Autumn is here, any tips what i should be doing?

[wendya]

Just wondering do i need to use Grow more fertilizer this month before i start to plant bulbs for spring? I have seen lots of lovely bulbs i want to order but not sure if I should use this before planting them.

Are there other things i need to do, do things need to be cut back or not until spring.
Just a bit confused and would like advise please.

[wendya]

The last Grow more pellets I used was in July.

[Ladygardener]

Sept 19, 2014 10:49:53 GMT wendya said:

Just wondering do i need to use Grow more fertilizer this month before i start to plant bulbs for spring? I have seen lots of lovely bulbs i want to order but not sure if I should use this before planting them.

Are there other things i need to do, do things need to be cut back or not until spring.
Just a bit confused and would like advise please.

wendya can you let us know exactly what plants you have growing and then we can advise on what could be cut back and what can be left.

[Rosefriend]

Sept 19, 2014 10:49:53 GMT wendya said:

Just wondering do i need to use Grow more fertilizer this month before i start to plant bulbs for spring? I have seen lots of lovely bulbs i want to order but not sure if I should use this before planting them.

Are there other things i need to do, do things need to be cut back or not until spring.
Just a bit confused and would like advise please.

You are going to have to remind us again wendya, but I personally wouldn't add anymore fertilizer until Spring and add some bulbs soon...you can feed them in the Spring to help them for the following year as well...

What have you got your eye on??

Rf

[wendya]

Dahlias some are looking a bit scraggy, Verbena buonasariesis (in flower still) but not sure if i cut back later on? the roses i will leave. I think i have snap dragons lots of them, do they come back next year, do i just leave to die back on their own?
I have my eye on cyclamens which i love, sugar rush wall flowers that flower autumn and spring maybe a bit late now? daffodils, tulips and never seen these Fritillaria meleagris and early crocus

[Rosefriend]

Sept 20, 2014 10:33:04 GMT wendya said:

Dahlias some are looking a bit scraggy, Verbena buonasariesis (in flower still) but not sure if i cut back later on? the roses i will leave. I think i have snap dragons lots of them, do they come back next year, do i just leave to die back on their own?
I have my eye on cyclamens which i love, sugar rush wall flowers that flower autumn and spring maybe a bit late now? daffodils, tulips and never seen these Fritillaria meleagris and early crocus

OK - mmmh in the Uk it is different from me, so I am hoping that someone checks out what I am about to say Ladygardener, Tig..

Dahlias leave a while and cut back - as you are in London you should be able to leave them in over winter. Verbena - again - cut back and leave them in - have they seeded?, if so - sprinkle around.

Roses - I think I explained that here...

gardenworld.proboards.com/post/520104/thread

Cyclamen - gorgeous aren't they - I have no luck with them - go for it though.. Wallflowers - oh yes - should flower autumn and spring...daffs will do well, tulips and Fritillaria meleagris can be drama queens...early crocus will look lovely!!

Looking forward to seeing what you choose...

RF

[Tig]

Have you been deadheading your dahlias wendya? They should keep flowering until the first frosts, I wait until the foliage blackens before I take any top growth off mine and mulch them with a bit of compost. You may not get any frosts though, but wait a while with the dahlias as the green growth will still be feeding the tubers for next years performance. If there were any that didn't perform as well as you'd hope you could dig them out and ditch them to make space for your autumn plantings. It is too late to sow wallflowers but fine to plant out bareroot plants or potted specimens. I would always put the bulbs in first though, and try to get the tulips and daffs at least 4" deep to the top of the bulb, 6" if possible. Crocus & fritillaria meleagris don't need to be as deep but the squirrels are less likely to dig them up if they are 4" down. I have planted some bulbs and the dratted squirrels have already unearthed and eaten some of them!
Your snap dragons will probably flower again next year, again remove any seedheads and tidy them up over winter. They tend to be prone to leaf spot if it gets too wet, so keep an eye out for that and remove any affected leaves or the spores will get in the soil of your containers.

[Ladygardener]

wendya,Ladygardener,Rosefriend,Tig, I think it's all been said already wendya, lots of good advice there. I would say 'tho that you could add some of your growmore fertiliser where you're going to plant your bulbs, you could mix it with the planting soil and then it would be done. Don't forget to water in. I've never had any luck with Fritillia but you might do better, if so, be on the look out for the red lily beetle which loves them and will eat them on you.

[wendya]

Thanks you all. 4" it will be then for any bulbs as i have loads of squirrels running around down stairs, constantly jumping around in my planters, so thanks for the tip. Maybe i wont go for the Fritilla if they attract red lilly beetles

Thanks Lady gardener that is a good idea, maybe just where i plant bulbs will add a little grow more into the compost.
I will order soon guys, its great having you all to ask these questions too.

