What mistakes have you NOT learnt from?

The above sounds terribly familiar @JWK...can't think why. My continuing failure is to not label properly thinking I will remember what I've sown/planted only to fail miserably. I even went as far as buying 500 extra large labelling sticks but the packet never seems to be in the right place when I need to label something. By the time I have found the pack I have forgotten what I was meant to label. My Autumn King carrots look remarkably like Spring Onions now they have germinated.

 

I lost all my Dicksonia tree ferns in December 2010.
Replaced them and they have done well....until the harsh spring of 2018.
Of the 3 I have, I think 1 is looking fine, 1 may be ok with some tlc (prob 50-50). And I think 1 is dead. (All 3 were heavily fleeced)
Am considering replacing the dead one.

Someone talk me out of it

 

Women! Who invented them?

 

Resurrecting this old topic as it happens to be very topical today.

My other vice apart from sowing too early is to fall in love with plants that are way too big for the house or the small garden.

I have just checked the seeds I'm planning to sow over the weekend...

• Livinstona chinesis, a house plant palm, height 9m. I just chipped the shells and put them to soak, hopefully my success rate remains as it has been with palms in the past.
• Bixa orellana, now who could resist trying this as a houseplant? Height 4m. I'm sure it will fit amongst the Tree basils (5 of them, at the moment about 1.5m tall) that have all survived the winter and are crying for larger pots. They should look nice with the Musa that is waking up and pushing new growth.
• Oh, and whilst my Cosmos and Sutera seeds are yet to arrive, I will sow some Mini Angel's Trumpet for some height in the containers I swore not to have.

And since I managed to combine all existing cactus and succulent young plants into a huge display container, I probably have windowsill room for the Astrophytum and Cheiridopsis

Seed sowing time!!!

 

Hi @Selleri, great thread!
Do you live in a castle I think I do. I don't have enough windows or windowsills or plant stands to keep them all, but I can't get rid of them either. Anything from spider plants to Melocactus.

I can't sow seeds thinly either. No matter how hard I try my brain just won't let me I always have to just sprinkle a few more in.

 

It must be common, guilty of the 1st and Mr.W guilty of the 2nd but seeing I rule they get thinned...plenty of spaces to put them but the recent weather changes are making me re-think so very likely will grow more indoors this season...

 

This is getting a bit sad now. With the best intentions to only buy dill seeds (we eat a lot of that stuff), somehow artichokes slipped into my basket.

Surely I can fit them somewhere in the overplanted postage stamp of a garden I have...?

 

They are very architectural though, but a bit spikey.

 

The most common mistake I make.

Getting up in the morning.

 

Ending up with big jobs which could've been small ones because I don't inspect the garden as often as I should! Like keeping the ivy under control...

Nick

 

Let's see, livistona could germinate in, say, three months. You'll pot them up in deep pots where they will hang around for another 6 months sending out roots. Leaves will eventually start getting bigger until after about two years when you maybe have your first adult leaf or something resembling it. Five years down the line, after a couple of summers outside and back indoors for winter, your baby will be a foot high maybe foot and a half. This is how palms generally go with very few exceptions, so by my calculations, you might have fifteen years to still be able to lift it in and out during the year....that's if it doesn't go roots up on you!
I tried bixa a few years ago, fast germination but I suffered with RSM indoors and aphids and slug damage outside. They didn't like draughts, or overwatering, or underwatering, or anything I did for them. Has it put me off growing them? probably not, I keep on trying to grow stuff I can't!
Don't let my failings put anybody off trying something different, I really struggle with acnistus and clianthus and every time the slugs and snails get through my defences I swear I'll never grow them again.....until the next time!

 

Thanks @flounder , unlike some members you are very reassuring

I have never had any success with palm trees but will not give up. That's the fun, trying something a bit weird or troublesome or difficult

But yes, I may have been over optimistic with the artichokes... I'll try one in a 50cm pot and another one in place of a stupid Dahlia in a border just because they are magnificent plants and my favourite food after Asparagus. (Asparagus... hmmm... )