Nasturtium 2009-10-09 007

This is a lovely colour very pretty

It is a nice colour but never comes out well in photos. :-( Perhaps it's the lack of any contrasting detail that makes it look so flat.

It could be but it looks alright to me some times its how the light hits the camera lense.

Still a beauty.

Have you ever tried Empress of India? The most scarlet nasturtium I've seen, partly because the foliage is a dark bluish green, really great color to throw in there.

No, I haven't tried that one. I don't buy named varieties just the packs of mixed seeds. I'll never need to buy another pack again after this year! They produce so many seeds & although they are big they hide themselves very well. They were even growing in the patch of grass outside our balcony but the council gardeners cut them down when cutting the grass!

I dumped some well used compost early in the summer as I just had no place to use it any more. A few weeks after dumping it in a hedgerow I noticed the leaves of Nasturtiums growing in the place I'd dump the compost! They even got to flower! I think some kids probably destroyed them because for some weeks there was no more sign of them, not even the leaves. Some weeks later I saw some bright red flowers in another spot & on closer investigation saw they were also Nasturtiums!

They seed very well, part of why I started buying variety specific types, only have to buy once. :-) I have the empress in my garden from last year if you'd like to look. (didn't plant this year) I'm looking hard at the Majus Alaska offered to the right, I love the variegated leaves!

Alaska came up by chance in my seeds this year but it has grown very badly, it still seems to be surviving but I don't think it has produced a single flower all summer. I don't know why. It is growing in a deep bin where some white Carnations have been growing for the last 7 years. Another Nasturtium growing in the same place has produced plenty of deep orange flowers. It is difficult to see it very well as it has grown in amongst other plants in another trough up against it.

I think it must be Alaska as I know of no other Nasturtium with white marbled leaves.

Hmmmm, thats unusual. They usually only fail to bloom if fertilized or the soil too fertile. If others did well there, that doesn't make sense. I love the marbled leaves but haven't tried that variety myself yet. I'll have to give them a go and see what i get.

I know that which is why I also find it so strange that the plants are still growing & flowering. They have had exactly the same treatment as all the other plants. General fertilizer for a month or two then tomato fertilizer for another couple of months then a month on general again then a couple on plain water. I fertilize all my plants once a week with liquid fertilizer. They get watered every day. Now it's every other day or three.