If I sow them [as opposed to doing cuttings] I do them late spring/early summer. It's a better time here as they germinate more easily. You could probably do them in a month or so.
It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
I've never sown seed, but I have many, many VB plants. I leave the dead flower heads over winter and by around April/May the follwing year there are masses of seedling around the plants. Which shows that the seeds survive the winter cold and frosts. You could sow a few now, covering the seed with grit and leave somewhere shelted outside then sow some more in a few weeks as @Fairygirl suggests
Billericay - Essex
Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit. Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.
They don't self seed readily here, mainly because of the weather and cold wet soil, which is why I wait, but it means the plants are smaller of course. It wouldn't be worth while sowing just now either because of that. It's also why I do cuttings - much easier here, but they need a wee bit of protection over winter if they're small. The original plants don't always survive winter either, so it really comes down to location and conditions as much as anything. I have one which is right in the corner of the two house walls, with some other planting and very little viable soil, and it's the only one which looks alive just now. Hopefully one or two others might still be viable though
It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
This plant seeds itself all over my garden, I just weed out any growing in inappropriate places, in between slabs on the patio, etc., or lift and transplant seedlings. I do this in the Spring. I have noticed they seem to germinate in dry gritty areas which indicates the type of soil they like although last summer I dug up some from the veg. patch and dropped them into a water butt of water until I found somewhere to plant them. These were large mature plants, when I lifted them out a few months later they were all alive, had flowered, and had grown massive clumps of roots. So much for dry, gritty conditions.
Like Joyce's ours self-seed readily but if left where they fall they never really bulk up. I've always got odd ones in pots that have been removed from various places. However even in sunny well-drained beds I've often struggled to keep them alive from one year to the next so now I tend to buy new sturdy nursery-grown plants each year.
Clay soil - Cheshire/Derbyshire border. I play with plants and soil and sometimes it's successful
Posts
You could probably do them in a month or so.
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
I leave the dead flower heads over winter and by around April/May the follwing year there are masses of seedling around the plants.
Which shows that the seeds survive the winter cold and frosts.
You could sow a few now, covering the seed with grit and leave somewhere shelted outside then sow some more in a few weeks as @Fairygirl suggests
Billericay - Essex
Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit.
Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.
In the sticks near Peterborough
The original plants don't always survive winter either, so it really comes down to location and conditions as much as anything.
I have one which is right in the corner of the two house walls, with some other planting and very little viable soil, and it's the only one which looks alive just now. Hopefully one or two others might still be viable though
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
So much for dry, gritty conditions.
I play with plants and soil and sometimes it's successful