Oh yes one more thing i have a big hosta on my balcony, looking rather sad now, should this get any fertilizer or not, i found it drowned totally full of water, who ever owned had thrown out in a pot last year I took it and dried it out, its been beautiful all summer, so wonder if i need to do anything other than cut off a few leaves?

[wendya]

cyclamen plants, wallflowers and bulbs, tulips, crocus and small daffs now ordered, Fritillaria out of stock so wont bother about them. I cant wait, do hope the wallflowers may flower, I didn't know you could get ones that flowered Autumn and spring. I am going to plant the tulips near the wallflowers so hopefully they will hide the leaves when they die down.

[Tig]

Well done, the planters will be a riot of colour of scent next spring

Your hosta will be starting to die back soon, they go dormant over winter (well all mine do). I won't feed them until next spring when they start to show new growth.

[Jasmine]

The only thing with crocus and tulips are that mice may eat the bulbs. I don't want to rain on your parade as I love spring bulbs more than any other plants going but they are often best planted with bits of chicken wire over the area that you have planted them in. I lost all the tulips I planted last year except in my tallest planters (plastic and smooth) and the only crocus I grow successfully are in grass. Daffodils and snowdrops seem to be ok as the bulbs contain something poisonous so they do well in my wild life riddled garden!

[wendya]

oh no there is a family of mice living behind the planters im sure field mice as very tiny leaping into the air rather cute but if they eat my bulbs they will be getting a smack on the bum but did have a few tulips in there last year and muscari that seemed to be ok, maybe i will have to feed the mice so they wont eat them

But thanks for letting me know Jasmine x

[wendya]

I have another question guys, this honey suckle has now turned into berries and all leaves gone, question is when does it get cut back? or maybe i should leave, its about 5 years old and don't think has ever been cut back

[wendya]

Tig, Rosefriend, Ladygardener,

[Rosefriend]

Sept 27, 2014 11:54:44 GMT wendya said:

I have another question guys, this honey suckle has now turned into berries and all leaves gone, question is when does it get cut back? or maybe i should leave, its about 5 years old and don't think has ever been cut back

Sorry wendya, I thought I had answered this...also hoping that Ladygardener, and Tig do correct me if I am wrong - I had a honeysuckle many moons ago but if I remember rightly they flower on 1yr old wood - that means that if you prune it back now it won't flower much next year. The best time to prune is after flowering so that it can grow back and it will then grow bushier and flower on those stems..

If the honeysuckle is a real oldie and an eyesore then I would do a radial prune and that is now - but - that means, as I have said, you will lose flowers though.

Cut the berries off though - that has no effect and only saps strength..

I hope someone else will post Wendya..hold back until they do..

RF

[Tig]

I agree with RF - best pruned straight after flowering. Although I do give mine a light tidy up in spring to get it into the shape I want. I also cut off any long runners that are growing where I don't want them. I have been round lopping bits off several of them this past week, most of mine are quite mature specimens though.

[Ladygardener]

Sorry wendya, I'm no expert as regards Honeysuckle although I do have one and it has flowered for me this year, it's flowering at the moment. I agree with Rosefriend, Tig, most things are better pruned after flowering. I've got some berries on an older bit of the plant too but I'm leaving them for the birds. I'd see how it goes after flowering in springtime, This is a good site wendya, www.gardenseeker.com/pruning/pruning_honeysuckle-lonicera.htm

[Auricula]

We had to prune ours right back to the ground in spring ( before flowering) to mend the trellis. It soon bulked up and still flowered this year, just not as prolifically and later

[wendya]

This one is about 5 years old i think, but never been trimmed, it didn't flower until July/August and has just got berries on in last 2 weeks, it doesn't look bad or anything just wondered really.

Now my new honey suckle i bought early this year has actually flowered 3 times, ? I know nothing about them really.

[Tig]

Once mine start they just keep flowering until it gets cold.

[wendya]

Bad news last week i had a vandal, that i must add i caught in the act, how i didn't strangle him i don't know about 10 years of age, little, well i wont say, but lucky for him i had the dog and not two hands free or he may well have been dead.
He was stood there battering my Lahyanis coronaria, which was still in bloom and looking great also a hebe got chopped to bits with sticks that were supporting them, I was utterly disgusted and told him after swinging the sticks around his head if i saw him again i would slit his throat why would a kid do this, he was very lucky as i was like a bull seeing red. He also uprooted all my cosmos which were also still lovely anyway i have got over it now, and really I suppose they would have died down, but to be attacked was not good.


Do you know i took a pic of snowdrops in a park yesterday, are you finding any of these early displays, my blue bells have also come up but not flowered.

