By Laws
Hertfordshire,
United Kingdom 
Hello...I am new here (and very much a gardening beginner) I have decking in my garden so I grow all my flowers in pots. This is my third year of having flowers in my garden. The first two years they grew with no problem at all (beginners luck?) but this year the plants have struggled. I wondered if anyone could answer a couple of questions. Re. photo 1 & 2 - I have four of these plants in my garden. I don't know the name of them but I am sure someone will know here. One (the white blossom picture) is doing fine but the other three (one pink pictured) are looking poorly. The leaves are going soft and yellow. Does anyone know what I could do to help them? Re. photo 3 - I have many osteospermums in the garden and they are all growing brilliantly - but in the last couple of days this one has deteriorated. It gets the same amount of sun and water as the others. My instinct is to water it more, but I am now concerned that I will be over watering - the plant looks awful and when I checked the soil I expected it to be dry, but it is cold and moist....what am I doing wrong? Thank you for reading.
15 Aug, 2016
Answers
The top two are Impatiens....buzy lizzies....in the last few years they've been tricky as theres a virus that affects them
Also they're not that happy with the weather, hot/chilly/ dry/wet up and down
I used to grow a hundred at least but gave up as I had so many disappointments
15 Aug, 2016
I think they've cracked it Pam - mine have been fine so far this year and the nursery man said he thought they'd solved the problem, or I wouldn't have bought them. Lets hope so.
Could the Osteospermum have been overwatered? They grow happily on dry banks so I just wondered.
15 Aug, 2016
Thank you so much for the responses. I checked the roots of the Osteospermum and there aren't any vine weevil grubs. The soil is very moist, so have left it aside to recover and not water it....I hope it gets better - It was my favourite one!
The Busy Lizzies (thanks for the name!) had a dose of Miracle gro...and I know it is in my imagination, but they already seem to look better!
15 Aug, 2016
My cousin lost hers Stera, she thinks it was the cold and wet early on
I remember they were working on a virus resistent strain, hope it works they're so pretty
16 Aug, 2016
That's disappointing. All I'm going on is the opinion of the nurseryman when I bought mine. They are still OK so far, fingers crossed. Probably better for your cousin to stick with the New guinea hybrids then for now but I do prefer the originals don't you?
16 Aug, 2016
I do Stera, one year I had all pinks and white....about 150 of those mini plugs in huge blue pots.....
They looked stunning
These days its pot ready plants ?
18 Aug, 2016
They must have looked stunning!
18 Aug, 2016
They did, I changed to perennials now, so much easier, it was all potting on then the kneeling.....
Lovely lovely rain here today, everything was dusty and the ground rock hard
19 Aug, 2016
The first two are Impatiens - Busy Lizzies. Have you fed them at all? If they've been in all season, they will have used up the nutrients in the compost. Something like Miracle Gro is good. Take the poorly osteospermums out and check there are no vine weevil grubs around the roots. They are "C" shaped with a brown head and they feed off the roots. If there are you can clean off the roots and repot them, but if they're too far gone there's not much you can do, I'm afraid. You're not doing anything wrong at all - these things happen. And welcome to GoY!
15 Aug, 2016