Busy Lizzies (Impatiens) & Lobelias on balcony railings (From outside) 2nd August 2017 001

doing very well

Thanks, Brian, but all the plants are now dead! I pulled them all up a week or more ago to make way for the spring planting.

In 2 of the 3 troughs, they had been growing in on the balcony railings, I discovered some grubs that were a creamy colour & curled up like a "C". These were no doubt the culprits of the death of the Busy Lizzies. I had noticed a couple of weeks before removing them that they looked very much "under the weather" & one day while trying to remove something from one of the troughs, I accidentally knocked over one Busy Lizzy plant & it came away from the soil with practically no roots at all, much to my surprise!

That made me think I had perhaps overwatered the trough too much but that wasn't the cause! A week or so later I emptied out the contents of the 3 troughs& found that 2 of them had practically NO fibrous roots whereas the 3rd was chock-a-block full of fibrous roots!

Lovely colourful show you have there.

Darn bugs and caterpillars! All My Alyssum was eaten at the buds, demolished by a green small caterpillar. It is so
disappointing. I like your combinations.... Question: Balcony, I ordered some Amaryllis for gifts. Their roots are really long. Should I just go ahead and plant with roots that long? You do have maybe slightly too many Amaryllis. I have too many of lots of things....I should cut down but am horribly sentimental.If someone gives me a plant, I keep it and grow it! Thanks

It is surprising just how much damage one caterpillar can do!

As for the long roots of your Amaryllis bulbs, if they are dry & dead looking cut them away. If they are white & don't seem to be dying then go ahead & pot them up. Just make sure the compost can get between the roots by jiggling the pot around as you fill it with compost. Then give them a good soaking but don't water anymore until you see the bud coming out of the neck of the bulb. You can kill them very easily by overwatering them. They will even flower if you doing nothing more to them till the flower starts to go over! The roots only really start to grow when the flower is opening so you see how easy it is to overwater them.

These plants will stand for a long time drought but overwatering is a sure way of killing them.

Thanks, you say compost? not potting soil?