Is it dead and what is growing out of this!!!??

clemmyx760

Ok so this is my first garden, and I've gone a bit haywire. I've bought plants based on looks and colour not (as an actual gardener would) on soil/sunlight needs.

I've also just picked stuff up as and when I've spotted it at places like Lidl and Aldi because plants there are SO cheap compared to garden centres!!

The succulents/alpines I've bought seem to be doing really well but this one (pale blue in the low pot with the green thing) is sprouting some weird extension!!!! Should I cut this off? is it a new plant? Can I cut it off and plant it and it will grow or is this how this thing grows???

This hydrangea I bought from Lidl for £5 is looking sad. Although when you look past the flowers there are new leaf shoots and the greenery of it looks good the puff ball flowers heads are all looking manky, brown, crispy etc. Should I cut these off?

Also in the pale blue pot (the green plant and the heather) the green plant is doing really well, any ideas how big this will get? It seems to creep along the floor, it's very fragile to move (bits fall off every time I re-pot it) How big will it get?

Any other tips greatly appreciated. I want the bed to look really full of all sorts of plants but still have a few bare spaces. Should I plant and leave room to grow or just pack them in and then take out when it gets too crowded?

Sorry for such novice ramblings!!

Thanks

Chloe

clemmyx760

  better pic of the sprouting thing

clemmyx760

 better pic of sad hydrangea, you can see the new green shoots but also look how dead the flowers look, is that normal? They were big white and puffy when I planted it, then they turned pinky and now dead?

clemmyx760

 I was given these herbs when we moved in, now they are huge! How do I prune them? Are they quite hardy should I just chop them back??

nutcutlet

I think the weird extension will open into a flower.

Hortum-cretae

Chloe,

So many questions!  I'll try.

The juniper in the fire bucket - has the bucket got drainage holes? It must have, or the plant will get soggy and die.

The grey rosetted plant with the 'weird' extension is an echeveria and the extension is pribably coming up to flower bud. Pretty salmony orange flowers. It may be too late for the flowers to from, though.

The hydrangea - yes, you can trim off the flower heads, if they annoy you, but there is an argument that the old heads will protect the plant through the winter and you can cut them off in mid- to late March next year, which is normal for pruning that sort of hydrangea. Up close to the wall there it'll be alright to tidy it now.

Generally the planting is too dense and one or two of the plants will grow to large for the site, but that can be tackled next spring.  The green brittle plant will spread as it has down, but if bis break offlike that it's easily kept small, isn't it?!

Question for you -  Is it a warm spot, sunny?

H-C 

Hortum-cretae

Apologies for some of my spelling - hope you translated ok!

H-C

clemmyx760

Just to give you some context this was the bed when we moved in   

and this is it now 4 months after moving in and after 2 rather rookie trips to the garden centre!!!

Yviestevie

Don't worry about the hydrangea.  The flowers are going over now and should be left on the plant over winter to protect the new growth underneath.  Not sure it will be happy in that trough in the long term, they prefer to be in the garden.  Some grow big and some stay relatively small.

clemmyx760

nutcutlet says:

I think the weird extension will open into a flower.

See original post

 Brill! I didn't even know that thing could flower!

Dovefromabove

Hello Chloe and welcome 

I agree with everything that's been said, so I won't repeat - but just a thought to add - if you want the bed to look more 'complete' while waiting for the plants to grow and occupy more space, you could top dress the soil surface with some small grade bark chippings from the garden centre - just to make it look more finished - but you don't have to  - only if your fingers are itching to 'do something'