brown, Peacock and a Comma.

If you love butterflies (and moths!) and want to understand their needs and help their conservation, then please take part in the Big Butterfly Count.
https://bigbutterflycount.butterfly-conservation.org/

I've had a Peacock, couple of Speckled wood and a couple of Cabbage Whites in the garden this morning

And one or two of these


That's what I'm getting daily in each trap. Battle has commenced

 

[Green Cross Code Man]

I've had a Peacock, couple of Speckled wood and a couple of Cabbage Whites in the garden this morning

And one or two of these
View attachment 149844

That's what I'm getting daily in each trap. Battle has commenced

It is truly remarkable how many of those moths you have! I've only seen a couple here.

 

[WATFORD zero]

It is truly remarkable how many of those moths you have! I've only seen a couple here.

It's really simple. Just spend 10 years taking cuttings, growing them on, planting, cultivating and trimming 20M of box hedging and you can have a collection just like mine

 

[Green Cross Code Man]

It's really simple. Just spend 10 years taking cuttings, growing them on, planting, cultivating and trimming 20M of box hedging and you can have a collection just like mine

Hmm. Puts it into perspective. I lost 3 lovely standard box that I had taken cuttings with my children when they were young almost 20 years ago. Not as much work and care as 20m, but sentimentally irreplaceable. That is why I have only seen a few around I guess.

 

[Green Cross Code Man]

Anyone know what this is? I thought it was a spider but it almost looks crustacean. I can't find anything on Google unfortuntely. It's about 1cm long.

 

[1066familyman]

Anyone know what this is? I thought it was a spider but it almost looks crustacean. I can't find anything on Google unfortuntely. It's about 1cm long.

Harvestman?

 

[1066familyman]

On further searching, yes, I'm pretty sure it's a Harvestman. Opiliones order. Over 6,000 different species apparently.

Note the two eyes instead of eight.

 

[Green Cross Code Man]

On further searching, yes, I'm pretty sure it's a Harvestman. Opiliones order. Over 6,000 different species apparently.

Note the two eyes instead of eight.

Thanks, I think you're right!

 

[FamilyGuy]

So earlier this year I bought 3 dozen various Foxglove plug plants, each of which (tbh I've lost 2) has grown nicely and now been potted on into 3 inch pots and developing nicely in my shed-cum-greenhouse.

I guess I need to move them outside for a couple of months (to adopt and harden off a bit) before planting them out? Once this heatwave passes?

Am I right in my assumptions?

 

[vegster]

So earlier this year I bought 3 dozen various Foxglove plug plants, each of which (tbh I've lost 2) has grown nicely and now been potted on into 3 inch pots and developing nicely in my shed-cum-greenhouse.

I guess I need to move them outside for a couple of months (to adopt and harden off a bit) before planting them out? Once this heatwave passes?

Am I right in my assumptions?

You should be able to stick virtually anything outside by the end of May, bung it in but it might not flower or get very big. Lots of plants have a kind of locked in growth period linked to daylight length, meaning that they store energy up for flowering at the optimum time for the flowers to get pollinated and set seed before autumn. Sow/plant too late and they just go with what energy they have stored even if they are small.

 

[Jack Straw]

So earlier this year I bought 3 dozen various Foxglove plug plants, each of which (tbh I've lost 2) has grown nicely and now been potted on into 3 inch pots and developing nicely in my shed-cum-greenhouse.

I guess I need to move them outside for a couple of months (to adopt and harden off a bit) before planting them out? Once this heatwave passes?

Am I right in my assumptions?

Do you know if they're the perennial ones, or the more familar biennials?
Either way, the last place they want to be with all this heat is in a greenhouse. Put them outside preferably where they'll get a bit of sun in the morning, and light shade in the afternoon.
I would plant them in their positions early autumn. If they're perennials, the should last a few years. If they're the biennial ones, they'll flower next late spring/early summer, set seed and snuff it.
We wait until ours set seed, and just waft the seeding stalk all over the garden for the following year's display.
Biennial plants take two seasons from seed to flower. This is two growing seasons, not two years, so seed sown now will flower in just under a year, but takes in the growing seasons of 2022 and 2023.

 

[Weststander]

Taking shape, the perennials are generally heading towards their peak.



I love the Monarda Gardenview Scarlet. I shouldn’t be able to grow them on 2” of leached chalky soil. But being a new project, I dug out a 12” trench of chalk, filling it with bought topsoil and manure.

 

[Wardy's twin]

So earlier this year I bought 3 dozen various Foxglove plug plants, each of which (tbh I've lost 2) has grown nicely and now been potted on into 3 inch pots and developing nicely in my shed-cum-greenhouse.

I guess I need to move them outside for a couple of months (to adopt and harden off a bit) before planting them out? Once this heatwave passes?

Am I right in my assumptions?

that's a lot of fox gloves. I love them..

 

[Wardy's twin]

Do you know if they're the perennial ones, or the more familar biennials?
Either way, the last place they want to be with all this heat is in a greenhouse. Put them outside preferably where they'll get a bit of sun in the morning, and light shade in the afternoon.
I would plant them in their positions early autumn. If they're perennials, the should last a few years. If they're the biennial ones, they'll flower next late spring/early summer, set seed and snuff it.
We wait until ours set seed, and just waft the seeding stalk all over the garden for the following year's display.
Biennial plants take two seasons from seed to flower. This is two growing seasons, not two years, so seed sown now will flower in just under a year, but takes in the growing seasons of 2022 and 2023.

i didn't know you got two types , is there a way you can tell them apart other than wait for them to com back or not in third year?

 

[Wardy's twin]

I grew some different alliums this year and they seem to attract the bees more than anything else I have in the garden (buddlia(?) , geraniums, lavender, rudebeckia etc) .

 

[Jack Straw]

i didn't know you got two types , is there a way you can tell them apart other than wait for them to com back or not in third year?

The leaves of the perennial varieties tend to be a little smaller than the biennial ones, and more glossy and the same size. The flower stalks tend not to be quite as tall too. The flowers tend to have lots of unusual colours on them, rather than straight mauve, pink or white with a few dark speckles.
If the bottom leaves are quite big, soft and a little furry, they will be the biennial ones, the ones we're all more familiar with.

 

[FamilyGuy]

Thanks, that's very helpful.

They're native biennials and i'm trying to establish a colony in the shadier back areas of my garden. I've removed some of the denser (silver birch) shade, and reduced the beech hedge, and have had some success earlier this year already - also with Teasels. My enquiry was mainly due to the extreme current weather conditions which are creating havoc with gardening norms.

I've ordered some cheap racking (due on Friday) to get them out of their current heavily shaded glazed environment, and into a half-way house (by the house on the patio) before August planting out.

Thanks again.

 

[Wardy's twin]

thanks.. I will look this up and see if i can get some seeds hopefully they are as easy to grow as the biennials.

 

[FamilyGuy]

About 20 plus years ago I bought a gardening magazine that had 12 Allium bulbs attached to the front cover.

I now have thousands of Alliums that come up every years for me to dig up and dispose of - and apart from the sackfull of dug-up bulbs that are currently awaiting transportation to the dump (no lie) I know that there are still thousands more bulbs hidden and waiting to come up all over my garden next year, and so the wheel turns.

They're in the lawn, in the raised beds, entwined in the hedges, around the pond, in the patio, inextricably mixed in with and strangling other bulbs, they've even reached the front garden and my neighbours gardens. The bees do love them, I hate them with a passion.

 

[FamilyGuy]

thanks.. I will look this up and see if i can get some seeds hopefully they are as easy to grow as the biennials.

I got my plugs from hayloft-plants.co.uk