[Rosefriend]

Nov 3, 2014 9:42:53 GMT wendya said:

Bad news last week i had a vandal, that i must add i caught in the act, how i didn't strangle him i don't know about 10 years of age, little, well i wont say, but lucky for him i had the dog and not two hands free or he may well have been dead.
He was stood there battering my Lahyanis coronaria, which was still in bloom and looking great also a hebe got chopped to bits with sticks that were supporting them, I was utterly disgusted and told him after swinging the sticks around his head if i saw him again i would slit his throat why would a kid do this, he was very lucky as i was like a bull seeing red. He also uprooted all my cosmos which were also still lovely anyway i have got over it now, and really I suppose they would have died down, but to be attacked was not good.


Do you know i took a pic of snowdrops in a park yesterday, are you finding any of these early displays, my blue bells have also come up but not flowered.

Oh what a pity he didn't grab something with thorns on it - invisible ones, - you know they suddenly poke out...don't suppose he said why he massacred everything, did he?? Hope he doesn't come back!!

Btw - do you really mean Lahyanis coronaria because as I googled it I found sites for Viagra - hahahaha??

RF

[Tig]

I assumed wendya meant lychnis coronaria, sometimes commonly referred to as rose campion (but my Mum would have muttered disapprovingly that it was nothing like a red campion, ie silene dioica)

Little brat, probably just wanted to spoil someone elses day - which he did! I am surprised that the troughs haven't been vandalised before, as you mentioned that kids were climbing onto the adjacent roof and your planting had stopped them. Thought they might have had a go at the plants in revenge!

Loads of plants are confused this year, but my bluebells & snowdrops haven't appeared yet!

[Ladygardener]

What a little brat he is indeed. I'd threaten him and anyone else who goes near them with getting in touch with their school/teacher as well wendya . That might help deterr him from coming back, take a picture of him too.

Are your Dahlia still in bloom I wonder and did you get your bulbs planted?

[wendya]

Thanks Guys, my dahlias are now looking scraggy, but will just leave die back Ladygardener and yes i planted all my bulbs, none have been dig up so im very happy.

Haha Tig they haven't caught on its me with the grease on the bike lockers.

Trouble is here in middle of london no one knows anyone, they barely speak so we don't know who the kid is or where he came from, but i did lecture him and he said he knew it was wrong, i may well have hit him round the head if he had said anything else, as was like a wild bull but think i did scare him, whilst this was happening a neighbour even was stood there, i gave him a lecture too, disgraceful that he just watched him and didn't say a thing, bloody wimp he was a man in his 20s, wouldn't mind im in my 50s but maybe the dog was more worrying than me, little did he know she would lick him to death.

Apologies for miss spelling oh no how embarrassing

[Tig]

we all get spellings confuddled from time to time that is why quite often you will see a (?sp) in a post when we can't quite remember the name of something.
I think it's good you gave the brat what for, how else do they learn? That is one of the problems with parents these days, they let their kids get away with so much, often setting a bad example themselves. But if you say anything half the time you get nothing but verbal abuse from them, although I can be quite scary when I'm fired up on all cylinders .

[wendya]

Just been tidying the planters, and i was rather shocked to find blue bells had already grown (just leaves but have in the graveyard nearby too.) and there are some type of bulbs coming up already, oh dear is that not good?

I am wondering about Hellebore's would it be good to purchase now as i am sure the seeds i planted have not worked, just though i may buy a few, but no idea what type, all i know is i don't like the lime green ones, Negro Christmas one seems nice, but would it be ok in a planter?
All my cyclamens are in full colour along with the winter wallflowers

Tagging as dont like to keep making another thread Ladygardener, Rosefriend, Tig, Jasmine, Auricula,

[Ladygardener]

wendya, It's perfectly natural to see the spring bulbs peeking up now. Some of mine have been coming up for over a month and I have a Daffodil in bloom! You can see a pic of it here on this thread. gardenworld.proboards.com/thread/10854/plant-hiccups-out-season?page=4

I think as regards Hellebore someone else will have to answer your query about growing them in pots wendya I don't grow them but Tig has one in bloom at the moment I think. I think they do take a couple of years to flower from seed 'tho so it would be best to buy one or two that you like the look of. Buying them in flower or in bud is the best way I think, at least to start off a collection.

[Tig]

Be patient with the hellebore seeds wendya, they need a bit of cold to get them to germinate, mine are just showing & they are outside left to cope with all that the weather will throw at them. They will grow in your containers OK I reckon, they like a bit of shade, similar to heuchera. There are some beautiful colours of hellebore available these days, and double flowered ones. Last year I bought a couple of newer introductions with speckled foliage & flowers that are upright rather than hanging down (Pennys Pink & Anna's Red), I got mine from Homebase as they can be a bit expensive at Garden Centres.