Kitchen Garden Forum

I know this is a Kitchen Garden forum though I'm sure many of you grow flowers and maybe we have the odd one-or-two experts.

I'm growing more flowers this year because flowers are many times more expensive than carrot and I do love that sound of happy bees on a sunny day.

My problem is with 'Cosmos', it's a tall flower for cutting. My experience with tall flowers is that they fall over, particularly here in windy-Wales. Cosmos grows to over two feet, I noticed that at the garden centre they pot-on singles. I have potted on groups of 3 to 5 depending on the pot size and I had intended to space them much closer than the recommended 2 feet apart.

I have also potted multiples of stocks.

First thoughts about the garden centre potting on singles was that it's a costs and numbers thing. I understand why you wouldn't pot on multiples of cabbage, what do you think ?

Cosmos is tall but is sufficiently robust to withstand most situations without support. But you'll only get robust growth if they're not overcrowded and really I don't recommend growing them in multiples, and the 2 feet spacing is about right. You get a lot of bang for your buck with Cosmos and you'll find just a few plants don't look much at this stage but they'll quickly fill out once they get going.

My wife grows them in spain and its very windy a lot of the time they do grow tall but robust she says dont grow them to tight together as they are a large plant , here they reseed themselves from one year to the next they do lack sent but as ive no sence of smell I would not know

Oh-hell.

It looks like I'm going to have to re-pot them in singles, I can see what you mean about them being a robust plant. Already, they are robust and only 4 inches tall.

I may even pull them apart before they root-together and plant them out even though we could still get a cold-snap. I have so many plants I could afford to loose 50% and still have plenty.

Thanks for the help though, what about the stocks ?

Would that be Brompton and night sented, plant them like you was going to plant the cosmos beautiful aroma I am told , have you tried borage makes a lovely drink and a slug deterrent

I was to create a borage plantation this year though I couldn't get the seed locally and baulk at the idea of buying from the big merchants because you never know when stuff is going to turn up or if it will at-all.

Thanks for reminding me robo, I have the list in front of me but who to buy from that is reliable is another matter.

I don't know which type of 'Stocks' I have though they are scented 'Stocks' and I have masses of those with not enough prepared ground so it like guerilla gardening soon.

One way of killing-off any plant around here is to expect it to survive amongst highly adapted local perennials and self-seeders so just pulling a few things out and making a space doesn't work. What does work though takes a few seasons is to glyphosate areas, even glyphosated areas are re-colonised the following year so you have to go through it again. Its what the farmers do, kill everything off after hitting it with nutrient then ploughing it in then sow seed. By the time the new crop is harvested the ground has been re-colonised again.

Ricard with an H wrote:It looks like I'm going to have to re-pot them in singles, I can see what you mean about them being a robust plant. Already, they are robust and only 4 inches tall.

I may even pull them apart before they root-together and plant them out even though we could still get a cold-snap. I have so many plants I could afford to loose 50% and still have plenty.

If you've so many, pull up the surplus from each pot to leave one undisturbed and discard the others.

Ricard with an H wrote:I was to create a borage plantation this year though I couldn't get the seed locally and baulk at the idea of buying from the big merchants because you never know when stuff is going to turn up or if it will at-all.

If it's borage seed you're after, Kings are reliable and respond quickly. You don't need much seed to get going with with borage: once you've let it seed one year, you're never without it from then on. And it's not too late to get it in — it keeps emerging into June and grows very quickly.

Thanks for the recommendation Felix, and for the guidance. I'm afraid that throwing seedlings away will be like pulling my own teeth out but I have to get over this obsession so please enjoy if it amuses you.

In the meantime I'll repot them singularly into anything I can lay my hands onto and would prefer to hand a few out for friends and people I like.

I ordered from Kings, they had already placed an out of stock notice onto horseradish roots rather than take my money, hold onto it then give me the option of a credit note as was the case with (Nameless) last year and another similar situation with (Another nameless) the previous year.

I'm already halfway through the repotting into single but I need more pots.

I hope you don't have the problem I had with Cosmos a couple of years ago. I chose a colour that would blend with the other plants I had grown and set them out hoping to make a nice display. The Cosmos that were supposed to grow to 3 ft max actually grew to over 6 ft and were like small trees. Needless to say it wasn't the look I had planned. I still have no idea why they grew so huge. I hadn't put extra fertilizer or anything down and the other plants were normal.

In this case my partner has chosen two colours of Cosmos, white and red and they are to grow amongst and alongside verbena bonsariesis in what I call. 'Windy-Alley'.

This spot between the farmhouse and our barn is sheltered from all wind directions other than south and south-east, whatever the wind-strength is, its doubled as it gets squeezed between the two buildings.

Verbena has survived for two years though they end up at 45 degrees to the ground by the time we get to autumn.

Because of this wind effect I will risk planting closer together in the hope they will all support each other.

A good thing about 'her' making these choices is I hate the criticism when I get things wrong though to be honest I deserve everything I get because when I get things right I crow like a cock.

I have 150 whites potted on in singles and presumably 150 reds but still potted in multiples, two neighbours have volanteered to adopt some plants but I still have masses of stocks and a tray full of a flower called ? Rocket plus a tray full of red poppy.

Today I'm hacking away at areas in the Pembrokeshire banks that I glyphosated and now I'm sowing wildflower seeds, some are annual, some perennial. I do this every year and bit-by-bit the stronger wildflower survive and re-seed against other established plants though the course grasses have to be knocked-out. Creeping buttercup is an example of a fabulous wildflower that takes no prisoners, it's so deep rooted and strong it just swamps everything but it does look fabulous when it's in flower along a bank, I am waging a war on creeping buttercup and the course grass that forms bulbils then they grow into tufts that you sit on.