The saga continues. This time, descendants of Halston have invaded a bed that was outfitted with a layer of gopher wire that was intended to prevent such invasion. This apparently ineffective gopher wire now provides a layer of defense for the invaders. Attempts to cut through the wire in order to set traps causes tunnels to collapse, so that there are no intact tunnels in which to set the traps. These pictures are several days old. Not many nasturtiums remain. Some of the adjacent scarlet sage are missing also.

1. Nasturtiums grow like weeds. Perhaps they are. Nonetheless, they are among my favorites. These were supposed to be a mix of colors, but are mostly this vivid orange. I could not complain.

2. Is this very pale yellow or creamy white? Of the many nasturtiums that grew here from seed of mixed colors, this was one of only a few that were not the richly reddish orange shown above.

3. Bright yellow was about as scarce, with only two plants of this color. Another bloomed with rich red flowers; but I neglected to get a picture of it. I never met a nasturtium that I did not like.

4. This was a problem. The entire top of the stone wall had been occupied by healthy nasturtiums earlier. The small plant with yellow flowers to the right of this gap was just beginning to wilt.

5. This was below the gap. The main stem, which is now to the lower left, was chewed through. There was no attempt to hide the evidence, although other plants had been pulled underground.

6. Just in case there was any doubt about who the culprit was, this new volcano appeared nearby. Unfortunately, the gopher wire that was installed below this bed now impedes with trapping.

This is the link for Six on Saturday, for anyone else who would like to participate:

https://thepropagatorblog.wordpress.com/2017/09/18/six-on-saturday-a-participant-guide/

28 thoughts on “Six on Saturday: Revenge of Halston Junior”

  1. Thank goodness we don’t have gophers. We do have pheasants who like to take dust baths among the plants which can devastate young or newly planted items.

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  2. Oops – the best laid plans… I love (2) and would call it cream with pink splashes. I tried some supposedly mixed Alaska with variegated leaves last year but they were almost all orange too. I’d not buy them again.

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    1. ‘Pink splashes’ is not within my vocabulary, so creamy white with pink will do. I have heard it described as ‘Strawberries & Cream’, but that is a fancier variety. ‘Alaska’ is a mix, so there is always a risk of it favoring one color or another. I got my mix just because it was so cheap while I was in the nursery anyway. Otherwise, I just take random seed. The feral orange and yellow are my favorite anyway, although I do like a red one if it happens to show up.

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  3. Those gophers! Little devils! Nasturtiums are so cheerful, and so quick and easy. Here they can be prone to blackfly – sometimes people grow them near veg as a sacrifice plant to keep the black fly off the beans! (I think I’m probably telling you something you already know…)

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    1. I have heard of that, but have never done it because insects are not a problem in my vegetable gardens. (I believe that black fly is what I think of as aphid.)

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  4. Your gophers remind me if the tunneling chipmunks that have invaded my gardens and devoured the tulips. I think if something was going to eat my garden I’d choose the deer we saw earlier this week. My Nasturtiums have just started to bloom – also a creamy yellow with a bit of a splotch. Delicious!

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    1. The problem with them growing like weeds is that they are considered by some to be weeds, and not ‘good enough’. I grew them in my downtown planter box for a while, and got a few complaints, which was weird, but will not prevent me from doing it again. What was more annoying was the occasional but somehow common pedestrian who would stop to tell me that nasturtiums are edible (as if someone with such an obviously Italian American name would not already know that) and then proceed to clear cut harvesting them!

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    1. Once they get started, they almost never stop. Those that are blooming now stop in autumn, but by that time, a new generation is beginning for autumn and into winter. By they time they finish a new generation is beginning for spring and summer. They only stop blooming when winter weather gets cool enough to slow them down or kill them (which actually can happen even here). Of course, in your climate, they would not want to be out through winter.

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  7. Fabulous nasturtiums, I like the way the flowers stand tall rather than hiding under the leaves as they so often too. A nuisance about the gophers but there are always creatures out there waiting to ruin our plants.

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    1. These nasturtiums were exceptionally prolific. There is typically a bit more foliage visible below the bloom. I do not know what got into them. They would be spectacular now if only they had survived.

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  8. Ack! It seems the gophers are in league with the rabbits in my garden. Love the Nasturtiums and the colors. I was very surprised to see a Nasturtium popping up in a container in my garden – they usually emerge in December.

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    1. So, it is ‘creamy white’? That is what I thought. To me, it looks to whiter than those that are supposed to be white. It might be about the same, but only looks whiter because it contrasts with the strawberry red center.

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    1. That was one of my annoyances with the planter box downtown. While working out there, random pedestrians would stop to remind me that they are edible (as if white people know more about that sort of thing than those of us of Italian descent), and then proceed to rip pieces of it out! The first time was weird. The second time really made me angry. After the third time, I was wondering if I was on Candid Camera.

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      4. Yes, but it was weird how they just started tearing pieces of it off! I put nasturtiums there because I thought that no one could possibly pick all those flowers, like they do with the iris. Nonetheless, they STILL find a way to damage them, and they do it while I am right there!

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