Nasturtiums gone crazy

Hi !

As part of my nascent butterfly/ bee garden I sowed a load of nasturtium seeds a while back. I proudly watched them sprouting everywhere and waited for the blooms. And waited. Loads of lovely leaves but no flowers.

Reading on the internet I see that the typical English summer may have given them too much water and this might have created the situation. Also I did put some compost down and I've read that soils that are too rich can cause a similar effect.

So what do I do now? I got some lovely leafy plants - do I just admire them for what they are or can I rescue the situation?

thanks for any advice

regards
Gavin.

 

Nascent, eh? Hoo, some edjicated people on this forum!

Too much water? This summer? Not in my backyard!

Luckily, nasturtiums have really good foliage. I think your best course is to wait it out and see if they start producing flowers in August/Sept. There's plenty more time.

I've read all this stuff about impoverished soil as well, but as far I can see most plants prefer the good stuff, and that includes nasturtiums.

 

Mine have only just started flowering, its easy to forget now its warmer, but only a few weeks back it still felt like winter.

 

Nasturtium is one of my all time favourites.

When planted straight in the ground, you often get the effect you describe. The first flowers will appear below the canopy of leaves. Solution, cut the top leaves off and use them in salads. The flowers below will then be exposed.

Any time now, your nasturtiums will go into Phase 2, which can get a bit freaky (in a good way). Growth will have been steady up to now, forming bushy clumps. Next come the giant tentacles. One morning you'll come out and see one or more big fat juicy side tendrils travelling out from the plants looking for new territory. Each of those tendrils will fill with new leaves and flowers. Once this process starts it happens at an insane rate.

Nasturtium's growth habit is brilliant for bumblebees. The fact that most of the flowers hide beneath the canopy of leaves means that when it rains, the rain doesn't simply wash the nectar away because the flowers are under an umbrella. This is great for the bumblebees because it means they can still get a good feed even when the other flowers have been washed out.

 

Many thanks for the feedback everyone.

The phase 2 you describe, Clueless, has started! I did notice during the week and wondered what if anything I should be doing about the tendrils but the lack of blooms was the bigger concern. I assume I just leave the strands I'm happy to leave and cut off the bits I feel are intruding where I don't want them?

Now my dilemma is whether to cut off the canopy or not! If I do it's me in selfish mode so I can see the blooms, and if I don't it's all good for the bees and the nectar. Maybe I'll cut some off and leave some.

Some leaves have gone a bit yellowy so are they all good to eat?

thanks again
Gavin.

 

It sounds like you've got a good handle on it already. Cutting some of the canopy off is and leaving some bits is exactly what I do, and it does the plant no harm whatsoever. In fact it just grows back faster, so you get an abundance of salad leaves and the flowers to look at, while the bees get their nectar.

It also does no harm to cut off the tendrils that are heading where you don't want them. The tendrils you cut off go great in stir fries, although they don't respond well to heat so they go in the pan for no more than the last one minute.

The yellow leaves, assuming the soil is ok (doesn't have to be top notch for nasturtium, its not fussy), is probably just lower leaves have been a bit starved of light. I'd cut them off and put them in the compost heap. Nice fresh ones will quickly replace them.

 

PS - glad you liked "nascent"

 

A big thank you to you miracle workers!

A week ago I had nothing and now I have a sea of blooms - well a small sea like the Sea of Marmara rather than the South China Sea. Not sure how you did it but thank you !!

regards
Gavin.

 

All part of the service:WINK1:

 

Oops - forgot the "after" photo

 

Very nice,

Is that Sheeps Bit Scabious next to it ?

 

Yes, Scabious behind on the left. And if you look carefully at the top right is some of the Opium Poppies you helped identify when they first surfaced some weeks ago. Now about 1-2 feet high and doing well.

Overall the Bee and Butterfly garden is flourishing now. Favourites seem to be the nasturtiums, verbena, scabious and marigolds. Saw 3 species of butterfly today while weeding (only able to name cabbage white) while I recall seeing none in past years.

thanks again
Gavin.

 

Excellent

Lob a cabbage in there & get a budleja on the go too.

Only seen a few red admirals a speckled wood & a few cabbage whites this year, don't think the minus 15c weather did them many favours

I like the word Naecent too, wouldn't dare type it into a search engine till i'd looked it up though:DOH::D

 

Thanks Ziggy

My daughter has identified one of the other two butterflies as a Red Admiral. It landed on my wife so she got a good look! The other was smaller and orangey so I'll work on that.

I've already got one sad looking buddleia and have planted 3 babies so that'll take until next year I guess to be appealing. A cabbage - now there's an idea!

thanks
Gavin.

 

Oh thats good then Suprising how quick a budleja grows.

Anothe good thing for late nectar is ivy flowers, gives a lot of insects a sugar boost to set them up for hibernation, it flowers around october & I once made a school class of 6 year olds creep up silently to a bush, it was humming with insects, they loved it.

Used to love taking groups out on nature rambles, of course with the CRB checks nowdays, i'm stuffed:DOH:

Was the other butterfly this one ?

A-Z of butterflies - Butterfly Conservation