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Planting wallflowers- hey put those scissors away
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Posted by plantzzman UK (My Page) on Sun, Oct 22, 06 at 17:26
I just wondered if anyone saw Carol Klein planting wallflowers on GW this last friday. I must say I was somewhat shocked to see her cutting away some of what little root the wallflowers had- to encourage strong root development it was stated.
In my view the root already looked somewhat small to support the top growth of the wallflowers and there she was cutting more off.
While pruning some root can often encourage fresh root development there really should be enough there to start with- judging by many sold in bunches across the UK this already isnt the case.
We grow wallflowers for retail sale where I work- around 18,000 of them- we lovingly lift the plants to preserve the root system so as not to shock the plants which is why I found Carols approach a little surprising. |
Follow-Up Postings:
RE: Planting wallflowers- hey put those scissors away
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- Posted by pjc04 UK SE England (My Page) on
Tue, Oct 24, 06 at 17:41
| I was also amazed when I saw it. As you say, I have found that there is little enough root on the wallflowers I buy from a local market stall, I would hesitate to cut anything away. It will be interesting to see the results next year, or maybe they will plant some more if those fail! |
RE: Planting wallflowers- hey put those scissors away
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| Chris Beardshaw carried out an experiment in the Gardeners' Question Time trial garden this summer in which he "tortured" wallflowers by regularly top- and root-pruning them to see if the treatment would force them to flower better. It didn't. |
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