Am I the April Fool.......

......or an unhappy Easter bunny!

All my seedlings are languishing in the spare room at mo, champing at the bit to be moved to the greenhouse as soon as the weather warms up. Yesterday I noticed that a few seedlings had disappeared and thought nothing of it. Today, doing 'the rounds' all but three of 24 Lavender 'Bush Baby' seedlings have completely gone and the Capsicums were following suit.

Having thoroughly investigated the 28 trays of seedlings and pots I found two small snails and one small slug. Grrrrr! They have since seen the underside of my boot! I'm so annoyed, they must have come from the compost as the equipment was spotless when I put it to use.

With the demise of the Lavender my new rose bed will not be under planted this year.

 

The cheeky blighters!!!

Seems they haven't enjoyed your snowy outdoor conditions any more than you have, Sheal!

Is it possible to plant some more seeds to make up the crop?

 

Oh bother

 

I haven't got any more seeds Mum. I had to buy them on the web so I'd be pushing it to get them going now by the time they arrived. Lavender doesn't grow that quickly either.

 

Ok, understand.

So, options:

- put some annuals in for this year; retry the lavender next year
- keep your eye open for reduced lavender plants that you can put in later this year
- I could go to my garden centre and get some lavender seeds and send them to you?

 

Thanks for your kind offer, but I will try again next year and probably leave the bed just to the roses this year. I bought the seeds online because they were new and unusual.....Lavender 'Bush Baby' from Dobies.

 

sorry to hear that Sheal, we regularly get those adventurous little slugs sneaking there way into the shed where the seedlings are, just a single one can wreak havoc...how can something so small eat so much were forever on the look out for them now, checking for any slithery slim marks on the compost & checking under seed trays (& pretending not to see the spiders - often big spiders - that always seem to be hanging out under there - what are they doing anyway? having a family get together? what? ) bloody slugs & spiders give me the heebie jeebie's

 

I get caught out every year by a slug or snail "mowing" some seedlings. Slug pellets put down now all around them ...

Sometimes they recover, depends how close-cut they are. I have several trays of delphiniums and the seed leaves were eaten off just leaving less than 1/2" of stalk, but little true leaves have started to appear. I expect they will be seriously put back by the loss of energy from the seed leaves though ...

But might be worth keeping your "seedlings" for a week or two in case they manage any new growth?

 

Lavenders are available as plugs or small plants at moment.
In my experience they are quick growers. Nurseries often sell them fairly cheaply
Why forgo your rose n lavender bed this year?

 

To supplement what Verdun said, I have bought (twice - so they come recommended ) small plugs of Lavender from van Meuwen in the past, currently about 20p each:
http://www.vanmeuwen.com/flowers/fl...lants/lavendula-angustifolia-munstead/61045VM

They are small and need growing on - but so would seedlings be Some pictures, to give an idea of size of plugs and how they grow in Year One, on my blog:

First batch, April 2008
http://kgarden.wordpress.com/projects/shrubbery/#19Apr08
didn't take any photos of how that batch grew, sorry

Second batch May 2011
http://kgarden.wordpress.com/projects/cross-walk/#May2011
and how they had come up by Autumn that year (photo at bottom of that page)

and then how they looked, after being planted out for a season, in November 2012:
http://kgarden.wordpress.com/projects/cross-walk/2/
(In both photos Batch 2 is in the foreground, the original Batch 1 is in the distance)

 

Kristen, they completely demolished them, not a stalk to be seen!

Kristen and Verdun, the seeds were a new dwarf variety with a more silvery colour called 'Bush Baby' which I got from Dobies, so I don't think they are available as plants yet.

If the remaining three survive I'll probably take cuttings later in the year and grow them on.

 

I have tried many of the new varieties of lavendars and been disappointed with them all. I grow them for their fragrance both in leaf,and flower and Munstead or Hidcote are the best