[tallulah]

I have a bit of a dilemma regarding what to do with spent spring plants/flowers.  For example wallflowers that are past their best.  I can't bear to dig up and dispose of these plants, but they end up looking scraggy and scruffy, and take up valuable space for the rest of the year.  One of my neighbours seems to have a complete change of bedding plants every few weeks - does he just chuck them out, I wonder?  Is this what people do?  Will I have to harden myself?  (This is just for the front garden - the back has mainly long term perennials and self-seeded annuals.)

[compostqueen]

They can all be composted so they don't go to waste

[Paul Plots]

Wall-flowers are usually flowering well around this time of year... eventually they will give up the ghost and are usually replaced with summer bedding in most gardens.

The couple of hundred wall flowers that I grew from seed will all go through the shredder and take their place on the compost heap. I guess you might be able to cut them back and leave them to flower again next year as can be done with sweet williams...I am unsure - most people will clear the beds and dispose of the old plants.

Stick some wall flower seed into a short row.... transplant later into a nursey-bed and wait until very late summer / early autumn before plonking them into their flowering positions for the following Spring. This way you get some very sturdy plants to be proud of. The seeds are cheap - just needs a bit of space and time  

[compostqueen]

I keep sweet williams, tidy them up and grow them again the following year, and some of mine will be in their third year this time. Looking good they are too. I have them in a barrel by my shed door

[Paul Plots]

I keep sweet williams, tidy them up and grow them again the following year, and some of mine will be in their third year this time. Looking good they are too. I have them in a barrel by my shed door

Sweet williams come back well year after year... well worth growing from seed and waiting until the first flowering the following year.... then getting your money's worth by leaving them in.

I'm not so sure wallflowers cope so well?
I'll leave a patch in this year and see how they perform next spring - if they last that long.   

[compostqueen]

I love annual wallflowers but the perennial ones are good too if you tidy them up a bit when they get dead bits on them.

Annual ones are as cheap as chips from seed but worth it as you get really stocky plants that last for ages. Good one to grow on the lotty

[Paul Plots]

I love annual wallflowers but the perennial ones are good too if you tidy them up a bit when they get dead bits on them.

Annual ones are as cheap as chips from seed but worth it as you get really stocky plants that last for ages. Good one to grow on the lotty

Perennial / Annual? Two different varieties?

Tell me more please... keen to learn or have I misunderstood - as uaual 

[compostqueen]

oh yes, you can get perennial wallflowers which are called (if memory serves) cheiranthus. My sister has a lovely yellowy orange one 

[Paul Plots]

oh yes, you can get perennial wallflowers which are called (if memory serves) cheiranthus. My sister has a lovely yellowy orange one 

I wonder if it is a close relative of the wild wllflower that grows (as the name suggests) in rock walls? That too is a warm yellow. 

[mumofstig]

non perennial walflowers are biennials...start growing the first year and flower and die the 2nd year, that's why they get thrown away
Pansies can of course be given a trim and planted elsewhere in the garden to flower again as they are true perennials

[Hey Jude]

Learner, the perennial wallflower is called 'Erysimum' and the usual one is 'Bowles Mauve'. If you've got space somewhere to sow wallflower seed do, it's so easy, but it needs sowing in the next few weeks as it's a biennial, and moving to it's final position in the early autumn. I always compost mine when they've finished flowering and then the bedding plants go in (well, that's the plan, sometime I get there, sometimes I don't!) Jude.

[Paul Plots]

Learner, the perennial wallflower is called 'Erysimum' and the usual one is 'Bowles Mauve'. If you've got space somewhere to sow wallflower seed do, it's so easy, but it needs sowing in the next few weeks as it's a biennial, and moving to it's final position in the early autumn. I always compost mine when they've finished flowering and then the bedding plants go in (well, that's the plan, sometime I get there, sometimes I don't!) Jude.

They make a great show in spring don't they....

Here's some of my efforts... I plant up my parents garden, my sisters and my own... so I grow quite a few from seed each year 

[Hey Jude]

Ooooh Learner, they're gorgeous! I've got a small bunch by the kitchen sink (well I spend so much time there!), and the perfume is wonderful. The perennial one doesn't have such a strong fragrance but they're lovely too. Jude.

[Spana]

Even the 'biennials' will survive, most people take them out to make room for summer bedding.  If you have the room to leave them in cut the stems back to the main stem to about on inch  and most will shoot out again to flower next year.
You could leave them in and cut them back but if you need their space later on yank them out then.

[tallulah]

Thanks everyone.  The annual wallflowers - I think they might be perennials, as I had kept them in from last year - but they have gone very scruffy and woody, though are in full flower at the moment.  Its the pain of digging up plants that aren't diseased or dead and chucking them that hurts!  But as I want a front garden that is looking its best, as much of the time as possible, looks like I'll have to!  I like the idea of raising next year's wallflowers from seeds now.  I do have room in my greenhouse though they probably wouldn't need the heat.  I have some purple perennial wallflowers in, bought a couple of weeks ago - I intend to keep them in all year round.  Hopefully be next year they will have bushed out a bit.  But they're not a patch on the glorious rich colours and scents of the annual wallflowers!