Season for flowers

wicorthered

Hi. I'm hoping someone can give me an 'idiots guide to different bedding flowers'


Basically I'm looking for info on Primroses, pansies, violas and sweet Williams.


Before Xmas I planted primroses in a couple of window boxes and a mixture of sweet william, violas and pansies in a couple of hanging baskets.



I'm wondering do I clean these flowers out of their baskets now and replace them with the likes of lobelias and bizzy lizzys or can I leave them for the summer?


The Sweet williams, pansies and violas still look great and I'd be loath to rip them up at the minute, but if their going to be gone by June anyway I'd like to get a move on replacing them.


The primroses never did much and started to look pretty unhealthy, I transplanted them to a rockery and they now are starting to look better. But again should these be pulled up and replaced with summer flowers? Is there any benefit of leaving them in place.



I would love a garden full of colours in the summer so if these plants won't flower I might replace them

looksee

Firstly, its too early to be thinking about bedding - give it another three to four weeks. I generally ignore the first tranch of bedding plants that come available, they are always too early and will almost certainly have to be replaced.

The primroses were no doubt the ones with the huge flowers that are very colourful on sale but at the first breeze or drop of rain they turn into silage. If you remove the top layer of dead flowers (and in my case, mould - yes, I fell for them in spite of knowing better) they will do ok but with smaller, sturdier flowers. You can leave them in the garden to come again.

I am a little puzzled by the sweet william - they are reasonably hardy but would not normally be in flower until late spring into summer. Are they coming into flower?

Violas and pansies are theoretically perennial but in fact are much better treated as winter annuals, the violas have a better chance of continuing on.

Having said all that, I would wait until towards the end of May then clear out the baskets and plant with annuals.

rolion

wicorthered wrote: »

Hi. I'm hoping someone can give me an 'idiots guide to different bedding flowers'


Basically I'm looking for info on Primroses, pansies, violas and sweet Williams.


Before Xmas I planted primroses in a couple of window boxes and a mixture of sweet william, violas and pansies in a couple of hanging baskets.


I would love a garden full of colours in the summer so if these plants won't flower I might replace them

Hello,

Let me wish you my best toughts but i cannot stand to those that are afraid to say "Christmas" and they use the more commercial "xmas" .. sorry,no offence !

Good luck in your adventure...

looksee

Now there's a completely and totally pointless, patronising and unneeded post. And its thoughts, sorry, no offence.

And by the way, Xmas is using the Greek symbol for the first letter of Christ, it is not 'commercial', quite the reverse.

delly

rolion wrote: »

Hello,

Let me wish you my best toughts but i cannot stand to those that are afraid to say "Christmas" and they use the more commercial "xmas" .. sorry,no offence !

Good luck in your adventure...

Unhelpful, please do not post in this thread again.

wicorthered

looksee wrote: »

Firstly, its too early to be thinking about bedding - give it another three to four weeks. I generally ignore the first tranch of bedding plants that come available, they are always too early and will almost certainly have to be replaced.

The primroses were no doubt the ones with the huge flowers that are very colourful on sale but at the first breeze or drop of rain they turn into silage. If you remove the top layer of dead flowers (and in my case, mould - yes, I fell for them in spite of knowing better) they will do ok but with smaller, sturdier flowers. You can leave them in the garden to come again.

I am a little puzzled by the sweet william - they are reasonably hardy but would not normally be in flower until late spring into summer. Are they coming into flower?

Violas and pansies are theoretically perennial but in fact are much better treated as winter annuals, the violas have a better chance of continuing on.

Having said all that, I would wait until towards the end of May then clear out the baskets and plant with annuals.

The sweet William have been in what my untrained eye would call full flower for about a month.

That's all great advice. I thought the mouldy primrose leaves was just me. Are they unsuitable for window boxes. I had them in my previous apartment to and they ever did much but get mouldy!

I'll replace the violas and pansies, would you replace the sweet williams to?

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

wicorthered wrote: »

The sweet William have been in what my untrained eye would call full flower for about a month.

That's all great advice. I thought the mouldy primrose leaves was just me. Are they unsuitable for window boxes. I had them in my previous apartment to and they ever did much but get mouldy!

I'll replace the violas and pansies, would you replace the sweet williams to?

Let the sweet William seed themselves and you'll have them for many more years.

looksee

Hanging baskets and window boxes in my opinion are only ever temporary. If nothing else the compost gets exhausted, but also being alternately over wet and dried out is stressful on the plants, the roots have limited space (not a problem for everything, but in general) and the compost alternately gets too cold or too warm. So give them a season in the baskets then either get rid of them or put in the garden.

The primroses are fine in a box or basket for a while, a season, but then lift them into the garden or they will just gradually deteriorate. If you buy primroses that are more like the natural ones (from a garden centre) and put them in the garden they can be very rewarding.

Most of the stuff you get from supermarkets and those huge shelves of trays of plants from hardware shop 'garden centres' are grown to be taken off the shelf, not to be the most successful in your garden. Sure, I buy them, but I don't expect to get more than a season out of them.

If the sweet williams look happy then leave them to get on with it. Maybe when they have finished flowering you could lift them soil and all into a bed and as Srameen says, let them seed. Snapdragons work well on that basis too, and candytuft.

wicorthered

Cheers for all the advice. Only getting into gardening now and I'm really enjoying it. Great to get tips on how to do it right.