Resorting to Plastic Flowers??

Knowing my ability to kill living plants by neglect, our eldest saw me staring at a plastic plant - "reduced to plastic plants are you?" he enquired.

Well only in a manner of speaking. The little plastic stakes are supposed to show how much sun you get at any particular part of the garden. I picked these things up at a conference and thought I would test drive them.


In essence you attach a small plastic, red flowerhead to a plasic stick. You put a little sticker onto the flower and leave it for 8 hours. It is recommended that you do this before 9 in the morning for the best effect. At the end of 8 hours, the sign will show if the area recieved enough sun to be classed as full sun or part sun (or shade). The sign should be a little cloud, sun or whatever, and should be as easy to read as those over the counter preganance tests.


So in the dark at 7.10 this morning, I traipsed out to the veggie plot, my herb garden (struggling because it is in too much shade) and the rose garden which is in a marginal full sun although in dappled shade at the edge of trees. I expected 2 full sun and one part sun.


Right now it is almost 6 pm and two are looking just like they did this morning and one has gone yellow. None have the little symbol in the middle to show full/part sun.


I am not sure if they were not pointing directly to sun or not, but they were tough to push into the ground - we are in a drought so the clay (affectionately called soil) is somewhat solid. Even if they were not pointing to the sun, they should reflect a cloud or something!

Regardless I am leaving them there another hour or two to see if they spring into life at 7 pm.

I know you will all be holding your breath to hear what happens! This is what they look like at 5.30 pm. Do you see a cloud or sunny image??????