On a patio area I have some home grown flowers/bedding plants in trays awaiting planting. Several of these are French marigolds which are starting to flower in their cells. I went to take some  cells from a  tray to plant out and found masses of marigold flowers underneath.  Looking at the marigold plants something is taking off the tops and flowers and hiding them.  I have a feeling its four legged rather than two because of the 'hoarding' aspect. Anyone else seen this sort of thing? I have taken steps 

i seen this on Instagram and thought it worth sharing. It’s a verb that describes most of the people on here. Wink wink 
   

A delicate question for those of you of a certain age!
My mum has just had a positive stool test for colon/bowel cancer and will be having a virtual colonscopy at the end of the week, but she tells me that this was the first ever test she has had. Given that she is in her mid eighties and her brother died from bowel cancer in his early fifties, this surprised me. Is routine colorectal testing normal under the NHS or has she slipped though the net, somehow? 
We're crossing our fingers that the result is a false positive or the presence of blood has another cause. 
(My Dad died from prostate cancer that was misdiagnosed several times over a nine month period before he was finally tested, by which time it was far too late, so I'm a little sensitive!!)

Having disturbed an ant's nest in the GH today and noticed that some were winged ants, I realised that I knew very little about an ant's lifecycle.

Here's something that the Duckduck found - https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/when-why-...light.html

Fascinating. 

What plants have you grown/planted that you now hate the sight of - and will never, ever grow again?
..............and why? 

1. Bamboo.
I wanted a plant that screened the neighbours from my patio; something not too dense and I was offered a clump of bamboo. It seemed ideal, tall growing but moved in the wind, rustling sound complimenting the patio water feature. For a couple of years it was perfect, spreading but slowly and it gave me canes for beansticks.
Now, I hate it.  Its spread too far. Although its been cut down the roots are difficult to lift. All the cutdown canes are shooting and I've spent this morning snapping them off to weaken it.
Horrible, spiky thing - go back to the pandas. Can't even bring myself to buy bamboo toilet paper or fabrics. Don't want to support bamboo in anyway whatsoever.

That's better.

This might tempt some of you And me   
Never used them before . I Have checked reviews ( after seeing others misfortunes with unknowns   ) 

https://hayloft.co.uk/category/sale?TRE00014

They’re also doing buy a plant get a Buddleja free 

https://hayloft.co.uk/product/pollinator...?TRE00000/

I found this interesting and useful. 

https://www.gardenersworld.com/product-g...6OfvfcnC34

Very much doubt I’ll ever actually see any of it without taking out a second mortgage to cover delivery costs. But at least I know what to look for now.

Anyone had any dealings with this lot?
I signed up ages ago and have only just realised that I haven’t received any of my three orders dating back to 28th February.
The only reason I remembered is that they sent an email trying to encourage me to place yet more orders.
It seemed like a good idea at the time - but three months is a loooong time to wait for a few plants!!

Hi all,

We got a fruit cage for Christmas (my phone keeps correcting this to cake...) and I'm wondering if it would be ok to grow peas or something up the black netting where they won't shade any of the fruit out.

Any other annual veg or flowers you'd suggest growing up the netting or potentially up string/support attached to the metal frame? Or will I regret getting things tangled in the netting? The cage is just over two metres tall, metal frame with meeting, it has a door.

Thanks!

PS hope this is an appropriate section!

They're lots of advice on saving seed  by isolating plants or seed heads but I can't find much about what happens if you ignore this and let nature take its course.

For example, last year I sowed a lot of old radish seeds together, just to give them a chance. Lots grew and they're flowering. There'll be red ones and white ones, round ones and long ones, summer and winter ones............but, in my view, all radishes taste the same. I don't think I've sown any F1 radish so any seed that is produced will be random radish. Does this matter? I don't think so. 
What about other veg? Beetroot are mostly red although there are yellow, white and stripey ones. I don't like white or stripey beetroot and only grow red or yellow ones. Maybe I'd end up with orange ones. Nice.

I leave kale and other brassicas to flower and, undoubtedly, they've crossed - but, if I only want a plant that provides green leaves for a meal does it matter? 

If anyone knows of information on the "risks" of letting same species plants cross pollinate, please point me to it. I really need to know whether a cross-pollinated seed is likely to produce something inedible, toxic, not worth the effort........