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Wallflowers going over

yorkiethorntonyorkiethornton Posts: 100
in Plants
Hi. Any advice on wallflowers please? Seem to be going over but should they be left or can they be trimmed back/tidied (though maybe not right now?). Can they be moved; is there a best time to do so? Any guidance appreciated. TIA.
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  • AnniDAnniD Posts: 11,938
    Assuming they're not the perennial but the biennial type (ie the ones used for Spring bedding),  personally l pull them out and add them to the green waste/compost bin.

    You can keep them if you want to, one of my neighbours keeps one or two, just cuts off the flower stalk and gives them a feed. They have flowered again the following Spring, but l feel they're taking up valuable space that could be used for Summer flowers  :)
  • PlantmindedPlantminded Posts: 2,764
    edited May 2022
    I do the same as @AnniD has described.  The biennial type looks scruffy after it has finished flowering and makes the borders untidy!  They are inexpensive to buy so it's not really an extravagance to recyle them.

    If you like the flower, I'd recommend the perennial wallflower, Erysimum "Bowles's Mauve", which flowers for nearly 12 months of the year.  It's short lived but will give you and the bees an excellent show for at least two years!
    Wirral. Sandy, free draining soil.


  • AnniDAnniD Posts: 11,938
    Bowles Mauve flowers itself to a standstill but is easy to propagate from cuttings. My favourite is Constant Cheer.
    https://shireplants.co.uk/erysimum/

    (Other suppliers are available)
  • WAMSWAMS Posts: 1,831
    I sow wallflower seeds the previous summer. Always have millions too many as they germinate so easily. I wouldn't keep the plants for the reason Anni said... after a month of flower I am itching to put summer annuals in those spots.

    I have just uprooted Bowles's Mauve partly because the dog nobbled it trying to catch bees and partly because while it bloomed all winter it is a spectacularly ugly plant.
  • WAMSWAMS Posts: 1,831
    Some of the ones on that link look ever so much nicer, though, Anni
  • LG_LG_ Posts: 4,249
    I cut mine back and tuck them behind other stuff if necessary, and they flower beautifully the next year. They've been going about 4 or 5 years now. I don't have a lot, so they don't get in the way.
    'If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need.'
    - Cicero
  • FireFire Posts: 17,348
    I too have kept some Cloth of Gold in for the following year sometimes and the plants just got bigger and better. I might consider it this year. Such valuable bee plants, flowering for  about two months or more. They might get a bit leggy, but I don’t mind. 
  • TheGreenManTheGreenMan Posts: 1,957
    I bought a couple of "Fragrant Sunshine" recently and didn't think to check if they were biennial.  :o
  • AnniDAnniD Posts: 11,938
    They're perennial @TheGreenMan, hope you haven't thrown them out !
  • TheGreenManTheGreenMan Posts: 1,957
    Oh no.  They're still flowering away.  @AnniD
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