WHAT ARE WE DOING IN THE GARDEN TODAY - 2022

While I was deadheading some of the Geraniums I was thinking about what to plant for winter flowers. In the past I've always used Pansies, & in the last couple of years, Violas. I like them because they are resistant to the winds we get which damage other plants, they give flowers all winter, with a real burst from April till June. As I always underplant them with Daffodils &/or Crocuses they also help to distract attention from their dying leaves.

Many years they make it through the winter but then die when they should be ramping up to their main period of bloom. Some years this has been caused by aphids, tiny grey & white that look like bits of lint. Other years the aphids have been a different species. But they all suck my poor plants dry! The problem with them is that they don't become visible till the plants are too damaged to survive. In fact you wouldn't think there was anything wrong with them most of the time.

Other years they have just collapsed where they are. I haven't found the covered in aphids & in fact they look wilted - even though the compost is damp. Then they dry up & turn brown. I've pulled plants out of the troughs looking for something that might be eating their roots but the root balls were fine. Even breaking them open doesn't reveal any or that the roots have rotted.

But this hasn't happened just to my plants either. Our local council plants out 1,000s of them every year & it has happened to many of theirs as well. They planted some in the flowerbed in the grounds of our flat one year & the majority fared the same way as mine.

Anybody have an idea what could have happened to them? Is it some sort on Pansy virus perhaps?

Can anybody suggest a plant that could take its place? As Pansies & Violas are inexpensive plants to buy I can use a 100 or more on the balcony! Anybody know of any plant that I could buy in place of them? Last year I couldn't find any plants that even come near the price that Pansies & Violas are sold for. So I ended up buying Violas again.

 

There is a problem that is called pansy sickness, I assume it is probably a virus of some kind but its suggested you dont plant them for a couple of years if this is the problem.

I your slightly protected area I think I'd try a few of the smaller flowered cyclamen.

 

@pete Thanks for your quick reply! I found some pictures from 2016, when it happened, on Google photos. Though they weren't of my Pansies; they were of the flowerbed in the grounds of our block of flats & pretty bad quality at that! I had thought of downloading a couple of photos but seeing them I decided against it!

I spent a while looking at pages on the web about Pansy sickness & it seems it is a fungus that can live in the soil for some years or until it finds a susceptible host plant. As I plant in compost, not having soil as I garden on a balcony, it can't (or shouldn't) have been the compost. The great majority succumbed, not just in pots on top of the balcony railings, but also in some big long white troughs I have on the balcony floor up against the railings. Also in some smaller ones on the central bar that runs around the middle of the railings.

I looked at Cyclamen last year but they work out too expensive - I can't afford to pay £50 for enough to just plant in the places I would plant Pansies. I will scrub the pots well & fill them with new compost & plant into that.

 

@Balc, we once visited Wakehurst Place botanical garden, owned by Kew gardens, when they had a stunning display of Cyclamen mixed with Snowdrops. Really, really beautiful.

Morrisons usually sell Cyclamen at this time of year reasonably cheap. I made a thread a while back asking what kind of Cyclamen they were, and it seems they are a tougher outdoor hybrid of the indoor kind, they aren't the beautiful Cyclamen coum that grow at Wakehurst Place, or Cyclamen hederifolium either. They are still beautiful, but I don't think they are Cyclamen coum.

Maybe I prefer Crocuses to Snowdrops in my garden, they seem to do better for me. I also love Violas and find myself up against problems they have. I think I saw off the late spring/early summer aphids this year by using Erigeron water. I haven't been troubled by aphids since using it. Recently some of my Violas have a slight white discolouration on their leaves, which might be some kind of mildew, and I am experimenting with some chives, calendula and feverfew soaked in water the same way as the Erigeron. Salvia might also be one to try, as it has a reputation for protecting roses from fungal diseases. (I recently cut back some of my Salvia, so I don't have a lot of it right now, but will try it later on).

 

I set up the small colfdframe in one garden and started pulling worn out plants.

AND I got my new chillies seeds. Three that I ordered and paid for plus three free ones

 

Too wet to do anything.

 

I planted a few more wallflowers, hopefully should finish them tomorrow along side of the path.

 

Now we've had some rain sow green manure on patches of veg plot not being used over winter. Repot some of the plants bought at last Sunday's plant sale, plant some of the others. Plant some daffodil bulbs and maybe run the mower over the grass on a high setting to remove long bits and seed heads.

 

Well, just been planting some daffs and narcissi. Planted out a couple of echinacea and aqualegia grwon from seed this year.

Lovely day here and pretty warm. The soil is nice and damp though after all the recent rain. So, hopfully, enough warmth left in the soil for the plants to root well before autumn.

 

I'm still collecting seeds as quickly as I can because though it is pleasant and warm, when we switch to cold fall weather, it rarely does so gradually. It is like somebody flipped a switch and bingo, it is autumn.

I was looking for information about tree lillies and saw this @LawnAndOrder - thought you might be amused.

 

Went to see my friend Marion and planted some wallflowers, forget me nots and foxglove plants, i got her to do some weeding but she has to be careful with her bad shoulder.

 

Being as we had a couple of our gkids round for another sleepover Friday/Saturday I didn't get to go out onto the balcony, well at least not until around 7pm when I happened to look out of the balcony door window. I noticed that a tall Begonia stem in one of the hanging baskets was bending over so I grabbed a bottle of water & gave most of the hanging baskets a little watering. If I think they need it I will give them all more water tomorrow.

 

Set my sight to next spring and sowed Corncockles into rubbish Poundland "degradable" cardboard pots that don't really degrade but should be ok to plop into ground once the Dahlias come up and the seedlings are tall enough to survive the winter.

"Sow where they are to flower" is a joke up here, I heard the slugs gleeing and rubbing their hands (paws? tentacles? sideflaps?) together when holding a bag of Nigella seeds. So Nigella went into a washing up bowl with drainage holes to man up before the survivors get transplanted into their final positions.

Took cuttings of Bacopa and Climbing Iceberg rose and most optimistically sowed Dwarf French beans in a pot that will give us plentiful windowsill crops throughout the dark winter days under the growlights. Or, provide food for aphids, RSM or any other critter valiantly fighting the Climate Change in our kitchen

Re- potted the culinary Sage to take its chances outdoors, it's a lovely plant but sadly tastes like burnt old tyres. I'm sure that next year it will be an enchanting addition to our dinners.

Re- potted also the rather strongly growing Spider plant and sprayed the aphid infested flower stems with the dubious Wilko's spray. I'm still waiting to hear back from them to see what the ingredients actually are. Anyways, the new bowl planter is much more stable on top of the corner bookshelf so hopefully less offspring or pets get killed by falling plant attacks.

 

A nice day so I planted out some Dianthus "Rockin Red", which were in a tub after being moved from a hanging basket, planting them in a permanent position in our shrubbery.
We then lifted a Honeysuckle (one of many brought on from cuttings of the wild ones in the hedge) which was not doing well where it was. We planted it in semi-shade, in my cottage garden.

 

Planted some polyanthus plants around the path to replace the ones that didn't make it through the summer.