This season I added to my repertoire by germinating some free seeds passed on by my knitting buddies.
The 'poached egg flower' (Limnanthes) originated in California and is supposed to be easy to grow. In this year's wet and windy summer it took its time to get going but my husband sunk it as a centrepiece in a terracotta pot in the middle of a bedding out plant display and now in the September sunshine it is doing well. Friends have warned me that it will spread if unchecked.
I thought I was going to have a success with Cosmos but I now realise that I have been over-kind. The plants are tall with feathery attractive leaves but no flowers. The friend who alerted me to Limnanthes explained that Cosmos thrives on poor light soils. We have been feeding them liquid plant food. We should have left well alone. We noted an attractive border of white cosmos on a visit to Lytham. Sandy soil explains a lot.
My third plant is Zinnia. I did not expect this to do well, as again it is a North American plant which does not enjoy wet and windy weather. But this time we were right to feed them and they are finally flowering in two pots under the eaves by our front porch. Definitely one to try again.
As a postscript: every morning I look at my Ipomoea for evidence of flower buds. These have started to appear within the last fortnight. Will I see any purple flowers? We are in a race between the last of the warm weather and the approaching autumn gales.
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