Unseasonable happenings !

A funny thing happened in my garden yesterday,sitting in the lounge looking out of the new patio doors, I espied a large Bumble Bee very busy on a freak self set nasturtium which is covered in flowers, if I had planted this at the normal time of the year it would have been destroyed by black fly but it is flourishing just waiting for the 1st frost to destroy it and wondered whether next year to with hold planting seeds till mid summer. Any one else have thoughts on this? Rosietu

 

I always grow nasturtium. I always start some seeds indoors fairly early, but also just turn a blind eye to any seedlings that pop up outside from the previous year's plants.

They do get eaten by just about everything (including me ), but I find they grow vigorously enough to cope. When the pests attack, just cut off the most affected leaves (usually the lower ones for slugs, and the top ones for airborne attackers). The plant will then work overtime to replace everything you cut off, and then some.

And yes, I have noticed that the early ones, although obviously getting a head start on becoming established, do get attacked more. The later ones catch up soon enough and last right to the end of the year. Mine are still going strong, despite a few sub-zero temperatures overnight. They'll get wiped out as soon as we get a proper freeze though. Although I keep saying that, but I think mine are evolving. As each year comes and goes, my nasturtiums seem to be becoming more and more resistant to the cold.

 

Interesting, I grew a whole boarder of them, they are great early on ground cover, but as it warms up it was to much work to control the black fly, so I pulled them all out in favout of Marigolds, about 6 nasturtiums self seeded very late this summer and are still in flower now, I like the plant and it seems they remain pest free when grown later in the season, mine have taken their first hit from the frost in Wiltshire, but still alive, best get out n collect the last of the seed