Anyone grow tropaeolum speciosum (flame flower)?

[Mitzi]

I've seen this in gardens I've visited and love it. Thought it would be great to prettify my fugly leylandii hedge.

Chiltern Seeds sell it but it's always out of stock. A month or two back I had an email saying it was back in stock, but by the time I looked (approx 1 hour after the email) it had already sold out again. Now it's back in stock again.

Germination instructions are so fiddly - file it, sow, warm place, freezing place, cool place, wait for months. I must admit I had thought it was perennial but apparently it's only annual, according to Chilterns. Is it worth it? Does it self-seed?

[Mitzi]

RHS site implies it's perennial as it says "Time to ultimate height: 5-10 years"

I'm on acid clay but on a slope so it drains.

Sod it, I'm ordering.

[Thelma Sanders]

Definitely perennial once it gets going, I bought a plant as it seemed fussy from seeds. It needs an acid soil to do well, so ideal under a conifer hedge, where the pine needles keep the soil acidic.
Good luck!

[Aberdeenplotter]

Difficult to propagate and difficult to get rid of once it's established but such a cutie

[Mitzi]

Difficult to propagate and difficult to get rid of once it's established but such a cutie

I can’t imagine wanting to get rid of it. Sounds like my difficulties won’t be over even if I succeed with germination.

[Scarlet]

I've just looked it up- I don't think I'd worry about being over run!

[rary]

I've just looked it up- I don't think I'd worry about being over run!

Scarlet one of the times I was visiting the RHS Gardens in Edinburgh they were stripping tropaeolum from their hedges and it took at least three trailer loads while I was there, it is difficult to establish and like all nasturtiums it does well in poor soil, I have also heard, it grows better from cuttings if it is borrowed without permition

[Babru]

I've seen it growing like a weed at Edinburgh Botanics and it looks lovely. I therefore know it is possible in my neck of the woods.

However I've tried twice from potted plants. First time a snail ate the whole plant before I could even get it planted out. Second time it grew for a season, looked fine, but never came back the following year. Neither plant was cheap to buy so I haven't tried since. I've since moved and may give it a go in my new garden. Growing from seed - sounds like a good option.

[Martin H]

I have tried it twice but I don't think it likes the climate down here as much as it does in cooler and wetter places.

The first time I grew it it struggled the first summer and didn't come back the second year.

The second time I tried, it came up the second year, a couple of yards away from where I planted it! Unfortunately it was in the way there and I killed it trying to move it somewhere else.

I am tempted to have another go, it might be happy scrambling through Pyracantha and Cotoneaster?

[Mitzi]

I have tried it twice but I don't think it likes the climate down here as much as it does in cooler and wetter places.

The first time I grew it it struggled the first summer and didn't come back the second year.

The second time I tried, it came up the second year, a couple of yards away from where I planted it! Unfortunately it was in the way there and I killed it trying to move it somewhere else.

I am tempted to have another go, it might be happy scrambling through Pyracantha and Cotoneaster?

Did you buy a plant or grow from seed?

[Martin H]

Did you buy a plant or grow from seed?

I think I bought a plant both times.