July Seed GROW: A Flaw in My Plans
by Colleen Vanderlinden • July 4, 2010 • Miscellaneous • 12 Comments
My ‘Sptifire’ nasturtiums, which I’m growing as part of the Gardenbloggers seed GROW project (with seeds from Renee’s Garden) have been blooming steadily for the last couple of weeks. The orange of the ‘Spitfires’ looks great with the two little purple peppers that are forming on the ‘Purple Emperor’ pepper plant right now. So I am pleased with the color combination.
I planted this container hoping that the ‘Spitfires’ would trail over the edges of the container, as I had read that they made a nice trailing plant. But I’m finding that it was a bad idea to try to turn a climbing plant into a trailing plant. The nasturtiums are about a foot long now, and are doing their very best to do what they’re supposed to do: climb. They are growing upright, not trailing. I’m sure that once they get longer, gravity will take over and they’ll have no choice but to start trailing over the edges of the pot. But right now, it looks kind of funny, what with everything standing at attention like that.
The blooms are gorgeous, though.
I haven’t fertilized since the last time I posted, mainly because I didn’t want the plants to start getting too lanky. They haven’t seemed to need it — they’ve been growing very well. I am having a bit of a problem with something eating the leaves, but the damage is pretty minimal so I’m just going to keep an eye on it.
Hopefully by next month, my “adolescent” nasturtiums will grow out of their awkward phase, and we’ll see some trailing 
I’m growing Nasturtium ‘Spitfire’ for the GROW project. Thanks to Renee’s Garden for the seeds.
I love the orange, purple, and blue combo. I used to grow nasties (‘Empress of India’) for Cobblestone Farm at the edge of a circular bed, and they did trail. Perhaps ‘Spitfire’ is a bit of a spitfire (hyuck) about climbing. Happy 4th.
Oh… boo. I admit, I have planted some ‘Moonlight’ nasturtiums this year expecting them to trail. I’m going to keep my fingers crossed and hope that your ‘Spitfire’ nasturtiums are just living up to their name and being a little cheeky!
Huh, yours do seem to be lighter colored than mine. I haven’t managed to get so many blooms at once…it’s usually one or two at a time. I like the orange flowers in the blue pot!
I hope I’ll get to see flowers on mine sometime soon. They just don’t seem to be doing as well as some of the picture’s I’ve seen. What I need to remember is that with time they may catch up. Many of you have warmer climates than mine. Add to that our bizaro weather ‘summer’. Sigh.
Love the flowers! Suck a powerful little bloom!
Ooh, I love the combo of orange flowers and purple peppers. I’m sure it will look AWESOME soon (when the nasturtiums buckle under their own weight)!
The nasty I planted in a podium pot has no alternative but to trail out and down. The others I have scattered around the yarden are pretty much left to themselves. I like a plant that don’t need any special attention, if it don’t perform as it should, it’s not welcome in my garden. That might sound harsh but I’m a lazy gardener. ;~)
Hopefully they’ll start trailing soon, but I gotta say I like them as look now. I love the colors – such a striking combo.
Yeah, they should fall over the side once they get heavy enough. They’re standing straight up as if they’re looking for attention or a treat.
Don’t fertilise your nasturtiums, or you won’t get any flowers! They need neglect. They grow along the railway lines here and in other odd places. Just ignore them and they’ll be fine.
Those are pretty!
Oh they will surely trail as long as they had no twig or something to cling to. You are right, gravity will show them the way. You don’t need to fertilize if your plants are growing well. Applying fertilizer might just get them burned. Leave them and just monitor their growth. You may apply a pepper solution to deter those pests eating the leaves.
I love the combination of flower colors on your garden. It will certainly look great with all the flowers in full bloom. Keep it up.