Aquilegia question

I've always liked Aquilegia but, until two years ago never had any success growing them, then I was given some plants by a friend and, last year, had a lovely display. This year they're in flower already but ..... every single one has produced (rather depressing) dark purple flowers.

Just wondering if anyone can tell me what's happened to all those lovely pinks, yellows, blues, creams and oranges of yester-year? Have they just reverted to 'wild'?

 

Hi
They are easy to grow from seed , you can buy packets of seed in seperate colours sounds like this is what your friend has done , I would but some Mc Kenna Hybrids mixed seeds , you will get a real lovely range , still time to plant them now , you can plant in a tray or direct in the garden . They shoould flower next spring

Spruce

 

'Easy to grow from seed' ... for everyone except me! It's not for the want of trying believe me. Everyone else complains they 'take over' - not in my tender care they don't!

Undaunted however, I shall do as you suggest, buy a packet of seeds and have yet another go (and if they don't grow, can I blame you this time? ).

 

Of course you can

if growing outside make a seed drill and sprinkle in thats all you have to do .
if growing in a tray or modules fill with seedling compost sprikle on the top then sprinkle some soil on the top of the seeds then place the tray / modules in a tray of water to soak up from the bottom this will stop them geing washed out all into a corner !!! put somwhere warm but out of direct sun .
When starting to sprout tell all of us and we can move on to stage 2 HOW TO TRANSPLANT


Spruce

 

I've done all that, every year for past 6 or 7 years - do I have aquilegia everywhere? What d'you think!

That said, this is the first year I've successfully grown tomato from seed, so maybe I'm 'on a roll'.

 

Blimey, they come up year after year as weeds in the veg plot, I weed round them till they are big enough, then pot them up & sell them.

 

Corr, I wish you could come round here and kill off a few of the ones that I have sprouting everywhere, year after year! That sounds like a boast, I promise it's not! The people who lived here before me had a very cottage garden style garden and must have planted them everywhere. Now they spring up everywhere as they've self-seeded all over the place. I am sure that the majority of mine are pink, would you like some seedlings?? (Please say yes!)

 

I haven't ever planted or sown any aquilegias but now have about 20 strong, vigorous plants, and would have more if I didn't pull them up (or pot them and give them away). They're different colours, too. Our nearest neighbour, about 200 yards away, has them too, so I presume ours came from their garden by wind or birds (we have a lot of both).

 

Awww c'mon guys - so aquilegias grow in your gardens like weeds, what are you trying to do, make me jealous? OK, you've succeeded! - but don't forget, here you're talking to the person who's planted (and lost) mint every year for the past 22 years. I do have a bit I've been growing in what used to be the bottom of an old plastic water butt - cut down to about 2' - and I've got all over excited because for the 2nd year its actually growing successfully .... if you can call three 2" little shoots with ¼" long leaves on them, 'success'!

YES please !!!!

 

Hurrah! :yess:

Pm me your address and I'll get some in the post... what would be the best way to get them sent? Bare-rooted inside a cardboard tube and well wrapped or similar?

 

Blimey FM, sounds like you've got a soil problem there then. What sort of soil have you got Not trying to make you jealous, only trying to help.

I love mints & was thinking about planting a lot more of them but mine drop off like flies too. Only got 2 survivors after last winter.

 

Right - at the minute I've got a sandy-ish soil with a neutral pH, prior to this we had acid soil and prior to that, heavy clay.

I've stuck me mint in clay, acid, sandy soil and in containers (both large and small) with just about every type of compost known to man, I've watered it, not watered it, fed it, not fed it, had it in the shade, had it in full sun and have moved those wretched containers around so that it gets a bit of each. I've planted the 'pot grown' from the supermarket (which aren't pot grown at all, merely plugs stuffed in a pot), I've bought 'proper' pot grown ones from garden centres, even bought a couple once from a specialist herb grower, and for at least 9 years my Father would dig up great lumps of the stuff from his garden and I'd watch as I allowed him to plant them in mine. Everything else (except maybe brassicas) grows fine, so you tell me

I've just accepted it now - mint does not like me, I can't grow it so I just buy it in packets from the supermarket - for me that's actually the cheaper option!

How am I with killing off weeds? Very average