Busy Lizzies

My B Ls are also hopeless. I always put them in window boxes on my shed, and have lobelias with them. This year the B Ls and lobelias are hopeless. They haven't filled out at all, and in fact look as if they are dying off I think the weather's got a lot to do with it.

It is the virus thingy - I think it is worse with certain weather conditions
I had to get rid of the plants in my lovely busy lizzie ball,the little cart,the little wheelbarrow and 2 flower pouches
I have replaced them with fuchsias,begonias and petunias where I can but there is no way I can replace about 180 plants in my front garden bedding Luckily the petunias in the bedding are quite bright and growing well

I've only just read this thread, I don't grow busy lizzies so I wouldn't have been able to help with a problem.

Esther it must be soul destroying after all the hard work you have put in, I would be devastated. I do feel for you.

I'm catching up with old AGs, and there it was - a mention of the virus. Apparently made a lot worse in damp conditions...no comment!

Esther, I'm so sorry about your displays - and hope the new plants will fill the gaps for you.

I live in Essex and planted 2 troughs of busy lizzies this year on our decking area and now find that all the plants are being eaten. Most of the buds that had formed are lying on top of the compost and the leaves have disappeared. My mother lives in Crawley and also planted a tub of busy lizzies in May - and is now reporting exactly the same situation with her plants.

I have obtained information from my horticulturalist son that this is being caused by a grub that almost exclusively attacks busy lizzie plants. (I have several other tubs of begonias that haven't been touched.) In appearance the grub is small, round and slightly beige in colour and not easy to pick out in a tub full of plants.

Yesterday, I took all 24 busy lizzie plants out of the troughs and found a dozen or more of these grubs just on the surface of the compost. My son says that the plants are unlikely to recover and that it would be better if I now discard all the compost, clean out the troughs and start again - preferably with something other than busy lizzies. The only other info he gave me on this is that this particular problem seems to go in cycles every 2 or 3 years.

Welcome from me too Ann

Very many thanks for all the welcome messages after I joined recently. (I have also posted a reply on the thread regarding Thompson & Morgan's website, as I use them almost every year for my bedding plants).
Regarding the Busy Lizzie problem, it now appears that the problem is a virus rather than a 'grub' as I previously stated. I took out and discarded all the dead and dying busy lizzies in my troughs and the grubs turned out to be small slugs - Yuk. However, I recently visited my daughter who lives down in Sussex and she had one busy lizzie in a pot on her kitchen windowsill that had gone exactly the same way as all mine had done. Nobody seems to know where the virus has come from or whether it is likely to affect next years plants as well?
I'm now left with 2 empty troughs and would like to plant them up again for the autumn, but have no idea what would be best to plant. Has anyone got any suggestions to offer at this stage in the season please?