Foxgloves

You're info is correct Greyduster; they seed everywhere. Unknowingly the little darlin's Verbena (seeds) slipped through my fingers when dead heading. Two months later we had 30-80 plants 3-8" high. Butterflies love them.

Two years ago I had 12 Verbena boniensis left over, so dug them into a Daphne bed only 8" apart. We were rewarded by their graceful, arching branches and the cream and mauve gladiolas I naughtily squeezed between the verbenas. The verbena has made the Daphne has put a spurt on.

I started gardening properly when retired. So my DBH designed and built a potting shed-cum-green house. Two sides are shed the other two sides are covered with polytunnel plastic. He also designed and made benches that can collapse and hung up. This will be the shed's first winter. The plastic part also has a "storm cover" when we're deluged with rain and westerlies.

Good luck Greyduster.

Actually, I had never even thought about verbena until this year, when DD said she was going to order some for her garden from a rather expensive plant catalogue. I saw some in a garden centre for a fraction of the price and asked her if she'd like me to get some, to which she said yes. I should have known better. Successive attempts to get her to take these b****y plants home met with various excuses, so I ended up "looking after them" and eventually planting them in my own garden. They've given me a lot of pleasure, and she ain't having them back!

Verbena Bonariensis have been my plant of the moment, this summer. I always wanted them after seeing a drift in a friend's garden. She gave me some seedlings, but they didn't survive a wet spring. This year, at an open garden the owner sold me a pot of many seedlings, which I brought on.

They look lovely growing through tall grasses.

x

This year I bought three verbena bonariensis which have flowered very well. A friend told me last week that they self seed all over the place, so that's not good news as I have limited space in my flower bed. I've never had a white foxglove, only pink ones, and I wish I could grow lupins, but every attempt I've ever made has ended in failure . It annoys me no end when I see them growing wild on every piece of waste ground!

PS. Cannas should be taken into the potting shed/ greenhouse before the first frost.

LuckyDucky my DH has been growing cannas for several years in pots. He doesn't recommended lifting them from the pots. He just takes the pots into the greenhouse and let's them die back naturally. As long as they are in a frost free environment they should be fine as they are. Do cover them if the weather is extremely cold. His flower every year without problems. That being said, my DH can grow anything. He plans on planting an avocado stone to see if it will grow!!

Cannas anyone?

For the first time( this year), we bought 5 Durban and 3 Australian cannas. I've looked extensively online and haven't found a site which advises gardeners when to lift/take them into the potting shed. All 8
are in pots.

I know I have to tip them out, put the compost on one side, then hose
off the compost in order I can see if the rhizomes are healthy.

My other dilemma is What sort of compost should the rhizomes should be placed in over winter?

I do know we don't de-head cannas, as new flowers grow up and through the remnants of the old ones.

Foxgloves:

About three years ago I bought a creamy orchid x foxglove. It was beautiful. The bottom lip, or whatever it's called, had a different shape. I sewed the seeds in March the following year.

By June, some plants had white flowers, others had mauve. One plant had white orchid-shaped blooms which turned mauve, from the bottom to the top.

We'll segregate our foxgloves next year, hoping white ones stay white in the front garden, whilst the mauve ones will be relegated to the back garden. Some mauve foxgloves grew to 6-7 feet high.

So it's white foxglove year. I planted feverfew many moons ago as I was told it was good for migraine and DH had dreadful migraines. It grows randomly. This is also the first year I've ever had lily of the valley in flower before the first of May. I get a bit melancholic when I see rosebay willow herb in flower as to me that spells the end of summer.

Oh yes. Borage!! More than enough for my Pimms tomorrow to help cheer Andy Murray along.

We also have lots of feverfew which I pull out because I can't stand the smell.

I've got white foxgloves too for the first time ever. I think I may have planted some seeds seven or eight years ago, but they never came up - then.

So much stuff in our garden is self seeded and the colours completely random. This year my snap dragons are mostly yellow and pink, last year they were deep red and pink. Love it!

WE love foxgloves, spread the seed along the back of our boarders, so why do they come up at the front?. We have had several white ones this year, have never introduced any whites in the past.

I have self-seeded single and oriental poppies, borage, foxgloves and unidentified, yet-to-flowers miscellaneous plants where the bird seed has fallen.
The borders look very tatty in places so will be doing a late'Chelsea chop' to tidy up and hopefully get a second flush of flowers.
Everything seems to have grown much higher than usual too, oriental poppies nearly 6' tall

We've had some lovely results from self seeders this year. Field poppies have sprung up outside the greenhouse, foxgloves spreading outside their territory and Nigella seeds must have been scattered when we let the chickens free range in the orchard last autumn...Who needs a rake?

The only downside to this hot dry weather is my borders are already looking like we're heading towards the end of August.

I think letting this go to seed, or alternatively collecting the seeds then doing sue judicious scattering of the seeds is the way to go. I have some beautiful yellow poppies this year, which I didn't plant. Isn't gardening a joy

They seem to be a bit like poppies. I can grow the lovely yellow Welsh sort, but have repeatedly failed to grow the red and pink ones with the silvery leaves, despite broadcasting millions of seeds.
Until...... This year when four plants have appeared, all red and frilly.
I'm going to let them go to seed and hope for more next year.

x

I usually sprinkle the seeds from foxgloves around the area they've grown in - this year I've several beautiful white ones along with the pink. Maybe as others have said, the conditions have been favourable. I love foxgloves - love the way they simply appear, or not, seemingly at will.

I've got a white one this year too. It must be favourable conditions for them.

Strangely, this is the first year I have had white fix gloves, as well.
I know the seeds can remain dormant in the soil for years. Do you think the weather pattern has encouraged the white variety to grow?

x