Strawflowers revisited, with a question

[SPedigrees]

I posted this on an old thread where it sort of stayed buried https://www.theeasygarden.com/threads/strawflowers-in-a-container.11410/page-2#post-427922 so I'll try giving it a life of its own. I just wonder what is preventing my strawflowers from blooming or even developing buds. They get these little black shiveled things where buds/flowers should be. Does anyone have an idea what could cause this?

Two years ago I planted strawflowers in a container and they grew well, but I was unhappy with the new cultivars that produce pastel colored blooms when what I wanted were oranges, reds, and golden yellows as they used to be when I grew them back in the 1970s.

So last year I found a seller on Etsy selling strawflower seeds in red and yellow, and another seller all the way across the Atlantic in Ireland who sold me seeds for orange strawflowers. I mixed these two batches of seeds together and planted a pot of them in a patio garden in the back of the house. They grew fine, but never produced buds or flowers, and the foliage became black like it was being attacked by some pest.

So this year I potted up a different planter, a grow-bag, and planted the remainder of the seeds on the relative safety of my front porch as seen here. (The pot in the middle in the picture.)

The plants appeared to thrive until just the past weeks they got these little black ends where buds should be. (Seen in the closeup photos below)

Needless to say, this is really frustrating. Could one batch of the seeds I ordered have been infected with some sort of blight? I'll be grateful for any ideas on what is causing this bizarre plant behavior.

 

[Dahlia]

I posted this on an old thread where it sort of stayed buried https://www.theeasygarden.com/threads/strawflowers-in-a-container.11410/page-2#post-427922 so I'll try giving it a life of its own. I just wonder what is preventing my strawflowers from blooming or even developing buds. They get these little black shiveled things where buds/flowers should be. Does anyone have an idea what could cause this?

Two years ago I planted strawflowers in a container and they grew well, but I was unhappy with the new cultivars that produce pastel colored blooms when what I wanted were oranges, reds, and golden yellows as they used to be when I grew them back in the 1970s.

So last year I found a seller on Etsy selling strawflower seeds in red and yellow, and another seller all the way across the Atlantic in Ireland who sold me seeds for orange strawflowers. I mixed these two batches of seeds together and planted a pot of them in a patio garden in the back of the house. They grew fine, but never produced buds or flowers, and the foliage became black like it was being attacked by some pest.

So this year I potted up a different planter, a grow-bag, and planted the remainder of the seeds on the relative safety of my front porch as seen here. (The pot in the middle in the picture.)

View attachment 60240

The plants appeared to thrive until just the past weeks they got these little black ends where buds should be. (Seen in the closeup photos below)

View attachment 60241

View attachment 60242


View attachment 60243


Needless to say, this is really frustrating. Could one batch of the seeds I ordered have been infected with some sort of blight? I'll be grateful for any ideas on what is causing this bizarre plant behavior.

Is it possible that the strawflowers are getting too much water? I had a really pretty purple strawflower in a pot this summer, but all of the leaves started turning black. I think it got too much water.

 

[SPedigrees]

Is it possible that the strawflowers are getting too much water? I had a really pretty purple strawflower in a pot this summer, but all of the leaves started turning black. I think it got too much water.

Thanks for the reply. I'm assuming that your strawflower plant had blooms on it?

I doubt that mine are getting too much water. They get no rainwater on the porch, and are in a grow-bag which drains water rapidly, so by the time I go out to give all the porch plants their daily watering (usually in the afternoon) the foliage on the strawflowers has wilted (from thirst) but once they have received their "drink" they perk right up again and stay happy-looking until the following afternoon. Last year they were outdoors in a pot with a single drain hole on the bottom, and were watered daily on days when it didn't rain, but rainfall amounts last year were not great.

This is just so bizarre, but I think I have no choice but to give up on strawflowers. My other option would be to again track down more of these seeds from afar, and this time I would plant the Irish seeds in a different pot from the Etsy seeds, and probably place the pots far apart in different places on the property. I can't help but think that whatever mechanism is preventing blooming is in the seeds themselves.

 

[flowerbug]

full sun and well drained soil. i'm guessing that daily watering is not really good for them.

is it shady where they are at?

 

[digitS']

I have grown strawflowers quite a few times. Always in the open garden where they are watered 2 or 3 times a week with rain unlikely.

They have never had this problem. So, I have no good idea about the cause after giving it some thought with both of your posts. Bizarre -- but I have never had them in a container and always in the same way, full sun and well-drained soil.

Steve

 

[SPedigrees]

Thanks both for the replies. Bizarre is the word for this. The patio garden where I planted these strawflowers last year (photo below - grey pot at far right with orange stripe around top) gets full sun all day, and last year was sunny.

This year I grew them on the front porch which gets full sun from noon until dark. Unfortunately this year we had a record number of rainy overcast days, and all my potted plants, even houseplants, have grown leggy in a desperate effort to reach sunlight that just hasn't been there. Still, all my other porch plants in containers (nasturtiums, petunias, poppies, and cosmos) managed to flower, albeit with sparse and delayed blooms.

Back in the 1970s when I last successfully planted strawflowers, I sowed them directly in the ground, and they only needed watering twice a week, and then only if it didn't rain. But in recent years I've had great difficulty growing any annuals directly in the ground, and have adopted raised beds and containers which has mostly eliminated problems with mildew, slugs, and other pests.

Anyway, I just found some seeds for all orange strawflowers at Johnny's Seeds, and I'm going to place an order and give this one last attempt next summer. This is a good company that's been around for awhile, so hopefully their seeds will be free of any virus or pest (if that is what caused my problems with the other seeds). All I want is one successful harvest of strawflowers I can dry. The ones I grew in the 70's lasted a number of years as dried flowers, so I'm hoping to duplicate that and have some nice fall flowers on my windowsill.

The whole thing is just so weird.

 

[digitS']

"been around for awhile"

I realize that folks in the East have a special perspective on history and that's wonderful. I was never quite the greatest fan of archeology as an anthropology student but it IS wonderful to feel the ages represented in what remains of the work of our ancestors.

Rob Johnston's company didn't amount to much in the early 70's but I was already seeing ads in the gardening magazines by the late part of that decade. Over the years, I have felt a sort of kinship with the outfit and pleased that it handled a shift to employee-ownership 10+ years ago without a hitch, as best as I can see . Still standing out there in the more elevated part of the field for home gardeners, IMO.

Steve