Wallflowers

 AFAIK the accepted thing with wallflowers is to grow them from seed/small
plants one year, have them flower the next year, then take them out
(possibly after letting the seed set and fall if you are trying to maintain
a bed by self seeding).
Effectively treating a perennial as a biennial to maximise the flowering
potential.

Well, had a self seeded wallflower this year come into flower around
May/June, set a load of seed.
I tied up the seed pods (still on the plant) to a cane to mature and meant
to come back later and remove the plant.

However it got left, and has now grown to about 5 times the original size
and has flowered several times (although not as much as the first time). It
is still flowering now.

I am tempted to leave it to see what it will do next year.
If it survives the winter, the options are to just let it get on, and
hopefully seed the bed for future years, or prune it back medium to hard in
the spring to see if it will produce a reasonable amount of flower on new
growth.

Anyone tried this?

Cheers

Dave R

--
No plan survives contact with the enemy.
[Not even bunny]

Helmuth von Moltke the Elder

(\__/)
(='.'=)
(")_(")

 
I've had wallflowers (I think!) that have grown ok one year, then gone
totally mad the next, and totally taken over my planter by the third.  Not
done deliberately, just didn't like to take the plant out whilst it was
still 'happy'.

My main problem is that they seem to get quite straggley (like unpruned
lavender does)

 
Wallflowers (Erysimum)  in the wild are perenial plants, it's just
more conveniant to treat them as bi-annual,
Sow them in a seed bed, transplant to growing on area. Transplant to
flowering positionb when the summer bedding is finished,
When they have finished flowering remove and plant summer bedding.
But if you cut them back lightly after flowering they can grow on and
flower for several years.
Alternativly if you have somy you realy like then take cuttings from
them, to grow on.
David
At the very windy and rain lashed end of Swansea Bay