Dark red bad buys.

Maybe I have given you the impression that everything in my garden grows and flourishes without any failures. That is not true. Here are two bad buys of past year.

Bad buy number one. Scabiosa.
Last year I bought the dark red Scabiosa 'Red Velvet' at a garden fair. The plants were rather expensive, but nevertheless I bought 12. As you may understand, I was completely in love with this particular Scabiosa. Till the beginning of winter, they bloomed exuberantly. During a storm however, one of the stems broke off. Mmm … I thought, I could take a nice cutting of that. So I place the cutting into the greenhouse and it grew very well.

Winter came and although not unusually severe, in March we got a nasty frost period. It turned out to be not the best scenario for my Scabiosa . All 12 plants were frozen. ALL OF THEM! Except for the cutting in the greenhouse. At this moment this survivor is the only one left blooming in my garden! Lesson learnt: this plant is not hardy and therefore the bad buy of the year.

A disappointing story? Hold on there is more to come...

Bad buy number two. Gladiolus.
At the end of May I planted 50 gladiolus tubers between the bearded irises. By doing so I planned have something in flower twice on the same spot. After the tubers were planted, it did not rain for eight weeks ... EIGHT weeks! The gladiolus did make some leaves, but flowers? No way! Well, except for one.

At this moment there is only one gladiolus in flower. Although the colour is beautiful against the white wall of our house, the effect is minimal. Bad buy number two!

One Scabiosa and one gladiola in flower. What do you think about bad buys?
Does the success of a plant depend on the weather? Or is it my purchasing policy totally wrong?
Scabiosa 'Red Velvet'
Scabiosa 'Red Velvet' 
Scabiosa 'Red Velvet'
Scabiosa 'Red Velvet' at the garden fair.
Scabiosa 'Red Velvet'
frosted Scabiosa 'Red Velvet'
Gladiolus 'Espresso'
Gladiolus 'Espresso' 
Gladiolus 'Espresso'
Gladiolus 'Espresso'. Only one in flower!

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