my friend Jim was also wondering about his nasturtium seeds. His only grew to 3". He is wondering if perhaps it's because his seeds are too old? 3 year old seeds. He tried planting them in pots then re-transplanted them to a different pot. All had top soil. He was wondering if they didn't like the top soil?

serenasyh,

Your friend should use potting mix rather than soil in his pots. Soil doesn't drain when in pots; it stays too wet too long.

Jean001 thanks so much! I'll be sure to tell Jim that. Jean how often are nasturtiums supposed to bloom? I thought they were supposed to continually bloom. Mine hardly bloom! Do you think it's because they're over-fed (too steroid-powered out)? Thanks! I never feed them, only the roses, but they are next to the roses.

Fertilized nasturtiums seldom bloom :-) While you may not be fertilizing them directly, they are getting excess nutrients from their proximity to the fertilized roses, thus the giant foliage and few flowers. IME, the more well-fed they are, the worse the aphid problems seem to be as well so you should consider yourself lucky. Nasturtiums prefer lean, fast draining soil and require no fertilizers. And they are relatively drought tolerant.

There are many different species of aphids and the black bean aphid, Aphis fabae, is the one most attracted to and usually seen on nasturtiums. And while this aphid is common to a lot of garden plants, including a host of different veggies, it is not the most common species found on roses. Just planting nasturiums to attract aphids away from other plants may not provide the control you wish if the plants are infested with a different aphid species.

Lol! I will be sure to pass this information to Jim. Yikes! fat nasturtiums that don't bloom and have bunches of aphids. Well this year I escaped, but in all likelihood in 2010 I'll be infested! But at least I can enjoy eating the leaves, yum, yum, yum! the only drag is that I love cooking gourmet desserts-that sweet/savory mix which would have been nice if the nasturtiums would have bloomed. Oh, well. A big fat carpet of green! LOL, hopefully it won't be a big fat carpet of Aphis fabae, LOL!

The only hope is that next year I'm doing raw fish foliar sprays to help protect the roses from blackspot and less Gardenville because of the foliar sprays. With Raw fish foliar sprays, leaf-eating insects don't like the taste and are more likely to stay away, except for the flies, LOL! I am sure that some of the vapor from the foliar sprays will likewise drift onto the nasturtiums....so we will have to wait until 2010 before I start shrieking at the Aphis fabae.

Again, many thanks, GardenGal and Jean!