Maybe they haven't got into their stride yet. Have you dead-headed every day?

i have dead headed but not every day i have to confess. not too sure that any have come out as they should ~ hard to see them, then its easy to forget to take off the heads! also not easy to see if they are on their way out or about to open!

Yes - agreed. Have the birds been pecking at them as well?

thats what im wondering ~ havent seen them and we have a cat but its still possible

That makes it difficult, but they do get bored and stop after a while, if that's any consolation! Honestly!

oh ok, have to be patient to find out ~ thanks ~ will let you know if things improve! everything else in the pot is doing well!

My violas are growing really well but I didn't know they had to be deadheaded (they are in containers)...should I start looking more closely and deadheading them?

In my experience it's not absolutely essential, but you do get more and better flowers if you do.

Yes, you do. I do them as I amble past - a quick finger-and- thumb 'flick' and another dead head is off. LOL.

Sticki - get close to them and take a good look at a viola that has no petals. See if you can see a small round seedhead forming, or the tiny frill of the remains of pecked-off petals. Then you'll know if the birds have been at them.

I've been blaming my usual culprits - slugs! Maybe I should be glaring at the birds instead. Have a look at night with a torch Sticki and see if it's slugs / snails.

that seed head and frill is there on some of them ~ will try the torch tonight ~ any slug had better beware ~ i hate them!

Hmmm...it does sound like birds, but obviously check for the slimy enemy too! Grrrrrr....

i shall take the salt pot out with me!

...or a bucket of salty water!

dont want to pick them up ~ i can put the salt on them from the salt pot!! aren't i cruel!!?

No - not to them, if they HAVE been munching your violas! I chuck snails into the stream!

a stream?! now that would be nice
i throw them in the wood, but i dont mind them ~ just dont want them on my hostas

There's been some recent research into how far snails can slither to find their way home (reported on Radio 4 some weeks ago) if taken away from their "own" garden. I think they found they could crawl about 300 yards home. Will go and check, but I think you'd need a jolly strong throwing arm Sticki.

Sprinkling salt onto the slugs / snails without picking them up and putting them in a container would get salt onto the plants and soil. Not a good idea. I just wear boots or strong shoes and stomp on them - after removing from the plant, obviously!

Here it is!
http://news.bbc.co.uk/cbbcnews/hi/newsid_9000000/newsid_9001900/9001981.stm

I was out by a factor of 10. They can return home from 30 metres away from home. How's 'your' snail bowling?

I bet they get carried more than 30m by our stream, Beattie, and do you know if they can swim back - or just slither? LOL.

it will improve with practise!!! i used to play rounders ~ was second deep ~ do you think that will help?
yes i heard that item on the news ~ didnt the woman get scientist of the year for her research?

I think she marked all the shells with nail varnish, didn't she?

There's a bit more about it here -
http://www.facebook.com/notes/bbc-homing-snails-experiment/results-from-research-into-homing-distance-of-helix-aspersa-garden-snail/157152890973592

I think it was "Amateur scientist of the year" Sticki. The paper they submitted was turned down as the journal wanted more research. Lots of snails are hibernating now, so they are planning more experiments next year.

She did, Spritz. The results of the "snail swop" were inconclusive. I wonder how you'd mark slugs, and if results for snails are transferable to slugs?

im sure i could do some of that type of research. my dad did something like that in the 1930s ~ as a child ~ he painted the backs of spiders silver ~ to see if it was the same one coming back
i expect he got a telling off ~ not an award!!!!

I could certainly mark snails - we still have loads of them around on a damp night...but do I really want to? :-((

could put luminous paint on them as a warning?!

I made a bad mistake with Henry a while back - when he went out before bedtime, I picked up a couple of marauders and chucked them over into the field at the back - he thought it was a good game, (woof, woof) and now when it's damp and they're about, he sits and waits for me to come and play snails with him - he even points them out to me with his nose! I refuse to go out to him, so it's a battle of wills.

I got a bit worried when he picked up a couple and brought them over to me. Would they do him any harm, do you think?

LOL!
"Would they do him any harm, do you think?"
Only if you overdo the garlic Spritz :-)

Oh, haha, Beattie! ;-)

is he french?

Spritz's Henri is no poodle...

Non, et il ne parle pas francais. LOL.

tres bien spritzhenry

Merci, Mme. :-)))