The Plant Thread

[Beth3346]

I heard someone on the Chelsea coverage saying that most plants sold as annuals are actually tender perennials, which made me think of you saving them indoors, Taffeta.

Yep, a lot of 'annuals' are just not meant for our winter climate. There are a bunch, like bacopa and osteospermum, which are from South Africa, and thus can't cope with the frosts. But that said, we've had some plants which are not meant to survive the winter...surviving the winter...outside. SO. Yes.

The fuchsia and bell vine from last year's basket were not hardy, but survived outside without any problems. I've also a 3 or 4 year old nemesia who survived two lots of winter frosts already...

Even things like petunia or calibrachoa which seem to be obvious annuals aren't.

It's kind of sad how, as a nation, we just kind of leave so many plants out there to freeze when it's not necessarily time up for them.

The most disturbing ones to me are the begonia. The type with the reddish leaves and small coloured flowers. One frost and their stems basically explode. I have one such begonia plant which I think is about 5 years old now, and winters inside. I have to be so careful when putting it out because unlike some plants that *might* survive one frost, this one...there are no second chances :/

people just leave the plants outside to freeze? the fuchsia is so pretty. i wonder how they would do here. it's so hot and dry.

i think i missed the window for cool weather this year. i'll have to wait until spring to plant herbs again. also last night i had a dream that i had plants inside and a bunch of bugs came out of them. so maybe i'm not ready for indoor plants just yet.

[Taffeta]

It's more like people treat those plants as annuals and either compost them at the end of the year, or just leave them in the garden, where the frosts kill them. Since it's quite normal for our temperature to go below freezing over the winter, sometimes for several days in a row, it can be too much for some plants.

Fuchsia have hardy and not hardy versions in regards to the UK climate. Some are absolutely fine out in the frosts, and some aren't. The pink and white one I mentioned earlier in the thread is not frost hardy, so we tend to bring it in in the winter. But there are other plants that we put frost jackets or fleece over to protect them when they're still outside, and that works as well.

We don't have a greenhouse or a conservatory to winter plants in, so we have to be creative

Right now I think I have 9 or 10 plants salvaged from last year in this year's tubs/hanging basket though.

[Ponyfan]

When I was watering the mint today, I discovered a tiny new mint plant in the same container.  It's completely separate from the other mint.  I don't know if I'll be able to save it when I repot the main mint plant because I'm not sure if it's roots are connected to the other plant.   I also removed some dead leaves and a few leaves fell off when I was watering it.


Ponyfan

[Taffeta]

@Ponyfan, baby mint should be fine if you are careful when repotting. It might be a shoot from the parent plant as some plants do that, or it may be a separate plant entirely - sometimes stores fail to split them accurately and that happens. But if it does fall away from the main plant, you can just pick it up and stick it in with the rest. It should have its own roots if it isn't connected to the main plant, even if they aren't that big.

[Ponyfan]

Thanks, Taffeta.    I want to save the baby mint if I can and not kill it.

My mint has bugs.    I've found 2 so far.  The first one was a clear/white one and the second one looked like a gnat.  I'm assuming the bugs are coming from the soil in the container it's in since I haven't repotted it yet. 

I'm a bit worried about the bugs.  I thought mint would be pretty easy to grow and maintain in a pot.  I read that some bugs appear on plants if the soil is too dry, so I gave the mint an extra good watering today and removed more dead/shriveled  leaves.  I  also took a leaf off that had a bug on it, not sure if I got the bug though.


Ponyfan

[pinkkittywinks]

My Venus Flytrap seems to be looking better for moving to a sunnier window sill

Love pkw xxx

[Taffeta]

@Ponyfan, if it's just one or two isolated ones they probably aren't an issue, especially if you can remove them. Just keep an eye on it to make sure it's not worse (repotting may also help this if they are living in the soil, but some bugs just come in on plant leaves).

I removed a caterpillar from my thunbergia this morning. I have no idea what it's a caterpillar for, but it's not staying there O.o.

We are also finding ninja begonia plants all over the place at the moment. I'm starting to wonder if Dad just randomly buried them all over the garden because they keep popping up in unexpected places.

Garden delphiniums are doing better...at least, 3/5 are coping and the other two are hanging on. I removed a slug from there today though. Grr.

[BlackCurtains]

Ben is doing very well! He's growing more and more leaves. The leaf with the holes is older, I checked him and there's nothing eating him now.

visitors can't see pics , please register or login


I plan to repot him over the weekend I'm also growing some cat grass from a kit I had forgotten about.

[Artemesia's Garden]

Ben is doing very well! He's growing more and more leaves. The leaf with the holes is older, I checked him and there's nothing eating him now.

I plan to repot him over the weekend I'm also growing some cat grass from a kit I had forgotten about.

Wow he's made a such a great recovery! You've done a really good job there.

