Verbascum olympicum

[WendyG]

Please can anyone help.

I purchased 4 verbascum olympicum plants in the UK.  Planted them here and carefully looked after them but all they have done has grown enormous leaves with not one flowering spike amongst them.

I used to grow them prolifically in the UK. without anby problem - in fact they became a nuisance through self seeding.

They are in well drained soil, sunshine and have been kept watered since planting.

Any help would be much appreciated as I am very tempted at the moment to pull them out.

WendyG

[woolybanana]

Have they played mummys and daddys?

[Pierre ZFP]

In general, too many leaves and no/few flowers is an indication of too much nitrogen in the soil.

Either you have got very fertile ground or have fed too much

[WendyG]

Hi

Thanks for replies -

did not know you had to have male and female plants, will take up with garden centre|

 

Soil here is very poor, lime/chalk and I did not feed them at all, only watered.

 

Saw them growing wild in the hedgerows on my way out this morning, will gather a few seeds and see what hapens next year|

 

WendyG

[Patf]

I've had the opposite experience with that plant - it suddenly appeared this year in a border, and soon increased to 5 plants, all with a spiky flower. Lots of furry leaves too.

It's in a sunny dampish patch on clay soil. Also gets shade from a large tree.

ps thanks for naming it, I thought it was mullein.

[Hoddy]

You are right though PatF - it is a kind of mullein.

Hoddy