Q. Earlier this spring, I was just about to fill a planter box with a bagged soil I’d bought for growing salad greens and some herbs when I noticed a caution on the back of the bag. It said not to use the contents for containers. Apparently, the soil I bought was meant to be used only for mixing into garden beds. Why would such a product not be suitable for my planters?
A. Not knowing the precise contents of the soil you bought, I can’t say why it could not be used. At the same time, I acknowledge that the choices in bagged soil mixes at many garden supply stores can be very bewildering.
I’ve learned the hard way to read with extreme care all the printing on products, to be sure of acquiring something suitable for the purpose I plan to use it for — whether that is for seeding, filling containers, or for enriching the soil in garden plots. If choices still leave you bewildered, consult with a salesperson for help in selecting the best possible product for your needs.
Q. Have you ever come across a foxglove with a big, open top floret that looks like a hollyhock? Is this some unusual strain of the flower that has emerged in my garden?
A. I’m asked this question every few years, when environmental factors are exactly right for the abnormality to appear.
The large, odd blooms are fairly rare. They are peloric flowers, from the Greek peloros, meaning huge or monstrous. In foxgloves, peloric flowers develop at the tip of the spike, from the bud that blooms last.
The cause is a recessive gene that is sometimes triggered by injury to the developing terminal bud. Breeders have tried to develop lines of foxgloves with a high frequency of peloria, but even with these only a chance combination of environmental factors will cause peloric flowers to emerge.
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