Post Merge: June 02, 2022, 10:46:18 PM

@Ponyfan, if it's just one or two isolated ones they probably aren't an issue, especially if you can remove them. Just keep an eye on it to make sure it's not worse (repotting may also help this if they are living in the soil, but some bugs just come in on plant leaves).

I think regular checking and removal is the best advice. But if they do get out of control I can make some suggestions because I've had three issues with bugs in the house. Usually, scairid flies are the main one and only really harmful to seedlings usually. You can set out sticky traps for them or apply nematodes to the soil. Then every year I get green aphids on stuff when they begin to fly outside around March. I use soap spray-then-rinse in the bath technique until it's warm enough to put them outside for a week or so, when hopefully they will get some rain. Then I spray with SB Plant Invigorator before returning to the house. That said, one year I caught wooly aphids in my orchid when it was outside. I couldn't get rid of them. So I never put the orchids outside now for any reason, but it's OK because they don't tend to get aphids.

[BlackCurtains]

Wooly aphids are so cute. I wouldn't be able to kill any.

[Taffeta]

Ben is looking amazing! Well done BC!!

We use diluted washing up liquid (Dish soap maybe?) to spray for bugs as it doesn't hurt the plants, but it's a good idea to check what ingredients are in what is available where you are before making that choice. I don't know if it's different in different countries.

I don't use nematodes because I don't want to hurt bugs that might help the plant (like spiders etc). It means every year I have a manual bug removal fight with th gooseberry, but I'm still happier that way. I don't like killing anything I don't have to, basically, whether it be bug or plant.

I repotted my grumpy old Poinsettia today! It's always a trauma, for her and for me *cries*. She did lose one branch. I am not sure how, but hopefully we're all done now and she'll be fine. She's a lot more upright than she was, as she has a new cane and a taller pot. The last two canes she had rotted away. I'm sure she just decided to eat them.

Here she is as of just now:

visitors can't see pics , please register or login


...Yes, her branches are supported by pony things.

[Ponyfan]

Thanks Artemisa's Garden and Taffeta. 

I read online that you can use rubbing alcohol on the plants to kill bugs but I don't want to try that until I'm sure that it won't harm the plant.

I just checked and found more bugs on the mint. The weather has been damp and rainy yesterday and last night so I don't know it that's a factor or not. I gave the plant another good watering yesterday, didn't see any bugs and today there's a lot more.    I'm starting to think that they're coming out more when the soil is extra wet to get away from the dampness.  So far they're only on/around the mint. 

We're supposed to have plant lights in the sunroom. I turned those on for a few hours yesterday because it was cloudy.

I'm going to try putting the mint outside for a bit a little later and see if that helps.

Poor mint

The poinsettia is beautiful.


Ponyfan

[BlackCurtains]

Does it flower, Taffeta? My mom loves poinsettias but could never have them since they're toxic to pets. She does have a nice fake one that lights up.

[Taffeta]

Does it flower, Taffeta? My mom loves poinsettias but could never have them since they're toxic to pets. She does have a nice fake one that lights up.

It can flower, although its flowers are tiny and only ever happen when it bracts (which is the red petal leaves it can have). Mine is red. The thing is that they only bract if they have a limited amount of light through the winter. It provokes them to do it or something. When I was living in London, and she was in my room here on her own a lot more, she did bract, because the artificial light was hardly on. When I'm home, the artificial light throws off her light cycle, so the plant doesn't bract.

There are all kinds of theories about putting them in cupboards or wrapping sacks over them to make them bract but I can't do that to her, especially now she's seven years old and going on eight.  I don't mind if she doesn't bract any more, since her leaves are pretty. If she did, it would be lovely, but I don't suppose she will so long as she's in my room.

They're meant to do it in the winter but mine last bracted in July so...yeah. She does her own thing anyway.

Unfortunately our climate is too mild for her to live outside, the frosts would kill her

I've had four or five over the years, and this one has lived the longest. I had a pink one once, but most of the others were red. The oldest before this one was almost four. I have no idea how long they can live as house plants since most people compost them

[Ponyfan]

I'm pretty sure the mint has green aphids and some other kind of gnats/flies.   There's so many now that I've lost count. My mom told me today that her roses had aphids when she tried to grow roses inside.  I did put the mint outside for a few hours today and although that seemed to help it grow and dry out (I think I accidently overwatered the mint too) it didn't seem to deter the bugs. I really wanted the mint to be an inside plant but now I'm thinking about making it an outside plant once I repot it.  The roots are circling the mint plant container so I will probably have to repot it sooner than I thought. 

How do you make the dish soap spray?  Do you just put a few drops in a lot of water?  I don't want to give up on the mint plant yet.

I keep reading conflicting information about mint and aphids.  One website says aphids don't like it and another says they do so I'm not sure what's right.  The bugs are so tiny that my mom says she can't see them.

Ponyfan