One Word: Pathetic
by Colleen Vanderlinden • August 2, 2010 • Miscellaneous • 13 Comments
So, as you can see from the photo, it wasn’t exactly a stellar month for my seed Grow project nasturtiums. It was ridiculously hot for most of July (half of the month, we hovered between 85 and 95 degrees here in Detroit — yuck) and I was much more focused on trying to make sure the vegetable garden was staying productive than I was about maintaining my containers on the front porch, which is where my nasturtiums are.
The nasturtiums are just not happy. The leaves are small, and are yellowing and falling off constantly. Blooms have been few and far between. I think the porch, with its glaring, hot sun and concrete is not exactly the best spot for the nasturtiums — they’d probably appreciate a bit of late afternoon shade. But, the pepper is happy in this spot and has produced two tasty purple peppers already, and there are two new tiny ones on the plant. I’m going to move the container to the other side of the porch for the rest of the season. Between the afternoon shade it will receive, as well as the (hopefully) cooler temperatures once we get into September, I have a feeling the nasturtiums will start perking up.
I should have planted my ‘Spitfire’ nasturtiums where I plant nasturtiums every year: along the edges of my vegetable garden beds. They would have gotten plenty of moisture there, as well as a bit of shade from the vegetables. They would have also been useful in attracting the flea beetles away from my mustard greens.
But the best thing about gardening is that you keep learning more about not only plants and your garden, but yourself as well. I’ve learned that I should just embrace my practical side when it comes to flowers: they either need to be useful (as in, trapping flea beetles) or need to pretty much take care of themselves so I don’t have to. I have the feeling that if I had planted the nasturtiums in the vegetable garden the way I should have, I’d be singing their praises right now instead of being embarrassed about showing how badly they’re doing.
I’m growing Nasturtium “Spitfire” for the GROW project. Thanks, to Renee’s Garden for the seeds.
Don’t feel bad! Mine withered and died from heat, too. I feel awful but sheesh, they never needed more than a sip of water and a kind word before.
This has been a crazy season.
Amy
Truly it has been a crazy weather year! You can never really anticipate that–I’m sure had it been a cooler, wetter year, that nasturtium in the really-awesome-coloured pot would be going crazy. (Maybe the lesson is “sow everywhere, hope for the best”? I’m a fan of more plants than is necessary!)
I’d love to see the contrast between the flowers and the pot. I hope it picks up in September!
Amy — Thanks
Seriously! Glad to hear I’m not the only one who’s had trouble (misery loves company, you know…)
Kenneth — It really has been crazy weather-wise. I’d love to see the contrast between the blooms and the pot, too — that was the main reason I decided to grow in a pot, was because I had this particular blue pot and I wanted to see the orange blooms spilling over the sides of it. As you said though, hopefully it will pick up
But your blue container still looks awesome! I love flowers, but don’t really plant any that need regular watering. The odd thing is, the one nasturtium I planted right next to my corn (so it would climb up it, though it didn’t) got a lot more water than the two planted on my trellis, because I do actually water the corn… but it doesn’t actually look all that much better than the other two.
It was a hot July, lots of plants suffered because of the heat.
At least yours are blooming a little bit. Even after moving mine into more sun, they still aren’t blooming. They keep throwing out buds, then they dry out and fall off. Maybe they’ll bloom in the fall. I still like the cute round leaves, but I want some FLOWERS!
They don’t look too bad for the conditions you describe. I’ve seen worse. Mine are just barely taking off this week and I’m hoping for some rain to coax them to grow some more.
Goodness, those aren’t pathetic at all! Mine are still spindly little seedlings with only one bloom. I wish that I’d planted mine in the veggie garden too!
Monica — then my plan is working! I was hoping the pot was so awesome that no one would notice the plants
Meems — yeah, it was ridiculously hot. Hope it cools off soon!
Linda — Yes, that’s my main hope now is that I can keep them kind of healthy until fall and they’ll start looking better. I hope you get some blooms soon!
MBT — They look worse in person
My mad photography skills make them look better than they really do (ha ha.. not.)
Brown Thumb Mama — Thanks. Mine are definitely going in the veg garden next year!
If your nasturtiums are pathetic I don’t even know if there’s a word that describes mine!
The weather this year just hasn’t been cooperative. I should try the veggie garden too. At least there I have the irrigation.
Yours look better than mine do! I took out the ones I had in containers on my porch, which looked great last month, but completely faded in the heat.
I had no luck in pots with nasturtiums but I had better luck using as a border and you are right a late shade does it. It has been 30 plus here and the pollution was not helping. Most of my containers absorbed heat so I buried them halfway in the ground that helped. I also watered late after sunset and used a snake hose instead of a sprinkler.
VERY GOOD SITE – will be back.
RABIN
Hey Ms. Colleen, my nasties are looking no better than yours. And I’ve grown them before, not the climbing variety, but the regular ones, and they’ve always done great. Being that ‘Spitfire’ is an heirloom, my guess is that they just don’t get as pretty as their hybrid cousins. And they don’t really climb either. I’m waiting till after the first killing frost to give my final rating, I, like you, hope that ‘Spitfire’ spits a little more fire before it’s all said and done.
And as with all my flowers: “They either need to be useful or need to pretty much take care of themselves so I don’t have to.”