Questions Summer 2025

I am going to document my gardening-related questions, so I remember them and the answers.

How can I get this eryngium bourgatii to grow? I got it last year and I just found it in the garden, thought it had died. I think the slugs have gotten to it at some point. Can I ever get it to grow and bloom one day?

From what I can find online about sowing seeds that have a pappus, eg thistles, it's best to leave the pappus. I am collecting thistle seeds and will sow them and see how they do.

How am I going to keep slugs off my cabbage thistle plant? So far it's been eaten badly but I've only stopped that by repotting and keeping off the patio and hopefully away from slugs.

I seem to have miniature plants and flowers? Is this because of the difficult weather? For example, this datura is blooming while still in its small pot it was sown in.

my hibiscus syriacus seems to have 2 different colours, this beatiful purple

and pink, is this normal?

is this a seedling from my Hibiscus syriacus? how long would this take to bloom?

why did my Crepis rubra and Echium Blue Bedder do so badly? I've grown them before and got normal plants

Crepis rubra seedlings

echium Blue Bedder seedlings

how am I ever going to grow asphodel from seed? I know it needs to be dry but just how dry? doesn't it need some water at some point?

what is this green stuff in the mini pond?

Why are thistles so difficult to grow? Why do slugs devour them? Don't they find them difficult to eat?

my one and only nodding thistle plant with a bud, I had at least 3 plants not that long ago but this is the only one I can now find

I also grew cotton thistle but only ended up with one plant after the slugs devoured the rest but that one is completely overwhelmed with other plants and not sure it's even survived.

What are these hairy seedlings? leaves ovate, fox-and-cubs seedlings I had before were round, is there just natural variation?

dandelions or chicory?

I have a lot of plants that superficially look like dandelions but wonder if they are (or some are) chicory. I just had a chicory appear from nowhere so wondering if others have appeared. Regardless of what it is, must remove it from that pot and repot it in its own pot - not sure it will survive but I'm going to try because it can't live there. 

I don't think I'd have any hope of this surviving if I tried to remove it and pot it up.

Verbascum virgatum (or something else?)

5-9-2025 rosette developing but doesn't look like it will bloom this year but well-established for next year

uncertain tree, manna ash (Fraxinus ornus) ?

So many Verbena hastata self-seeding seedlings, I've potted them up, how long would they take to flower? (- not long - lots have bloomed) I think they'd look good in the ground with my other tall flowers but the ground is rock-hard after drought and heatwave so I will have to keep them in pots until we get some rain and the ground softens up enough for me to plant them.

this is my pot of Verbena hastata, bought as small plants last year, all the self-seeders were from these flowers

13-9-2025 a few weeks later, masses of Verbena hastata flowers, must try to plant them all out not that we've had some rain and hopefully the ground is easier to dig

also lots of houndstongue which I must plant out, first I need to decide where to plant them

AND purple loosestrife, where to put them??

I had so many Iris foetidssima in my last garden and so many self-seeding I was surprsed I didn't have any seedlings appearing in the pots in my new garden. I finally had 1 but it appeared to die. Then I noticed this largish one in this pot with a large green alkanet. I wonder if it is foetidissima but definitely looks like an Iris. Will see what happens. When the ground is softer I am going to try to plant this pot in the ground.